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METHODIST 


QUARTEELY  REVIEW. 


1881. 


VOLUME  1XIII.-F0URTH  SERIES,  VOLUME  XXXIIL 


D.  D.  WHEDON,  LL.D.,  EDITOR. 


NEW^  YORK ! 

CINCINNATI ! 
V/'ALDEN    <fc    STOWE. 

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CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  LXIII -1881. 

4»» 

JANUAET    NUMBER  p^. 

LIPE  AND  W0BK8  OF  HAMLINE 6 

Ber.  D.  P.  Kiddsb,  D.D.,  Proftssor,  Drew  Theologleal  Seminary,  MadlBon,  N.  J. 

OUB  PACIFIC  COAST  PBOBLEM 88 

Ber.  A  J.  Haxboh,  AM.,  Ban  Frandaoo,  OaL 

PANPBESBYTEBIAN  COUKCIL 45 

Ber.  A  a  Gbobok,  D  J).,  Chicago,  IIL 

ZOBOASTEB  AND  Z0B0A8TBIANISM. 61 

Ber.  J.  N.  Fbadxhbubgh,  PIlD^  Franklin,  Pa. 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  APOCBYPHA. ; W 

Bcv.  M.  B.  TxRBT,  D.D.,  New  York. 

BAIBD'S  "BISE  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS" 108 

Bay.  E.  B.  Otbimah,  AJi.,  Chelsea,  Maa& 

PHASES  OF  THE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  FAITH  AND  INFIDELITY 

IN  GEBMANY 128 

Be7.  FnAKZ  L.  Naqlsb,  East  Baginaw,  Mich. 

Stkopsis  of  thb  Quabterubs 144 

FOBKI&H   BbLI&IOUS  iNTELLiaBITOS t 176 

QUABTBBLT    BoOX-TaBLB. 178 

> 

APRIL    NUMBER 

MAN'S  PLACE  IN  TIME 205 

Jambs  0.  SoumALL,  Esq.,  Blohmond,  Ya. 

THE  OLD  BIBLES.     THE  HEBBEW  BIBLE  DISTINGUISHED  AMONG 

THEM 281 

Ber.  Obobqb  W.  Hsinnifo,  Topeka,  Kanaaa. 

SOME  CHABACTEBISTICS  OF  ENGLISH  THOUGHT  IN  THE  EIGHT- 
EENTH CENTUBY 248 

Prof.  WnroHBSTBB,  Wesleyan  University,  Mlddletown,  Conn. 

♦he  BELATIONS  OF  THE  CHUBCHE8  AND  MB.  GABBISON  TO  THE 

AMEBICAN  ANTISLAVEBY  MOVEMENT.    [Abwolb  Fibst] 270 

Ber.  Dabibl  DoBOHsnsB,  D.D^  Natick,  Mass. 

THE  PLACE  OF  CONGBEGATIONALISM  IN  HISTOBY  AND  LITEBA- 

TUBE 286 

Ber.  JoHB  F.  Hubst,  D.D.,  one  of  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

HEEMANN  LOTZE 812 

W.  C.  OooDoro,  A  Ji^  Heldelbeig. 

HABBIET  MABTINEAU 880 

BcT.  CHABTJta  Adamb,  D.D.,  Washington,  D.  a 

Btvopsis  of  thb  Quabterubs 889 

FOBXIOM'  BbUOIOUS  ImBLLIOENOB.' 870 

FORKION  LiTBBABT  iKtElXK^BMOfe. . . . 878 

QUAXTXBLT  Beox-TABLB 876 


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4  OONTENTS. 

JULY    NUMBEB. 

Paoi 

THE  TEEBITORY  OF  ALASKA 405 

BeT.  Dakxkl  Wsb.  D.D^  Englewood,  K.  J. 

ARE  INDIAN  MISSIONS  A  FAILUREI 424 

Ber.  J.  £.  Soorr,  Seetapore,  Ondh,  India. 

THE  FREEDOM  OF  CHOICE 484 

Bey.  J.  MxLET,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  Madison,  N.  J. 

OUR  GERMAN  METHODISM:  ITS  HOPES  AND  DANGERS 46S 

Bey.  QcoRQE  Gdte,  Coylngton,  Kj. 

THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  CHURCHES  AND  MR.  GARRISON  TO  THE 

AMERICAN  ANTISL AVERT  MOVEMENT.    [Seookd  Abticle] 474 

Bey.  Dakixl  Dosouxbtxb,  D.D^  Natick,  Mass. 

THE  WESLEY  MEMORIAL  VOLUME 601 

Bey.  B.  N.  Slkbd,  DJ).,  Bichinond,  Ya. 

THAKOMBAU,  CANNIBAL  AND  CHRISTLAJ^ 621 

Bey.  JoHif  Akmitagb,  Editor  of  the  '^New  Zealand  Wesleyan.'' 

SnfOPSIB   OF   THB    QUABTEBLIEB 6$7 

FoBsioN  Religious  Intbluokncb 654 

Foreign  Litsrabt  Iittellioengb 557 

QUABTBBLT    BoOK-TaBLB 560 


OCTOBER   NUMBER. 

HINDU  ECLECTICISM 605 

Bam  Cqamdkb  Bosk,  India. 

SHAKESPEARE:  HIS  GENIUS  AND  TIMES 628 

Bey.  Hkhbt  J.  Fox,  D.D.,  East  Saogus,  Mass. 

POPULAR  EDUCATION  THE  GENIUS  OP  AMERICAN  INSTITUTIONS.  635 

Bey.  BoervnoK  Hawi.»t,  D.D.,  Saratoga,  N.  T. 

• 
CHRIST  AND  OUR  CENTURY 655 

AiTOBBW  A  LiPBOOMB,  DJ).,  Athens,  Ga. 

THE  EARLY  ERRORS  AND  RECENT  PROGRESS  OF  PHILOLOGY 670 

L  A  SoBBiiAir,  Ph.D.,  New  Hayen,  Conn. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  LORD»S  SUPPER 694 

Bev.  J.  Clab&b  Haoet,  Washington,  D.  O. 

THE  REVISED  VERSION  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 715 

Bey.  H.  A.  Bimz,  D.D.,  President  of  Drew  Theological  Beminaiy,  Madison,  K.  J. 

Synopsis  of  thb  Quabtbblibs 789 

Foreign  Religious  Intblligbnob 765 

Foreign  Litbrabt  Intblligbnob 769 

Quabteblt  Book-Tablb 772 


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M 


ETHODIST 

Quarterly  Eeview. 

JANTJARY,    1881. 


Art.  L— life  AND  WORKS  OF  HAMLINE. 

lAft  cmd  Letters  of  Leonidcut  L.  HamlvMy  D.D.^  late  One  of  the  Bishops  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  By  Walter  C.  Palmer,  M.D.  With  Introductory 
Letters  by  Bishops  Morris,  Janes,  and  Thomson.  New  York :  Phillips  &  Hunt. 
Cincinnati :  Walden  &  Stowe. 

Bio^apky  of  Rev.  Leonidas  Z,  ffamline,  D.D.  By  Rev.  F.  G.  Hibbard,  D.D. 
Cincinnati :  Walden  k  Stowe.     New  York :   Phillips  &  Hunt. 

Works  of  Rev.  Leonidas  L.  Handine^  D.D.  Edited  by  Rev.  F.  G.  Hibbard,  D.D. 
Vol  I,  Sermons.  Vol.  II,  Miscellaneous  Writings.  Cincinnati :  Walden  &  Stowe. 
New  York :  Phillips  &  Hunt. 

The  Christian  Church  is  growing  richer  in  biography  from  age 
to  age.  It  is  a  principle  of  the  divine  economy  that  "  the 
righteous  shall  be  held  in  everlasting  remembrance."  While 
this  is  primarily  true  of  the  remembrance  which  God  cherishes 
of  his  own,  however  little  they  may  be  thought  of  by  an  un- 
sympathetic world,  yet  it  also  has  its  application  to  the  Church, 
which  delights  to  preserve  the  memory  of  her  holy  men  and 
women. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  always  manifested  a 
commendable  interest  in  properly  written  memoirs  of  her  de- 
ceased Bishops.  But,  unfortunately,  in  several  instances  there 
has  been  either  a  lack  of  data  attainable  for  the  production  of 
such  memoirs,  or  a  lack  of  interest  or  industry  on  the  part  of 
surviving  friends  in  preparing  them. 

Bishop  Asbury,  following  the  example  of  Mr.  Wesley,  kept 
journals  of  his  travels  and  his  ministerial  work.  Those  journals 
have  required  but  small  additions  on  the  part  of  his  biogra- 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 1 


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6  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  TJanuary, 

phere  and  liistorians  to  enable  the  press  to  perpetuate  his  life. 
Bishop  Coke's  life,  bajsed  also  upon  his  journals  and  letters, 
was  well  written  by  his  friend  Sarauel  Drew.  Bishops  What- 
eoat,  M'Kendree  and  George  left  such  meager  materials  be- 
hind them  that  attempting  biographers  have  only  been  able  to 
produce  sketches  of  their  lives  a  little  more  detailed  than  are 
allotted  to  all  deceased  ministers  in  the  Minutes  of  their  Con- 
ferences. 

The  life  of  Bishop  Roberts  was  well  written  by  his  friend 
Dr.  Elliott.  That  of  Bishop  Emory  was  published  in  connec- 
tion with  his  works  by  his  son  Dr.  Robert  Emory.  Ample 
justice  was  done  to  the  life  of  Bishop  Hedding  by  Dr.  D.  W. 
Clark,  to  whom,  in  turn,  a  similar  service  was  rendered  by  Dr. 
Daniel  Curry.  Bishop  Hamline  has  had  two  excellent  biogra- 
phers^ while  of  eight  other  of  our  deceased  Bishops  no  adequate 
memoirs  have  as  yet  been  published. 

The  life  of  Bishop  Hamline,  when  surveyed  as  a  whole,  is 
found  to  have  extended  into  its  sixty-eighth  year.  It  com- 
prised five  distinct  periods.  The  first  was  that  of  youth  and 
secular  employment,  extending  to  the  thirty-first  year  of  his 
Age.  The  second  was  that  of  his  preparatory  and  itinerant  min- 
istry, covering  eight  years.  The  third  was  that  of  his  official 
editorship,  covering  eight  years.  The  fourth  was  that  of  his 
episcopacy,  also  covering  eight  years.  The  fifth  was  that  of 
his  retirement  from  public  life  and  of  his  protracted  suffering 
as  an  invalid  during  thirteen  years.  It  seems  proper  now  to 
group  together  the  principal  facts  of  his  life  in  the  order 
named,  coupled  with  an  estimate  of  his  character  and  influence 
afl  they  will  descend  to  future  generations. 

Youth. 

Leonidas  Lent  Hamline  was  bom  in  Burlington,  Connecti- 
cut, in  1799.  His  parents,  who  were  of  Huguenot  ancestry, 
were  Congregationalists.  His  father,  although  a  farmer,  was  a 
practical  school-teacher.  The  education  of  the  son,  both  re- 
ligious and  secular,  was  strict  and  thorough.  In  the  former 
he  was  trained  to  rigid  puritanic  habits  and  the  straitest 
views  of  Hopkinsian  Calvinism.  In  the  latter,  by  common- 
school  instruction  and  a  course  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover, 
Mass.,  he  was  so  grounded  in  the  elements  of  learning  that  he 


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1881.]  Life  wad  Works  of  HcmUne.  7 

began  his  own  career  as  a  school-teaclier  at  the  early  age  of 
seventeen.  His  youth  was  characterized  by  precocity  in  study 
and  a  deep  religious  reverence,  both  of  which  encouraged  his 
father  to  educate  him  for  the  ministry.  Of  his  early  religious 
life  he  himself  wrote  to  his  son  in  1847 : 

I  was  at  seventeen  under  deep  religious  impressions,  but  my 
Calvinistic  parents  could  not  tell  me  how  to  be  saved.  I  became 
stupid,  and  then  they  thought  me  converted;  and  for  three  or 
four  years  I  thought  so  too,  and  studied  Greek  and  Latin,  ex- 
pecting to  be  a  minister  in  the  Congregational  Church,  and 
prayed  and  talked  in  meetings;  and  some  were  convicted  and 
converted  under  my  little  talks.  But  I  gradually  became  con- 
vinced that  I  was  not  converted,  and  finaUy  gave  it  all  up,  and 
went  to  studying  law.  • 

In  the  above  extract  we  have  his  own  estimate  of  his.  early 
religious  experience.  Yet  from  what  has  been  recorded  by 
others  of  the  fruits  of  his  influence  at  that  period  we  might  in- 
cline to  a  more  favorable  judgment.    Dr.  Hibbard  says : 

When  about  seventeen  he  engaged  in  teaching  portions  of  the 
year  to  enable  him  to  pursue  his  education.  At  that  time  he  in- 
troduced religious  services  in  his  school.  The  awakening  that 
followed  was  so  strong  that  at  times  the  school  exercises  were 
suspended.  Many  were  hopefully  converted.  A  Christian  lady, 
living  in  East  Barrington,  Massachusetts,  informed  Mrs.  Ham- 
line  that  there  were  elders  in  the  Church  in  that  village,  then 
living,  who  had  been  converted  through  Mr.  Hamline's  labors, 
when  he  was  a  young  man  of  seventeen  or  eighteen,  teaching 
classical  school,  with  anticipations  of  the  ministry. 

Not  long  after  these  events  he  was  overtaken  by  a  serious 
calamity  in  the  deterioration  of  his  health,  which,  from  hard 
study  and  a  continued  strain  upon  his  nervous  system,  sym- 
pathetically affected  his  brain.  As  concerning  the  period  of 
his  life  which  followed,  certain  unfounded  rumors  have  been 
circulated  and  unjust  inferences  drawn,  it  is  well  to  consult 
Dr.  Hibbard's  careful  and  authentic  statement  of  it : 

Mr.  Hamline's  convalescence  was  slow.  He  continued  his 
studies  as  he  was  able.  But  in  the  lapse  of  time  he  became  dis- 
satisfied with  the  evidences  of  his  conversion,  and  changed  his 
plan  of  life.  He  says  of  himself,  "  I  gradually  became  convinced 
that  I  was  not  converted,  and  finally  gave  it  all  up  and  went  to 
studying  law." 

On  his  return  from  the  South,  or  soon  after,  he  went  West, 


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8  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [January, 

and  in  1824  we  find  him  at  Zanesville,  Ohio.  Here  he  became 
acquainted  with  Miss  Eliza  Price,  an  amiable,  well-reported,  and 
carefully  educated  young  lady,  an  only  child  and  an  heiress.  To 
Miss  Eliza  Mr.  Hamline  was  married.  They  lived  together  in 
much  affection  and  harmony  in  the  elegant  paternal  mansion, 
with  an  easy  competence,  but  now  without  God.  In  1827  he 
took  license  as  a  lawyer,  at  Lancaster,  Ohio,  and  returned  to  his 
profession.  Four  children  were  given  them,  two  sons  and  two 
daughters,  of  whom  three  died  in  infancy. 

Seoulae  Life  Ain)  Convebsiok. 

During  the  years  devoted  by  Mr.  Hamline  to  the  profession- 
al study  and  practice  of  law  he  lived  a  life  of  religious  indif- 
ference, and  at  the  same  time  of  irreligious  unrest.  His  love 
of  metaphysics  made  him  an  easy  disciple  and  admirer  of  Ed- 
wards, while  his  educational  prejudice  against,  not  to  say  his 
contempt  for,  the  Methodists  left  him  no  doctrinal  antidote  to 
his  pernicious  speculations.  But  he  was  a  child  of  Providence, 
and  wonderful  were  the  steps  by  which  he  was  brought  to 
Christ,  in  the  personal  assurance  of  his  complete  salvation. 

In  the  fall  or  early  winter  of  1827  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hamline 
came  to  Perrysburgh,  Cattaraugus  County,  New  York.  It  ap- 
pears that  Mr.  Hamline  was  called  there  on  legal  business  which 
detained  him  for  a  length  of  time. 

While  in  that  vicinity  he  became  the  subject  of  a  new  and 
deep  religious  awakening.  A  full  account  of  that  awakening, 
and  of  the  steps  and  processes  by  which  he  was  gradually  led 
through  great  spiritual  darkness  into  glorious  light,  was  pre- 
pared by  his  own  hand  and  published  in  the  "  Ladies'  Keposi- 
tory  "  of  1843,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Metaphysician."  The 
narrative  was  introduced  as  written  by  the  editor,  but  with- 
out any  suggestion  as  to  who  the  subject  might  be  further 
than  might  have  been  indicated  by  the  initial  L.  Both  biogra- 
phers have  published  the  narrative  in  full,  substituting  the 
name  Hamline,  or  the  initial  H.,  where  the  L.  was  originally 

used. 

Rarely  has  there  ever  been  written  a  more  graphic  account 
of  the  struggles  of  a  strong  and  intelligent  mind  while  passing 
through  the  great  change  between  a  condition  of  sinful  aliena- 
tion and  a  state  of  gracious  acceptance  with  God.  It  deserves, 
in  several  respects,  to  be  compared  with  the  Confessions  of 

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1881J  Life  cmd  Worlcs  of  Hcmdme.  9 

Augustine.  Concerning  the  latter,  it  has  been  said  that  "  they 
are  the  delineation  of  an  extraordinary  intellect,  and  the  issue 
of  a  remarkable  experience."  An  intelligent  writer  has  enu- 
merated four  distinguishing  characteristics  of  Augustine's  Con- 
fessions : 

1.  The  singular  mingling'of  metaphysical  and  devotional 
elements. 

2.  The  uiiion  of  the  most  minute  and  exhaustive  detail  of 
sin  with  the  most  intense  and  spiritual  abhorrence  of  it. 

3.  They  palpitate  with  a  positive  love  of  God  and  goodness. 

4.  The  insight  which  they  a£Eord  into  the  origin  and  progress 
of  Christian  experience. 

All  these  characteristics  may  be  predicated  of  Hamline's 
confessions,  with  the  added  statement  that  they  are  written  in 
a  more  direct  style  and  with  a  much  clearer  appreciation  of 
evangelical  truth. 

The  parallel  between  the  two  men,  however,  may  be  con- 
tinued in  the  following  facts.  They  were  both  converted  at 
about  the  same  period  in  life ;  Hamline  in  his  thirty-first  year, 
Augustine  in  his  thirty-second.  Both  became  Bishops.  Both 
were  diligent  writers.  Both  cherished  throughout  life  intense 
views  of  the  malignity  of  sin,  antagonized  by  overwhelming 
views  of  the  power  of  divine  grace  to  save  the  believing  .soul. 
It  would  not  be  difiicult  to  extend  this  comparison  much  fur- 
ther with  equal  credit  to  both  the  North  African  and  the 
North  American  Bishop,  who,  doubtless,  ere  this  have  happily 
fraternized  in  the  presence  of  Him  to  whom  their  souls  as- 
pired with  an  absorbing  affection. 

When  saving  faith  sprang  up  in  the  heart  of  L.  L.  Hamline 
his  whole  life  was  changed.  Immediately  he  counted  all 
things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ. 
Nor  did  he  hesitate  to  lay  upon  the  altai*  of  God  the  pride  of 
social  position,  home,  wealth,  worldly  honor,  and  ambition. 

At  first  he  did  not  seem  to  think  of  becoming  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel,  but  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  heart  his  mouth 
began*  to  speak,  testifying  of  the  grace  of  God  wrought  out  in 
his  own  deliverance  from  the  powers  of  sin  and  unbelief. 
Fruits  followed.  "People  were  convicted  and  converted." 
Although  a  layman,  and  a  probationer  in  the  Church,  he  was 
not  idle  as  a  Christian.     He  engaged  earnestly  in  work  for  God 


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10  Methodist  QaaHerly  Beview.  [January, 

as  he  found  opportunity,  whether  in  the  ordinary  means  of  grace 
or  at  camp-meetings  and  protracted  meetings.  He  still,  how- 
ever, continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  as  a  lawyer  until 

One  day,  while  conducting  a  suit  before  a  single  justice,  an 
overwhelming  conviction  fell  upon  him  that  he  must  quit  the 
law  and  preach  the  Gospel.  This  he  endeavored  to  overcome  or 
dismiss  for  the  time,  but  it  returned  again  and  again,  and  so  em- 
barrassed him  that  he  was  forced  to  shorten  his  argument  and 
close  his  speech.  Here  ended  his  legal  pleading,  thenceforward 
to  turn  to  the  sublimer  calling  of  "beseeching  men  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God."  He  received  license  to  exhort  about  six  months 
after  his  conversion,  and  license  to  preach  at  the  expiration  of  his 
first  year  of  membership,  November,  1829.  The  balance  of  that 
year,  till  September,  1830,  he  spent  in  varied  labor  as  a  licentiate, 
wherever  a  providential  door  was  opened. 

Eaelt  Ministbt. 

L.  L.  Hamline's  first  and  second  appointments  as  a  preacher 
were  made  by  presiding  elders,  who  engaged  him  to  supply 
vacancies  on  circuits  in  Eastern  Ohio.  These  engagements 
took  him  far  away  from  his  pleasant  home  to  portions  of  the 
country  recently  settled.  In  passing  from  place  to  place  he 
was  called  to  sleep  often  in  cabins,  where,  in  the  bleak  winter 
night,  he  had  only  to  draw  aside  the  hanging  blanket  in  order 
to  thrust  his  hand  between  the  logs  into  the  storm  without. 
His  meager  income,  after  meeting  his  necessary  traveling  ex- 
penses, he  gave  to  his  poorer  brethren.  His  easy  pleasure-rides 
he  exchanged  for  long,  tedious,  and  often  perilous  traveling, 
fording  streams,  threading  forests  which  sometimes  were  not 
even  blazed. 

But  of  these  things  he  took  little  account  so  long  as  the 
work  of  the  Lord  prospered.  He  was  as  yet  unfamiliar  with 
Methodistic  government  and  usage,  but  his  wonderful  experi- 
ence in  coming  to  Christ,  his  powerful  conviction  and  convereion, 
his  naturally  incisive  mind,  now  baptized  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
made  all  his  former  studies  and  knowledge  of  men  available  to 
the  pulpit,  while  in  social  life  he  was  every-whero  at  ease. 

At  one  of  the  appointments  on  his  first  circuit,  while  preach- 
ing with  great  power,  his  audience  suddenly  burst  into  tears, 
rising  simultaneously  to  their  feet.  A  scene  of  power  and  mercy 
ensued.  Among  the  converts  of  the  day  was  one  who  became 
a  preacher  of  the  Gospel. 


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1881.]  Life  wad  Work8  of  Hamline.  11 

His  preaching  at  a  camp-meeting  held  on  the  district  was 
attended  with  extraordinary  power.  Following  the  meeting 
one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  probationers  were  added  to  the 
Church. 

In  September,  1832,  he  joined  the  Ohio  Conference,  and  was 
appointed  as  the  third  or  second-junior  preacher  on  the  Gran- 
viDe  Circuit.  At  the  Conference  of  1833  he  was  appointed  to 
the  Athens  Circuit,  with  the  Eev.  Jacob  Young  for  his  senior 
colleague.  At  the  Conference  of  1834  he  was  ordained,  and 
appointed  to  Wesley  Chapel,  Cincinnati,  as  a  junior  preacher. 
Not  long  after  his  removal  to  that  appointment  he  was  called 
to  mourn  the  loss  of  his  wife,  who  had  for  some  time  been  a 
suffering  invalid.  His  appointment  to  Cincinnati  was  renewed 
in  August,  1835.  But  in  June  following  he  was  transferred 
to  Columbus  to  fill  an  important  pulpit  that  had  unexpectedly 
become  vacant.  He  then,  for  the  first  time,  became  a  preacher  in 
charge,  or  a  pastor  in  the  fullest  sense ;  but  that  office  he  only 
held  for  three  months. 

EnrroEiAL  Lifb. 

By  a  singular  train  of  providences  Methodism  has  been  led 
from  its  earliest  organization  to  an  active  use  of  the  press  as  an 
auxiliary  of  Church  work.  Mr.  Wesley  not  only  published 
books  and  tracts  in  great  numbers,  but  a  monthly  magazine. 
His  example  was  followed  in  America.  But  here  the  maga- 
zine rose  in  due  time  to  become  a  Quarterly  Keview,  while 
weekly  papers  became  the  more  popular  medium  for  diffusing 
religious  truth  and  intelligence. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  not  left  this  great  in- 
terest to  irresponsible  parties,  but  from  its  beginning  has  as- 
sumed and  maintained  control  of  such  publications,  whether  in 
book  or  periodical  form,  as  it  deemed  essential  to  its  work. 
Hence  from  time  to  time  it  has  appointed  leading  ministers 
to  the  control  of  its  official  press. 

The  publication  of  the  "  Western  Christian  Advocate  "  was 
commenced  at  Cincinnati  in  1834,  under  the  editorship  of 
Rev.  Thomas  A.  Morris.  When,  in  1836,  Mr.  Morris  was 
elected  Bishop,  Eev.  Charles  Elliott  became  his  successor,  with 
Rev.  William  Phillips  as  assistant  editor.  Mr.  Phillips  liaving 
died  soon  after,  it  devolved  on  the  Ohio  Conference  to  appoint 


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12  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [January, 

his  snccesgor.  Kev.  L.  L.  Hamline  was  designated  for  the  oflSce, 
and  returned  to  Cincinnati  as  an  editor  in  the  autuinn  of  1836. 

The  withdrawal  of  such  a  man  from  the  pastoral  work  at  a 
time  when  he  had  become  so  peculiarly  qualified  for  it  was 
not  only  a  great  trial  to  the  Church  he  was  serving  at  Colum- 
bus, but  would  have  been  quite  unjustifiable  had  there  not 
been  very  broad  and  important  interests  to  subserve  by  the 
change.  Mr.  Hamline  seems  to  have  been  passive  in  the  hands 
of  the  Church  authorities,  and  not  to  have  felt  at  liberty  to  de- 
cline the  appointment,  as  he  doubtless  would  have  done  had  it 
required  liim  to  desist  from  preaching  the  Gospel.  In  point 
of  fact,  his  sphere  as  a  preacher  was  actually  enlarged  by  the 
change,  although  his  duties  in  that  line  could  only  be  performed 
by  greater  effort. 

In  order  to  estimate  rightly  the  character  and  extent  of  the 
work  that  was  now  put  upon  the  subject  of  our  notice,  it  is 
necessary  to  consider  what  religious  journalism  in  this  country 
was  in  its  first  stage.  The  "Christian  Advocate"  of  New 
York  was  only  ten  years  old.  The  "  Western  Christian  Ad- 
vocate "  was  in  its  third  year,  and,  being  a  pioneer  in  the  West, 
was  without  a  corps  of  trained  contributors.  Nevertheless,  it 
was  launched  during  a  period  of  exciting  controversy  respect- 
ing slavery  and  abolition,  while  the  varied  interests  of  aggress- 
ive evangeHsm,  of  Christian  education,  of  temperance,  and  of 
kindred  causes,  were  to  be  promoted  through  its  agency.  Such 
circumstances  demanded  great  wisdom  as  well  as  labor  at  the 
hands  of  its  editors.  But  Elliott  and  Hamline  proved  them- 
selves to  be  eminently  qualified  for  the  position  and  its  respon- 
sibihties.  They  both  united  unusual  capacity  with  untiring 
industry,  and  co-operated  with  each  other  in  the  most  perfect 
hannony.  Both  regarded  the  paper  as  an  agency  in  diffusing 
the  Gospel  and  edifying  the  Church ;  but  as  their  editorial  writ- 
ing and  supervision  were  limited  to  week-days,  they  devoted 
their  Sabbaths  to  pulpit  services  in  the  city  and  the  region 
round.  Indeed,  the  ministerial  services  of  Mr.  Hamline  were 
in  such  demand  and  so  willingly  rendered  that  he  was  often 
absent  for  considerable  periods,  preaching  daily  at  camp-meet- 
ings, in  revival  meetings  in  the  churches,  and  in  missionary  ef- 
forts in  destitute  places.  Dr.  Hibbard's  biography  gives  most 
interesting  accounts  of  the  extraordinary  spiritual  power  at- 


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1881.]  Life  cmd  Works  of  IlarnUne.  13 

tending  his  ministrations  dnring  this  period,  showing  that  with 
his  editorial  life  was  associated  a  career  of  wide,  varied,  and 
wonderful  evangelism.  After  stating  that  Mr.  Hamline  never 
lost  sight  of  the  great  object  of  that  ministry  to  which  he  held 
every  other  call  in  sabservience,  Dr.  Hibbard  adds  : 

It  was  computed  that  nearly  one  hundred  persons  dated  their 
awakening  from  the  sermons  of  Mr.  Hamline  on  a  single  Sabbath 
in  Lebanon,  Ohio.  Indeed,  his  labors  were  every- where  attended 
with  visible  results.  His  sermons  were  marked  for  their  system, 
their  force  of  argument,  pathetic  appeals  and  vivid  description, 
and,  above  all,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  His  manner  was 
earnest,  often  impassioned,  always  dignified  and  serious,  his  im- 
agination lively  and  chaste,  combining  beauty  and  strength  with 
a  voice  of  richness  and  melody,  and  his  appeals  often  seemed  ir- 
resistible. The  moment  he  opened  his  lips  the  people  intuitively 
felt  they  were  in  the  presence  of  a  great  mind  and  a  man  of  God. 
From  every  quarter  came  calls  for  help  in  revival  labors  and  for 
extra  occasions,  to  which  he  gave  a  ioyf ul  response  to  the  utmost 
limit  of  his  time  and  strength.  Every-where  his  labors  were 
owned  of  God. 

A  single  instance,  selected  from  several,  is  subjoined : 

At  a  camp-meeting,  one  evening,  during  a  heavy  rain,  Mr. 
Hamline  repaired  to  the  church,  on  the  edge  of  the  ground, 
where  he  found  a  company  of  eight  or  ten  men,  who  had  retreated 
there  to  escape  the  rain,  and  were  lying  on  the  benches.  He 
immediately  began  to  exhort  them  with  affectionate  earnestness 
and  power.  The  Spirit  of  God  fell  on  the  auditors,  who  yielded 
and  sought  the  Lord.  Before  morning  they  were  all  happily  con- 
verted to  God. 

At  the  period  under  review  his  mind  was  greatly  drawn 
toward  foreign  mission  work,  particularly  in  France,  the  land 
of  his  ancestors.  The  subject  of  a  mission  from  our  Church  to 
that  country  was  then  under  official  consideration,  and,  had  it 
been  decided  on,  there  is  Uttle  doubt  that  Mr.  Hamline  would 
have  been  appointed  to  it.  But,  although  not  called  to  enter  a 
foreign  field,  his  zeal  in  behalf  of  missions  developed  itself  in 
a  most  practical  and  influential  form  in  connection  with  the 
estabhshment  of  a  German  religious  press  in  Cincinnati,  and  in 
the  encouragenrent  of  evangelical  effort  in  behalf  of  Germans, 
both  in  America  and  Europe.  On  this  point  Dr.  Kast,  the 
apostle  of  German  Methodism,  has  spoken  emphatically : 

In  private  and  in  public  I  have  often  tried  to  express  my  grat- 
itude for  what,  under  God,  we  Germans  owe  to  that  great  man  of 


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14  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [January, 

God.  Bishop  Hamline,  in  the  darkest  days  of  my  penitential 
struggle,  when  I  was  on  the  point  to  give  it  up,  presented  the 
Gospel  to  me  with  the  power  of  a  new  charm  and  inspired  me 
agam  with  hope.  During  the  first  two  years  of  my  ministry, 
when  I  labored  as  a  missionary  in  Cincinnati,  I  had  the  privilege 
of  being  every  day  in  his  company,  and  from  him  I  learned,  more 
than  from  any  other  source,  how  to  attack  successfully  the  skep- 
ticism of  my  countrymen.  He  was  my  pattern  in  preaching  and 
in  writing. 

As  to  the  mission  of  our  Church  among  the  Germans,  which 
God  has  crowned  with  such  glorious  results,  I  am  confident  it 
would  never  have  been  taken  hold  of  in  earnest  had  it  not  been 
for  the  soul-stirring  and  convincing  appeals  of  Bishop  Hamline  to 
the  Church.  It  was  his  eloquent  advocacy  to  which  the  "  Apolo- 
gist" chiefly  owes  its  existence  ;  but  he  not  only  induced  others 
to  give,  but,  with  his  well-known  liberality,  he  contributed  out  of 
his  own  ample  means  for  the  support  of  the  German  Mission 
work,  and  the  building  of  a  number  of  German  churches. 

No  part  of  the  Church  was  more  deeply  afflicted  than  the  Ger- 
man ministry  when  Bishop  Hamline  felt  compelled,  on  account  of 
his  physical  debility  and  suffering,  to  resign  his  episcopal  office. 
The  Germans  felt  as  though  they  had  lost  a  father  indeed.  O, 
how  deeply  engraven  are  his  episcopal  addresses  on  the  hearts  of 
the  older  German  preachers  ! 

Mr.  Hamline  soon  entered  upon  a  new  and  more  congenial 
sphere  of  editorial  life.  By  the  General  Conference  of  1840 
he  was  again  appointed  assistant  editor  of  the  ''  Western  Chris- 
tian Advocate,"  and  prospective  editor  of  the  "  Ladies'  Reposi- 
tory." Consequently,  on  him  devolved  the  task  of  founding  a 
monthly  magazine  under  that  title,  which,  notwithstanding  the 
embarrassments  incident  to  a  new  literary  enterprise  in  the 
West,  soon  rose  to  an  important  position  in  the  literature  of 
the  Church.  Dr.  Hibbard  very  properly  speaks  of  the  "  Re- 
pository "  as  giving  a  wider  scope  to  Mr.  Hamline's  literary  and 
classicaJ  taste,  as  well  as  to  the  outreaching  of  his  spiritual  life. 
Of  his  style  and  skill  as  an  editor  of  such  a  magazine,  the  fol- 
lowing statement  is  justly  made : 

He  possessed  the  true  enthusiasm  which  warmed  and  animated 
whatever  theme  he  took.  In  his  hands  common  events  assumed 
a  new  interest,  not  only  by  the  illusive  dress  of  fiction,  but  by 
the  discovery  of  new  and  higher  relations,  while  the  crowning 
charm  of  his  writings  proceeds  from  the  high  moral  end  for 
which  he  wrote,  and  the  inbreathed  and  living  desire  to  save 
souls.  Preaching"  or  writing,  he  had  this  one  object  m  view  and 
uppermost.     This  was  no  detriment  to  literary  taste  or  merit,  but 


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1881J  lAfe  amd  Works  of  Hcmdme,  15 

fave  to  both  a  more  exalted  standard  and  refinement.     Nor  was 
is  skill  in  engaging  others  to  work  inferior  to  his  own  ability  to 
execnte. 

It  was  daring  his  editorship  of  the  "  Repository  "  that  Mr. 
Hamline  entered  npon  that  higher  phase  of  religious  experi- 
ence known  among  Methodists  as  the  blessing  of  perfect  love 
or  entire  sanctification,  A  chapter  is  given  to  the  subject  by 
each  of  his  biographers,  inclusive  of  many  quotations  from  his 
own  pen.  The  details  are  full  of  interest  and  instruction  to  de- 
vout minds.  The  results  are  briefly  set  forth  in  the  following 
quotations: 

A  new  life  now  dawned  upon  bim.  Not  one  without  clouds, 
temptations,  and  sore  wrestlmgs,  but  one  in  which  over  all  these 
he  was  to  have  victory.    He  could  now  say,  as  never  before  : 

**  Now  I  have  found  the  ground  wherein 
Sure  my  soul*8  anchor  may  remain." 

With  a  body  afflicted  little  less  than  that  of  Paul  with  his 
"thorn  in  the  flesh,"  with  a  nervous  structure  which  even  in 
health  would  be  subject  to  great  alternations,  and  with  a  hfe  of 
intense  labor,  and  the  antagonisms  of  this  "  evil  world,"  a  per- 
petually "  quiet  sea  "  was  not  to  be  expected.  His  exquisite  sen- 
sitiveness often  occasioned  him  sorrow  and  temptation  where  a 
common  mind  would  experience  no  embarrassment. 

The  great  baptism  amazingly  quickened  his  love  for  souls  and 
his  ardent  zeal  to  save  them.  In  his  diary  for  November  26, 
1842,  he  says  :  "I  feel  as  though  I  had  come  to  the  verge  of 
heaven.  I  have  had  sad  dreams,  but  am  happy  now,  filled  with 
weeping  and  praise.  I  feel  like  one  who  has  been  wrecked  at 
sea  and  has  got  into  the  long-boat.  Persons  are  sinking  all 
around,  and  he  clutches  them  by  the  hair.  So  I  see  souls  are 
sinking.  I  feel  in  a  hurry  to  save  them.  And  it  matters  not 
what  I  eat  or  what  I  wear,  or  who  are  my  companions,  for  when 
I  have  rowed  a  few  miles  I  shall  get  home  and  shall  find  all  my 
friends  there." 

He  says,  somewhat  later : 

"  Within  less  than  three  months  I  have  enjoyed  the  privileges  of 
attending  some  eight  or  ten  protracted  meetings,  at  each  of  which 
there  was  a  glorious  display  of  God's  saving  power."  Does  the 
reader  ask  how  he  could,  under  such  circumstances,  not  only  give 
satisfaction,  but  win  reputation,  as  the  editor  of  the  "  Ladies' 
Repository  ?  "  He  answers  the  question  in  part :  "  My  labors 
are  heavy.  I  take  my  papers  often  into  the  country,  and  write 
between  preachinga.^^  He  was  a  ready  and  rapid  writer.  When 
his  mind  was  roused  and  concentrated,  and  that  was  as  often  as 


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16  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Heview.  [January, 

duty  demanded  and  health  permitted,  after  the  first  dictation  lit- 
tle was  left  for  critical  review. 

In  the  midst  of  labors  beyond  his  strength,  and  which  he  after- 
ward admits.laid  the  foundation  of  his  premature  infirmities  and 
his  retirement  from  public  life,  with  a  popularity  which  exposed 
him  to  envious  criticism,  and  with  the  two  mightiest  social  forces 
in  his  hands — the  pulpit  and  the  press — one  might  well  fear  for 
his  humility.  But  to  him  selfish  ambition  was  unknown.  For 
himself  he  sought  nothing,  desired  nothing  ;  for  Christ,  every 
thing.  His  dcadness  to  the  world  and  his  self-abnegation  were 
almost  startling,  even  to  his  friends.  His  views  of  natural  de- 
pravity and  the  malignity  of  sin  in  the  light  of  the  divine  law 
left  him  in  utter  amazement  at  that  divine  love  which  had  borne 
with  his  life  of  unbelief  so  long,  and  had  multiplied  such  bound- 
less "  grace  upon  grace  "  in  his  redemption. 

As  a  pendant  to  the  foregoing  remarks  from  Dr.  Hibbard, 
we  quote  a  few  sentences  from  a  letter  written  by  Dr.  Elliott 
after  Bishop  Hamline's  death,  in  1865.  This  extract  will  show 
that  the  peculiar  experience  of  Mr.  Hamline  in  1842  was  not 
temporary,  but  lasting,  continuing  to  the  very  end  of  his  life  : 

My  pen  is  wholly  incompetent  to  draw  out  in  its  full  extent  an 
adequate  portrait  of  his  high  and  holy  character,  whether  it  re- 
gards his  natural  talents  or  his  extensive  attainments,  but  espe- 
cially the  sanctity  and  purity  of  his  religious  life  in  theory,  expe- 
rience, and  practical  utility.  He  enjoyed,  to  the  full  extent,  en- 
tire sanctification  in  all  its  experience  and  practical  exemplifica- 
tions. He  was  thoroughly  scriptural  and  Wesleyan  in  all  re- 
spects on  this  fundamental  point.  So  clearly  did  he  expound  it 
to  others  in  conversation,  preaching,  and  writing,  that  many  were 
led  to  experience  it  through  his  teaching  and  prayers. 

While  he  was  thoroughly  Wesleyan  and  scriptural  in  this  way 
of  holiness,  he  was  instrumental  in  teaching  its  great  truths  to 
ministers  of  other  Churches.  Many  of  them,  Presbyterians,  Bap- 
tists, and  Episcopalians,  were  brought  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  this 
privilege  of  the  sons  of  God  through  his  instructions  and  prayers. 

During  the  year  1843,  and  the  early  months  of  1844,  Mr. 
Hamline  continued  both  his  editorial  and  evangelical  labors 
■  with  quickened  zeal,  though  with  declining  health.     Several 
times  he  was  laid  aside  by  severe  illness,  but  no  sooner  did  par- 
tial recoveiy  allow  than  he  was  again  at  his  post. 

Election  to  the  Episcopal  Office. 

The  election  of  L.  L.  Hamline  to  the  office  of  a  Bishop  in 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  a  spontaneous  tribute  to 


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1881.]  Life  amd  Works  of  Ramlme,  17 

superior  ability  and  obvious  adaptation  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
Churcb  in  a  critical  period  of  its  history.  It  had  not  been  pre- 
arranged by  his  friends,  nor  anticipated  by  himself.  It  was 
not  the  result  of  wire-pulling,  canvassing,  or  bargaining.  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  result  born  of  an  occasion  and  produced  in  the 
only  manner  that  could  have  been  in  harmony  with  his  sense 
of  honor  and  of  right. 

Up  to  the  last  moment  his  physical  ability  to  attend  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1844  had  been  questioned  by  his  physi- 
cians. He  ventured  to  leave  home  in  hope  that  his  health 
would  be  improved  by  the  journey  to  Xew  York.  The  result 
in  that  respect  justified  his  hopes.  He  was,  therefore,  enabled 
to  take  his  seat  in  the  body  to  which  he  had  been  elected  as  a 
delegate  in  September  preceding. 

Although  deeply  interested  in  the  proceedings,  he  for  a  con- 
siderable time  modestly  shrank  from  any  prominent  participa- 
tion in  them,  purposing  to  do  his  duty  by  his  votes.  But  after 
having  witnessed  for  days  the  struggle  between  the  opponents 
of  slavery  and  their  antagonists,  and  having  seen  the  growing 
mystification  in  which  the  special  issue  in  the  case  of  the  slave- 
holding  Bishop  Andrew  was  becoming  involved,  he  decided  to 
take  a  part  in  the  discussion. 

Dr.  (now  Bishop)  J.  T.  Peck  has  described  the  scene : 

In  the  midst  of  the  great  debate  he  rose  and  addressed  the 
chair.  He  was  promptly  recognized,  and  from  the  first  sentence 
it  was  evident  that  the  question,  so  involved  and  far-reac}iing, 
was  in  the  hands  of  a  master.  His  positions  were  logically  per- 
fect, without  a  word  to  spare,  and  yet,  in  rhetoric  and  oratory, 
as  fine  as  if  intended  for  popular  entertainment.  The  tones  of 
his  voice  were  new  to  many  of  us,  and  they  were  actually  en- 
chanting. All  noise  in  the  vast  assemblage  ceased;  and  he 
seemed  as  if  alone  with  God,  uttering  thoughts  and  arguments  of 
inspiration.  "  True,  true,  every  word  of  it  true,"  we  would  say, 
without  speaking,  (no  one  would  have  dared  to  speak  or  move ;) 
"conclusive,  splendid,  demonstrative,  irresistible!"  The  last 
sentence  was  finished;  the  speaker  quietly  resumed  his  seat;  a 
thousand  people  drew  a  long  breath ;  and  the  great  issue  was  log- 
ically settled. 

While  no  abstract  can  give  any  just  idea  of  such  a  speech  as 
a  whole,  yet  it  seems  proper  to  say  that  its  strength  lay  in  con- 
vincing demonstrations  of  the  following  propositions : 

Executive  authority  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has 


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18  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [Jannary, 

power  to  remove  or  depose  any  officer  on  the  ground  of  im- 
proper conduct. 

Bishops  and  officers  of  the  Church  are  subject  to  the  execu- 
tive authority  of  the  General  Conference  by  which  they  are  ap- 
pointed and  to  which  they  are  amenable : 

Therefore,  1.  The  General  Conference  has  power  to  depose 
a  Bishop  who  has  by  any  act  rendered  himself  unacceptable  to 
the  Church  in  the  character  of  a  general  superintendent. 

2.  Its  obligation  to  depose  an  offending  Bishop  is  increased 
by  the  eminence  and  responsibility  of  his  office. 

The  conclusion  of  the  address  was  designed  to  clinch  the 
conclusion  of  the  syllogism.     It  here  follows  in  part : 

A  Bishop's  influence  is  not  like  a  preacher's  or  class-leader's. 
It  is  diffused,  like  the  atmosphere,  every- where.  So  high  a  Church 
officer  should  be  willing  to  endure  not  slight  sacrifices  fof  this 
vast  connection.  What  could  tempt  you,  sir,  to  trouble  and 
wound  the  Church  all  through,  from  center  to  circumference? 
The  preacher  and  the  class-leader,  whose  influence  is  guarded 
against  so  strongly,  can  do  little  harm — a  Bishop  infinite.  Their 
improper  acts  are  motes  in  the  air;  yours  are  a  pestilence  abroad 
in  the  earth.  Is  it  more  important  to  guard  against  those  than 
affainst  these?  Heaven  forbid!  Like  the  concealed  attractions 
of  the  heavens,  we  expect  a  Bishop's  influence  to  be  all-abiding 
every-where;  in  the  heights  and  in  the  depths,  in  the  center  and 
on  the  verge,  of  this  great  system  ecclesiastical.  If  instead 
of  concentric  and  harmonizing  movements,  such  as  are  wholesome 
and  conservative  and  beautifying,  we  observe  in  him  irregulari- 
ties which,  however  harmless  in  others,  will  be  disastrous  or 
fatal  in  him,  the  energjr  of  this  body,  constitutionally  supreme, 
must  instantly  reduce  him  to  order;  or,  if  that  may  not  be,  plant 
him  in  another  and  a  distant  sphere.  When  the  Church  is  about 
to  suffer  a  detriment  which  we  by  constitutional  power  can  avert, 
it  is  as  much  treason  in  us  not  to  exercise  the  power  we  have^  as  to 
usurp  in  other  circumstances  that  which  we  have  not. 

From  and  after  the  delivery  of  that  speech,  as  was  well  said 
by  Dr.  J.  T.  Peck,  "  all  could  see  that  the  clearness  of  his  in- 
tellect, the  meekness  and  humility  of  his  bearing,  and  the  grace 
of  his  movements,  fitted  him  for  high  official  rank,  and  prom- 
ised extraordinary  executive  ability." 

Scarcely  less  in  the  light  of  those  facts,  than  as  an  indorse- 
ment of  his  clear  and  strong  views  of  the  office  and  responsi- 
bility of  Bishops  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was  the 
spontaneous  movement  made  which  resulted  a  few  days  later 


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1881.]  Life  and  Works  of  Hamlin^.  19 

in  his  own  election  to  that  very  office.     Snch  a  result  both 
startled  and  humbled  him.     Dr.  Hibbard  says : 

As  a  human  call  he  would  have  at  once  declined  the  honor,  but 
the  circumstances  of  the  case  were  so  extraordinary,  and  the  ex- 
ercises of  his  mind  so  strongly  corroborative  of  the  hand  of  God 
in  all,  that  he  bowed  in  humble  submission.  The  office  had 
sought  him,  not  he  the  office. 

At  a  subsequent  period  he  himself  wrote : 

At  the  General  Conference  in  1844,  most  unexpectedly  to  my- 
self, (and  to  nearly  all,  I  believe,)  I  was  elected  to  the  superin- 
tendency.  A  translation  in  the  cnariot  of  Elijah  would  not  have 
overtaken  me  much  more  unexpectedly.  My  struggles  were  pe- 
culiar, and  yet  I  found  evidence  that  I  was  caUed  to  this  ndnistry. 

Episcopal  Administration. 

To  him  the  will  of  God  was  supreme  law  and  supreme  de- 
light. He  contemplated  the  episcopacy  from  the  spiritual 
stand-point,  and  entered  upon  it  with  the  single  aim  to  the  sal- 
vation of  souls  and  the  sanctification  of  the  Church.  His  past 
life  had  been  a  preparatory  discipline,  and  his  great  baptism  in 
1842  the  qualification  of  power  for  this  strange  and  unexpected 
work.  Not  the  least  of  his  evidences  and  his  consolations  was 
the  common  and  hearty  approval  of  the  Church  at  large. 

He  entered  upon  the  presidency  of  successive  Conferences 
without  delay,  and,  although  subject  to  violent  attacks  of  illness, 
he  was,  nevertheless,  enabled  to  fulfill  his  entire  round  of  of- 
ficial obligations  during  a  series  of  years.  In  Dr.  Palmer's  life 
those  years  are  made  the  subjects  of  successive  chapters,  in 
which  his  travels  from  Conference  to  Conference  and  his  en- 
gagements in  the  line  of  evangelical  work  are  presented  in  de- 
tail, free  use  being  made  of  his  own  diary  and  letters.  Dr. 
Hibbard  separates  the  topics  of  his  episcopal  administration  and 
evangelical  labors,  and  judiciously  condenses  his  diary  and  cor- 
respondence. 

From  both  volumes,  as  well  as  from  what  is  remembered  by 
many  living  persons,  it  is  evident  that  Bishop  Hamline  took 
no  narrow  view  of  the  brief  and  technical  items  in  which  our 
Discipline  states  the  duties  of  Bishops.  He  did  not  conceive 
that  merely  traveling  across  the  country  in  railroad  cars,  and 
presiding  at  Conferences,  by  any  means  fulfilled  the  spirit  of 


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20  Methodist  Qiiarterly  Review.  [Jannarj-, 

those  requirements.  He  understood  the  word  "  travel "  as  the 
equivalent  of  itinerate  in  the  character  of  a  minister  of  tlio 
Gospel,  whose  duty  the  Discipline  elsewhere  enjoins  in  phrases 
like  these  :  "  You  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  save  souls ;  there- 
fore spend  and  be  spent  in  this  work."  "  Observe,  it  is  not 
your  business  only  to  preach  so  many  times,  and  to  take  care 
of  this  or  that  Society,  but  to  save  as  many  as  you  can,  to  bring 
aa  many  sinners  as  you  can  to  repentance,  and  with  all  your 
power  to  build  them  up  in  that  holiness  without  which  they 
cannot  see  the  Lord."  Hence,  he  devoted  the  intervals  of  Con- 
ference sessions  to  visits  among  the  Churches  and  people,  stir- 
ring them  up,  both  publicly  and  socially,  to  zeal  and  activity 
in  the  divine  life.  No  one  that  knew  or  even  met  him  failed 
to  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  he  endeavored  to  wield  the 
full  amount,  both  of  his  personal  and  official  influence,  as  an 
agency  for  honoring  God  and  promoting  the  salvation  of  men. 
As  said  by  his  last  biographer : 

His  one  absoAing  object  was  to  awaken  the  ministry  and  the 
Churches  to  the  higher  claims  of  their  holy  calling,  and  to  reacli 
out  a  hand  of  rescue  to  the  perishing.  His  summer  months  were 
spent  in  attending  Annual  Conferences,  and  his  winters  in  visit- 
ing the  Churches. 

Bishop  Hamline's  bearing  in  Annual  Conferences  was  distin- 
guished for  a  wonderful  combination  of  dignity  and  humility. 
He  had  the  great  art  of  securing  promptness  and  order  in  the 
dispatch  of  business,  without  any  bustle  or  show  of  authority. 
He  also  had  the  greater  talent  of  diffusing  over  a  deliberative 
body  that  calm  thoughtfulness  and  spirit  of  prayer,  without 
which  the  standing  direction  of  our  Discipline  concerning  de- 
portment at  the  Conferences  is  never  f ullilled  :  "  It  is  desired 
that  all  things  be  considered  on  these  occasions  as  in  the  imme- 
diate presence  of  God." 

Dr.  Hibbard  says : 

His  eye  was  ever  watchful  of  the  devotional  and  charitable 
spirit  of  the  Conference.  Often  at  the  appearance  of  uncharita- 
bleness  or  levity,  he  would  arrest  business,  and,  in  his  own  inim- 
itable way,  address  the  brethren  briefly,  calling  them  lovingly  to  . 
watchfulness  and  prayer,  and  then  propose  a  brief  season  of 
prayer,  calling  on  the  brother  aggrieved,  or  perhaps  the  one  of- 
fending, to  pray. 


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1881.]      •  Life  and  Works  of  Ilamline,  21 

Such  influences  could  only  be  exerted  by  a  man  of  great 
Bpiritual  power.  That  Bishop  Ilamline  was  enabled  to  exert 
them  was  one  of  the  happy  fruits  of  his  deep  religious  experi- 
ence and  of  his  habitual  life  of  devotion.  The  results  proved 
that  such  a  life  in  no  way  diminished,  but  rather  increased,  his 
administrative  ability  in  the  diflScult  circumstances  through 
which  he  was  often  called  to  guide  his  Conferences.  The  earlier 
period  of  his  episcopal  service  was  one  of  intense  excitement, 
caused  by  the  agitation  of  the  times,  especially  along  the  bor- 
ders of  the  newly  organized  Southern  Church.  Perhaps  no 
more  exciting  scene  ever  took  place  in  an  Annual  Conference 
than  that  in  which  he  relieved  Bishop  Soule  from  the  chair,  in 
the  Ohio  Conference  of  1845.  The  circumstances  are  fully 
Ftated  by  Dr.  Hibbard,  but  we  have  only  space  for  Dr.  Cyrus 
I^rooks'  description  of  the  scene : 

A  large  portion  of  the  Conference  had  risen  to  their  feet,  and 
some  members,  I  think,  had  left  the  house.  The  critical  raoraent 
had  arrived,  and  it  seemed  that  the  next  instant  must  bring  liope- 
less  confusion.  Just  at  that  instant  Bishop  ilamline  stepped 
upon  the  platform.  I  can  never  forget  his  appearance.  Twenty 
years  have  not  dimmed  the  recollection  of  it  in  the  least.  It  was 
full  of  animation,  yet  calm,  commanding,  majestic.  No  human 
movement  ever  so  impressed  me  with  the  idea  of  irresistible 
power.  It  was  power,  too,  wielded  with  consummate  skill,  and 
for  a  most  beneficent  end.  I  have  seen  him  in  some  of  his  hap- 
piest moments,  in  some  of  the  loftiest  flights  of  his  sublime  elo- 
quence, but  I  nover  saw  him  appear  to  so  good  advantage  as 
then.     He  seemed  to  me  almost  more  than  man. 

As  he  came  forward  he  said  that  there  were  times  when  it  be- 
came necessary  to  waive  all  considerations  of  mere  courtesy,  and 
exercise  the  authority  with  which  one  was  intrusted.  Such  a 
time  had  come,  and  it  was  clearly  his  duty  now  to  interpose.  As 
he  said  this  he  waved  his  hand  to  the  temporary  chairman  at  his 
Kft,  who  instantly  obeyed  the  signal  and  gave  place.  Bishop 
Hamline  took  his  seat,  order  was  immediately  restored,  and  busi- 
ness resumed  its  usual  course.  A  few  minutes  afterward  a 
stranger  entering  the  house  would  not  have  suspected  that  any 
thing  unusual  had  occurred  in  the  Conference.  So  sudden  and  so 
complete  was  the  restoration  of  order  and  coiitidence,  that  one 
could  hardly  help  thinking  of  the  time  when  the  Master  said  to 
the  tumultuous  waves  of  Gennesaret,  "  Peace,  be  still,"  and  there 
was  a  great  calm. 

It  was  not  long  until  the  lofty  form  of  Bishop  Soule  was  seen 
moving  toward  the  door,  with  his  portfolio  under  his  arm  and  his 
hat  in  his  hand.     He  disappeared,  and  was  seen  among  us  no  more. 

FouKTH  Seeies,  Vol.  XXXni.— 2 

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V.C3  ^  ^  S 


22  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.        *  [January, 

Bishop  Hamline  as  a  Peeacher. 

The  brief  notices  already  given  of  his  early  ministry  have 
shown  that  from  the  first  an  extraordinary  influence  attended 
his  declarations  of  gospel  truth.  That  kind  of  influence  con- 
tinued throughout  the  period  of  his  episcopate.  Wherever  he 
went  and  whenever  he  preached,  he  was  heard  with  profound 
and  solemn  interest.  He  did  not  limit  his  pulpit  efforts  to 
great  occasions,  but  was  as  ready  to  preach  to  few  as  to  many ; 
nevertheless,  his  capacity  to  bring  vast  assemblies  under  the 
spell  of  the  sublimest  eloquence  has  been  rarely  equaled.  His 
appearance  when  before  an  audience  was  that  of  perfect  calm- 
ness and  self-possession.  He  used  few  gestures,  and  no  vocif- 
eration, but  as  he  proceeded  to  present  the  great  themes  of  the 
gospel  in  an  easy  but  lucid  style,  clinching  his  positions  with 
invulnerable  logic,  he  impressed  his  hearers  not  only  as  a  man 
having  intimate  communion  with  God,  but  as  having  in  him- 
self vast  resources  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  power.  His 
emotions  were  not  of  the  corruscating  type.  They  did  not 
blaze  along  the  sky,  like  meteors.  They  rather  heaved  and 
swelled,  like  a  suppressed  but  moving  earthquake. 

His  habits  as  a  preacher  were  forme'd  during  the  six  years  of 
his  itinerant  ministry.  It  was  never  his  custom  to  read  or  re- 
<;ite  sermons  to  a  congregation.  In  his  preparations  for  pulpit 
address  he  wrote  diligently,  and  thus  acquired  a  style  of  pecul- 
iar transparency,  precision,  and  force.  Yet  his  writing  was  for 
self-discipline  in  the  development  and  memorization  of  thought. 
In  preparing  for  argumentative  discussions,  he  carefully  elab- 
orated his  definitions  and  propositions.  In  a  few  instances, 
and  for  special  objects,  he  wrote  out  sermons  at  length,  and 
thus  became  prepared  to  deliver  them  with  more  confidence 
and  completeness.  All  his  preparations  were  thus  made  auxil- 
iary to  effective  extemporaneous  preaching. 

Dr.  Hibbard  says : 

His  imagination  was  not  gorgeous,  not  copious ;  his  taste,  no 
less  than  his  "  godly  sincerity,"  would  have  excluded  all  excess 
and  dazzle.  He  was  not  a  poet,  but  an  orator,  and  his  imagination 
described  and  illustrated  rather  than  invented,  and  diffused  an 
exquisite  tinge  of  beauty  over  all  his  utterances. 

"  His  elocution,"  says  Dr.  Lowrey,  "  was  perfect.  His  voice — 
jhow  could  the  Creator  have  improved  it?  like  the  key-note  of 


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1881.]  Life  and  Works  of  Samline.  23 

well-composed  music,  just  right.  Soft,  mellow,  full,  rich  in  its 
grave  accents,  clear  and  insinuating  in  its  higher  inflections,  ten- 
derly impassioned  and  melting  in  its  minor  and  sympathetic 
tones,  it  possessed  the  power  of  self-adjustment  to  every  word, 
syllable,  and  sound  of  his  sentences.  I  heard  him  speak  twenty 
years  ago,  and  to-day  many  of  his  words,  and  his  mode  of  utter- 
ing them,  live  in  my  mind  with  all  the  vividness  that  belongs  to 
the  memories  of  yesterday.  This  I  attribute  largely  to  the  en- 
chanting effect  of  his  elocution." 

In  his  introduction  to  Bishop  Hamline's  works.  Dr.  Hibbard 
also  gives  this  additional  sketch,  which  is  the  more  valuable 
from  its  historic  comparisons : 

It  is  not  easy  to  do  justice  to  his  character  without  exagger- 
ation on  the  one  hand,  or  disparagement  on  the  other.  His  indi- 
Tiduality  is  so  marked  that,  after  all  comparisons,  he  must  stand 
alone.  He  possessed  the  enthusiasm,  but  not  the  frenzy,  of 
Whitefield  and  Chalmers.  He  was  more  terse  and  pointed  than 
Robert  Hall,  with  less  polish,  and  with  an  imagination  and  an 
order  of  intellect  of  superior  adaptations  to  the  ends  of  oratory. 
.  .  .  The  flow  of  his  utterances  was  like  the  swell  of  the  river 
current,  more  deep  than  rapid,  yet  moving  on  without  interrup- 
tion or  commotion,  always  majestic,  often  quickened,  like  hurry- 
ing waters  impatient  of  restraint,  but  never  like  the  wild  rush  of 
the  cataract.  In  this  he  contrasted  with  Olin.  Hamline  was 
impassioned,  never  boisterous — Olin  was  vehement ;  Hamline 
was  earnest — Olin  impetuous ;  Hamline  was  like  the  even,  though 
often  rapid,  flow  of  a  beautiful  stream,  bearing  its  buoyant  bur- 
den safely  and  gracefully  onward — Olin  was  like  the  torrent,  or 
the  whirlwind,  hurrying  all  before  it.  With  him  the  hurricane 
was  inevitablie,  but  he  rode  upon  it  in  majesty,  and,  like  the 
spirit  of  the  storm,  directed  all  its  forces.  Hamline  never  suf- 
fered the  storm  to  arise,  but  checked  it  midway,  and  if  the  sweep 
and  force  of  his  eloquence  were  less,  the  auditors  were  left  more 
self-controlled,  and  the  practical  ends  not  less  salutary..  With 
the  rising  inspiration  of  his  theme,  his  dark,  clear  eye  gathered 
new  luster  and  emitted  the  fire  of  his  thought,  his  countenance 
became  suffused  with  the  internal  glow  of  his  soul,  and  his  whole 
person  was  animate  with  the  genius  of  his  subject. 

It  is  a  matter  of  no  small  interest,  especially  to  students  and 
young  ministers,  that  a  public  speaker  of  such  extraordinary 
power  as  Bishop  Hamline  has  left  on  record  in  one  of  his  pub- 
lished addresses,  his  own  well-developed  theory  of  eloquence. 
That  address  was  delivered  in  1836,  but  was  not  made  accessi- 
ble to  genei-al  readers  until  the  publication  of  tlie  second  vol- 
ume of  Hamline's  works  in  1871,     That  address,  well  studied, 


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24  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Heview.  [January, 

can  hardly  fail  to  be  of  great  value  to  many  a  young  man  de- 
sirous of  qualifying  himself  to  become  eloquent  in  the  advocacy 
of  Christian  tnith  and  duty.  It  should,  however,  be  taken  in 
connection  with  the  author's  well-known  theory  that  no  elo- 
quence can  avail  for  the  highest  ends  of  the  Christian  ministry 
that  is  not  vitalized  by  the  de^  pathos  bom  of  intense  con- 
viction, and  nourished  by  intimate  communion  with  the  source 
of  spiritual  power.  This  our  subject  possessed  in  a  high  degree, 
and  to  it  must  be  attributed  a  great  measure  of  the  success  he 
had  in  winning  souls  to  Clirist,  and  to  the  higher  Christian  Kfe. 
A  remarkahle  illustration  of  this  occurred  after  his  health 
had  been  completely  shattered.  It  was  at  a  grove-meeting 
which  he  had  arranged  for  the  benefit  of  his  neighbors  while 
residing  near  Schenectady.  "  At  the  closing  service,"  wrote 
Dr.  Carhart,  "the  Bishop  arose,  and,  though  scarcely  able  to 
stand  without  assistance,  made  an  application  of  the  sermon, 
and  an  appeal  to  the  people,  such  as  I  have  never  heard  equaled. 
The  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  us.  Weeping  was  heard  in  every  di- 
rection in  the  vast  assembly ;  sobs  and  cries  for  mercy  fol- 
lowed ;  and,  as  the  speaker  continued,  and  even  before  the  in- 
vitation was  given,  penitents  crowded  around  the  rude  altar, 
and  the  whole  assembly,  rising  to  their  feet,  seemed  drawn 
toward  the  speaker,  and  to  melt  like  wax  before  the  fire.  "When 
the  invitation  w  as  given  to  those  seeking  Christ  to  come  for- 
ward, it  seemed  to  me  that  the  whole  audience  moved  simul- 
taneously, while  some  actually  ran  and  threw  themselves  pros- 
trate upon  the  ground,  and  cried,  '  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner!'  The  memory  of  that  scene  can  never  be  eflEaced 
from  my  mind." 

Bishop  Ha^iline  as  a  Wrfter. 

Many  an  eloquent  preacher  has  ceased  to  be  a  power  in  the 
Church  and  in  the  world  when  his  voice  has  been  silenced  by 
disease  or  death.  Others,  who  have  enlisted  the  press  as  an  aux- 
iliary to  their  work,  have  been  able  to  speak  on  to  successive 
generations.  Of  this  number  Bishop  Hamline  was  an  eminent 
example,  the  more  conspicuous  from  the  fact  that  so  few  of 
his  contemporaries  in  the  heroic  age  of  Methodism  did  like- 
wise. It  is  proper,  however,  to  say  that  he  never  neglected  or 
left  his  primary  work  to  become  an  author.     When  officially 


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1881.]  Ufe  and  Works  of  Hamline.  26 

appointed  by  the  Church  to  an  editorial  chair  he  improved  his 
opportunity  as  a  means  of  increasing  his  Christian  and  minis- 
terial influence,  as  well  as  of  serving  the  Church  whose  call  he 
obeyed.  With  this  high  end  in  view,  many  of  his  articles  be- 
came from  the  first  permanently  valuable.  Not  a  few  of  them 
have  been  preserved  by  appreciative  readers  in  the  volumes  of 
the  "  Ladies'  llepository,"  and  handed  down  as  heir-looms  to 
their  households.  It  is  no  less  in  the  line  of  good  taste  than 
of  a  good  providence  that  the  more  important  of  those  articles 
have  now  been  taken  out  of  their  serial  form  and  placed  side 
by  side  in  the  beautiful  volumes  already  named. 

Those  of  Hamline's  works  that  are  presented  in  this  perma- 
nent form,  although  of  limited  extent,  deserve  to  be  ranked  in 
the  highest  grade  of  American  theological  literature.  The  first 
volume,  being  filled  with  sermons,  will  be  most  read  by  minis- 
ters. Special  attention  may  be  called  to  a  series  of  three  on 
the  "  Depravity  of  the  Heart,"  also  to  those  on  "  The  Seen  and 
the  Unseen,"  "Delight  in  the  House  of  God,"  "The  In- 
carnation and  the  Immutability  of  Christ."  In  reading  the 
sermons  named  we  have  marked  many  passages  as  of  superior 
excellence.  But  lack  of  space  forbids  their  insertion.  The 
second  volume  of  Hamline's  works  contains  forty-eight  sketches 
and  plans  of  sermons,  five  public  addresses,  and  seventeen  the- 
ological essays.  These  various  articles,  having  been  selected  on 
the  ground  of  intrinsic  excellence,  are  all  worthy  of  perusal,  if 
not  of  study.  The  sermon  sketches  cover  an  ample  variety  of 
subjects  and  style  of  address,  and  may  serve  as  suggestive  ex- 
amples of  a  class  of  productions  of  which  every  preacher  must 
prepare  many. 

Of  the  public  addresses  of  the  author,  that  on  «'  Eloquence," 
and  that  delivered  in  the  General  Conference  of  1844  on  "  The 
Case  of  Bishop  Andrew,"  deserve  to  be  read  and  re-read.  An- 
other, on  "  The  Church  of  God,"  delivered  during  the  Cente- 
nary of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  in  1839,  is  long  and  able.  That 
on  "  The  Grave,"  delivered  at  the  opening  of  a  cemetery,  is  a 
model  for  such  a  rare  occasion. 

Of  the  theological  essays,  those  on  Holiness,  Faith,  The  New 
Birth,  Arminianism,  and  The  Holy  Ghost,  are  the  most  im- 
portant. 


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26  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

Resignation  of  the  Episcopal  Office. 

The  facts  relating  to  this  decisive  step  are  fully  related  and 
described  in  the  twenty-second  chapter  of  Dr.  Hibbard's  biog- 
raphy, which  opens  with  the  following  statement : 

The  year  1852  marks  an  epoch,  not  only  in  the  life  of  Bishop 
Ilamline,  but  in  the  history  of  the  episcopacy  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  as  well.  In  that  year,  at  the  General  Confer- 
ence held  in  Boston,  Mass.,  Bishop  Ilamline  tendered  his  resigna- 
tion as  Bishop,  and  retired  to  the  rank  of  a  superannuated  elder 
of  the  Ohio  Conference.  The  doctrine  of  the  Church  as  to  the 
nature  of  our  episcopacy  had  always  been  that  it  was  an  ofiice^ 
and  not  a  distinct  clerical  order;  but  no  act  or  precedent  had 
ever  occurred  to  give  it  practical  and  administrative  sanction. 
Aside  from  ecclesiastical  considerations,  the  spiritual  loss  to  the 
Church  by  the  retirement  of  such  a  man  from  the  episcopacy  was 
accepted  with  universal  regret  as  a  common  affliction.  The  sim- 
ple and  only  ground  of  his  retirement  was  want  of  health. 

The  significance  of  the  Bishop's  resignation  was  heightened 
by  the  discussions  which  took  place  respecting  it  on  the  floor  of 
the  General  Conference.  From  the  whole  tenor  of  those  dis- 
cussions, it  was  obvious  that  a  request  to  be  retired  as  a  super- 
annuated Bishop  would  have  better  accorded  with  the  feelings 
of  the  Conference.  But  such  a  course  did  not  comport  with 
Bishop  Ilamline's  stern  views  of  propriety  in  his  own  case. 
Hence  his  resignation  was  unequivocal.  When  that  fact  be- 
came apparent,  a  reluctant  consent  was  accorded  and  he  was 
honorably  released  from  the  responsiblities  of  the  oflSce  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  the  action  of  a  previous  General  Con- 
ference. 

So  far,  this  is  the  only  case  of  resignation  of  the  episcopal 
office  that  has  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church.  In  1836  Dr.  Wilbur  Fisk  was  elected  to  that 
oflice,  but  as  he  declined  episcopal  ordination  he  was  never 
considered  a  Bishop.  Bishop  Ilamline  had  received  the  or- 
dination and  exercised  the  office  during  eight  consecutive  years. 
He  then,  under  a  sense  of  duty,  surrendered  his  ceititicate  of 
ordination  and  retired  to  the  ecclesiastical  position  he  had 
occupied  before  his  episcopal  election.  The  formal  approval 
of  that  act  by  the  General  Conference  made  the  precedent 
complete. 


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1881.]  lAfe  and  Works  of  Hamlme.  .  27 

In  the  eminent  example  that  has  now  passed  under  review 
there  is  not  only  instruction  for  Bishops,  present  and  future, 
but  for  ministers  and  Christians  in  every  grade  and  circum- 
stance of  human  duty  and  trial. ,  In  Bishop  Hamline's  life 
it  is  seen  that  the  greatness  of  the  man  and  the  nobleness  and 
purity  of  his  Christian  character  were  not  dependent  upon  his 
office.  The  office  was  an  accident,  taken  up  an(f  laid  down  as 
occasion  required.  The  man,  the  Christian,  and  the  minister 
preceded  and  followed  it.  The  office,  indeed,  secured  great 
and  peculiar  opportimities  of  usefulness,  but  it  required  the 
highest  style  of  a  man  and  a  Christian  to  improve  them  to  the 
maximum. 

Last  Days. 

After  all  that  Bishop  Hamline  was  able  to  accomplish  by 
diligent  and  self-denying  action  in  the  days  of  his  strength,  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  the  greatest  triumph  of  his  life 
was  not  accomplished  by  his  patient  endurance  of  affliction, 
when  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  be  withdrawn  into  the  privacy  and 
solitudes  of  suffering.  That  he  found  in  such  scenes  the  abid- 
ing and  cheering  presence  of  the  sympathizing  Saviour  and  the 
sanctifying  Spirit  to  be  equal  to  his  extremest  need,  is  a  fact 
adapted  to  encourage  every  afflicted  child  of  God.  Few  in  any 
sphere  of  life  have  ever  been  called  to  endure  greater  or  more 
protracted  physical  distresses.  Although  a  man  of  robust 
frame,  he  became  in  middle  life  the  subject  of  an  alarming 
disease  of  the  heart.  Kotwithstanding  repeated  admonitions 
of  danger  from  physicians,  he  sternly  nerved  himself  up 
to  meet  every  call  of  duty  so  long  as  he  might  be  able. 
During  his  whole  period  of  episcopal  service  he  was  subject  to 
attacks  of  illness  so  violent  and  protracted  that  they  would  have 
paralyzed  the  efforts  of  ordinary  men ;  but  he  went  steadily 
forward,  meeting  his  Conferences  and  preaching  among  the 
Churches  to  tlie  full  limit  of  his  strength.  When  released 
from  official  responsibilities,  it  was  not  to '  rest,  but  to  retire 
and  suffer,  without  the  faintest  hope  of  recovery.  Wliile 
death  would  have  been  a  happy  release  at  any  moment,  yet  he 
was  willing  to  wait  all  the  days  of  his  appointed  time,  though 
each  added  day  brought  its  allotment  of  pain  and  trial. 

It  pleased  God  to  prolong  his  life  during  thirteen  years,  not 


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28  Methodisft  Quarterly  Review,  [January, 

only  of  invalidity,  but  of  ever-increasing  physical  distress.  As 
he  could  no  longer  do  the  will  of  God  in  active  service,  he  saw 
it  to  be  alike  his  privilege  and  his  duty  to  suffer  that  will  in 
the  furnace  of  affliction.  That  he  did  do  so  with  the  meekness 
of  a  disciple  and  the  faith  of  a  martyr  is  obvious  from  tlie 
records  of  his  life  during  that  period.  In  all  Christian  biogra- 
phy there  are  few  if  any  more  edifying  examples  of  joy  in 
sorrow  and  triumph  in  tribulation. 

In  185G  he  removed  to  Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa,  where,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  his  cherished  friends.  Dr.  Elliott,  Z.  11.  Cos- 
ton,  and  others,  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days. 

His  last  words  were,  "  This  is  wonderful  suffering,  but  it  is 
nothing  to  what  my  Saviour  endured  on  the  cross  for  me." 
Thus  in  the  thought  of  the  cross  of  Christ  he  triumphed  over 
the  last  enemy. 

Bishop  Ilamline's  Christian  life  is  open  to  imitation  from 
all.  In  other  spheres  but  few  can  follow  him.  But  in  the 
great  matters  of  complete  consecration,  of  earnest  attention  to 
the  means  of  grace,  and  of  simple  trusting  faith  in  the  atoning 
Saviour,  the  humblest  child  of  God  may  do  likewise,  in  the 
confidence  of  obtaining  similar  divine  favor,  in  life,  in  death, 
and  in  eternity. 


Art.  n.— our  PACIFIC  COAST  PROBLEM. 

The  Chinese  in  America.     By  0.  Gibson.     Cincinnati :  "Walden  k  Stowe. 
Certain  Pha.se8  of  th^  Chinese  Question.     By  John  F.  Miller.     In  March  number 
of  "  The  Californian."     San  Francisco. 

Agitating  the  social  fabric  of  the  Pacific  slope  from  Sonthem 
California  to  British  Columbia,  and  from  the  ocean  to  the  des- 
ert, is  the  momentous  question,  "  What  shall  be  done  with  the 
Chinaman  ?  "  It  enters  into  all  our  political  and  business  dis- 
cussions ;  it  invades  our  courts,  our  schools,  and  our  religious 
assemblies ;  it  finds  its  way  into  our  homes,  around  table  and 
fireside,  and  even  into  our  secret  chambers,  as  an  ever-present, 
ever-disturbing  factor  in  our  lives.  Thus  far,  and  in  its  imme- 
diate local  bearings,  is  the  "Chinese  question"  the  special 
problem  of  the  Pacific  coast ;  but  above  this,  and  in  its  higher 
and  absolute  relations,  it  is  not  a  question  belonging  alone  to 


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1881.]  Our  Pacific  Coast  Problem.  29 

the  Pacific,  but  reaching  across  to  the  Atlantic,  extending 
northward  and  southward,  and  finally  comprehending  the 
American  people  in  its  embrace.  It  is  a  national  question  of 
gigantic  proportions,  demanding  the  highest  wisdom  and  best 
integiity  of  our  statesmen  to  give  it  an  adequate,  just,  and  ul- 
timate settlement. 

It  so  touches  upon  our  relations  with  a  foreign  government, 
an  extensive  commerce,  a  time-honored  policy  of  our  own,  and 
upon  the  matter  of  human  brotherhood  and  equality  of  natural 
rights,  that  only  the  nation  in  its  highest  representative  capaci- 
ty can  properly  dispose  of  it.  California  and  sister  States  of 
the  Pacific  are  incompetent  to  frame  legislation  designed  to 
abrogate  articles  of  the  Burlingame  Treaty,  either  by  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Chinese,  or  by  depriving  them  of  the  rights  of 
residence  and  labor.  When  the  settlement  comes  it  must  needs 
be  by  federal  authority,  and  in  accordance  with  the  enlightened 
moral  sentiment  of  the  nation.  To  reach  that  result  and  ren- 
der that  settlement  both  just  and  final,  may  take  more  time 
and  cost  more  than  any  of  us  now  anticipate.  Whether  we 
shall  reach  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  problem,  or  reach  it  only 
at  the  end  of  another  race  war,  depends  mainly  on  the  relative 
strength  of  forces,  good  and  evil,  struggling  for  mastery  in  our 
social  and  political  system.  If  the  bitter  lessons  of  the  past 
have  been  sufliciently  learned,  then  shall  we  not  need  the  chas- 
tisement of  another  internecine  war  to  make  us  comprehend 
the  designs  of  Providence,  and  follow  on  to  the  attainment  of 
our  destiny  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  It  is  not  ventur- 
ing too  much  to  assert  that  the  righteous  sentiment  of  the 
American  people  demands  a  settlement  in  accordance  with 
truth  and  justice,  and  that  any  solution  upon  the  basis  of  race 
prejudice,  false  assumptions,  and  the  misrepresentations  of 
facts,  must,  in  the  affairs  of  men,  meet  reversal  in  the  supreme 
court  of  the  heavens,  and  share  the  fate  of  Judge  Taney's  de- 
cision against  the  colored  man. 

Before  the  writer  are  the  two  literary  productions  whose  ti- 
tles are  given  above.  As  they  present  the  Chinese  Question 
from  opposite  stand-points,  so  are  their  conclusions  diametri- 
cally opposed.  "  The  Chinese  in  America,"  a  neat  volume  of 
some  four  hundred  pages,  has  been  noticed,  read,  reviewed, 
and  assigned  its  place  as  a  reliable  authority  on  the  subject  of 


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80  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Reoievo.  [January, 

which  it  treats.  Ten  years  of  missionary  labor  in  China,  and 
more  than  that  length  of  time  among  the  Chinese  in  America, 
as  missionary  and  teacher,  have  given  Dr.  Gibson  abundant  op- 
portunities for  observation  of  the  character  and  habits  of  this 
strange  people.  More  than  twenty  years  of  acquaintance  with 
their  language,  customs,  and  peculiarities,  ought  to  be  some- 
thing of  a  guarantee  that  he  knew  whereof  he  wrote ;  while  his 
high  standing  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  re- 
peatedly expressed  confidence  of  that  respectable  body  of  men, 
the  California  Conference,  would  conclusively  attest  that  he 
has  not  misrepresented  the  facts.  With  full  acceptance  of  the 
doctrines  of  divine  Providence,  human  brotherhood,  and  the 
power  of  the  Gospel  to  save  and  civilize  all  men,  he  has  writ- 
ten from  the  Christian  stand-point,  and,  presenting  the  facts  to 
a  Christian  public,  calmly  waits  for  a  Christian  verdict. 

"  Certain  Phases  of  the  Chinese  Question  "  appeared  as  a 
magazine  article  in  the  March  number  of  '>  The  Califomian," 
this  present  year,  and  at  once  received  the  most  favorable  no- 
tice from  the  anti-Chinese  press  and  politicians  of  the  nation. 
General  Miller,  a  gentleman  well  known  in  the  social  and  mil- 
itary circles  of  San  Francisco,  appears  as  the  representative  of 
a  very  large,  influential,  and  highly  respectable  class  of  people 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  who  hold  that  the  presence  of  the  Chinese 
is  a  great  detriment  to  the  country,  and  that  their  immigration 
should  be  stopped.  As  to  the  stand-point  from  which  General 
Miller  views  the  case  we  are  left  somewhat  in  the  dark ;  but 
from  his  remark  that  the  "  two  civilizations  which  have  here 
met  .  .  .  are  each  the  result  of  evolution  under  contrariant 
conditions,"  and  similar  expressions,  we  are  led  to  infer  that 
the  "  evolution  theory  "  is  a  favorite  with  him,  while  some  of 
his  concluding  sentences,  setting  forth  that  peaceful  resistance 
of  Mongolian  invasion  (?)  is  simply  "  to  preserve  this  land  for 
our  people  and  their  posterity  forever,  and  hold  republican 
government  and  free  institutions  in  trust  for  Anglo-Saxon  pos- 
terity," imply  that  he  accepts  that  venerable  formula,  ''  This  is 
a  white  man's  government,"  as  a  substantial  article  of  his  polit- 
ical faith.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  phases,  facts,  and  conclusions 
presented  by  him  are  deserving  of  respectful  consideration; 
the  value  of  his  opinions  as  those  of  an  ordinary,  and  perhaps 
superficial,  observer  of  Chinese  character  and  habits,  and  his 


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1881.1  Ov/r  Pacific  Coast  Problem.  31 

general  positions  as  compared  with  those  of  Dr.  Gibson,  are 
deserving  of  further  reference  in  these  pages. 

The  Elements  of  the  Problem. 

Within  the  embrace  of  this  Pacifio-coast  problem,  at  least 
four  elements  prominently  present  themselves,  and  must  needs 
be  taken  into  account  in  the  solution  thereof.     These  are : 

1.  The  number  and  character  of  the  Chinese  in  America. 

2.  The  origin,  extent,  and  grounds  of  the  anti-Chinese  senti- 
ment. 

3.  The  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood,  and  the  time-hon- 
ored American  policy  of  open  doors  for  all  to  enter. 

4.  Reciprocity  relations,  and  their  necessary  operation. 

(1.)  As  to  the  number  and  character  of  these  strangers, 
something  must  be  said  at  the  outset.  Thirty  years  have 
passed  since  the  first  Chinaman  landed  on  these  shores.  During 
that  period  there  has  been  no  restriction  placed  on  their  immi- 
gration ;  they  have  come  and  gone  freely ;  and  yet,  with  all  the 
inducements  commonly  supposed  to  be  tempting  them  hither, 
and  after  all  these  years,  according  to  carefully  kept  statistics 
of  our  Custom  House  and  the  Chinese  "  Six  Companies,"  lees 
than  150,000  of  them  are  to  be  found  in  the  whole  United 
States  of  America. 

Moreover,  within  the  last  four  years  there  has  been  a  marked 
decrease  rather  than  increase  in  their  numbers;  they  have 
come  by  hundreds,  but  have  gone  by  thousands.  Recent  issues 
of  the  San  Francisco  dailies  apprise  us  of  the  loss  of  7,000  of 
this  population  within  a  recent  period ;  yet  Mr.  Miller,  and  the 
press  generally  on  this  coast,  would  have  us.  believe  that  Chi- 
nese immigration  pours  in  like  an  ever-increasing  flood,  threat- 
ening to  swamp  our  civilization  and  whole  social  system  in  a 
very  short  time.  A  yearly  influx  of  150,000  or  more  people 
from  Europe  appears  to  create  no  alarm,  but  seems  rather  a 
most  wonderful  benison  to  poor  America ! 

It  may  be  remarked  in  this  connection  that  the  heaviest  im- 
migration of  Chinese  took  place  in  1852,  when  20,026  arrived 
in  California ;  it  may  be  fm*ther  remarked  that  according  to 
the  rate  of  increase  of  the  thirty  years  past,  it  would  take  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  for  America  to  gain  a  Chinese 
population  of  one  million  I     But,   according  to  Mr.  Miller's 


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32  Meihodist  Quarterly  lieview.  [January, 

own  estimate  of  the  increase  of  our  white  population,  we  shall, 
in  sixty  years,  without  the  aid  of  immigration,  have  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  millions  of  people.  One  would  suppose  we 
might  be  able  to  take  care  of  a  few  hundred  thousand  inferior  (?) 
Chinamen  almost  any  day  in  our  future. 

But  allowing,  as  he  justly  claims,  that  from  the  over-crowded 
population  of  the  single  province  of  Canton,  millions  could  be 
spared  and  their  loss  not  felt,  what  evidence  is  there  that  any 
exodus  will  take  place  ?  Mr.  Gibson  makes  the  point  that  their 
clannishness,  provincial  feuds,  and  hatreds,  are  a  pretty  sure 
safeguard  against  the  coming  of  any  but  those  of  the  dialect 
already  here,  while  traditional  policy  and  disinclination  to  move 
must  for  generations  serve  to  keep  the  masses  of  the  Chinese 
people  at  home. 

And  suppose  they  do  come  according  to  the  openings  for 
employment  found  here,  and  suppose  they  do  make  openings 
for  each  other,  and  invest  their  little  capital.in  business  enter- 
prises in  this  country,  what  of  that  ?  Have  not  Americans, 
Jews,  Turks,  and  the  enterprising  people  of  this  world  gener- 
ally, done  that  same  thing,  and  pushed  themselves  into  em- 
ployments and  business  openings  wherever  there  has  been  a 
chance,  whether  wanted  or  not  by  the  native  races  ?  Or  has 
the  noble  Anglo-Saxon  at  last  found  such  a  superior  in  economy 
and  successful  business  habits  that  he  must  adopt  the  cast-oflf 
policy  of  exclusion  toward  one  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  ? 

As  to  the  object  of  the  Chinese  in  coming  to  America,  and 
their  general  character  and  behavior  while  here,  the  opinions 
of  the  wise  differ  quite  materially.  It  would  seem  probable, 
however,  that  they  have  come  without  the  least  idea  of  inva- 
sion, colonization,  or  the  acquisition  of  the .  Pacific  coast  as  a 
province  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  that  they  have  the  sole 
purpose  of  bettering  their  financial  condition.  Other  people, 
many  of  them,  appear  to  have  come  for  the  same  sordid  purpose ! 

They  are  usually  represented  as  the  most  vicious,  immoral, 
filthy,  and  corrupt  people  in  the  world,  without  conscience  or 
moral  sense ;  but  in  almost  the  next  breath  their  enemies  pro- 
nounce them  the  most  frugal,  industrious,  patient,  painstaking 
and  persevering  people  on  earth.  How  both  pictures  may  be 
correct  it  might  puzzle  a  philosopher  to  explain.  Certain  it 
is  that  the  Chinese  have  brought  their  stupid  gods  and  heathen 


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1881.]  Out  Pacific  Coast  Problem,  33 

customs  to  this  Christian  land ;  true  it  is  that  many  of  them  are 
gamblers,  thieves,  and  desperadoes  of  the  worst  kind;  true, 
also,  that  some  of  them  carry  on  an  accursed  traffic  in  human 
flesh — ^young  girls  and  women  are  bought  and  sold  by  these  mon- 
sters, and  used  and  abused  for  the  vilest  purposes.  But  these 
things  cannot  be  said  of  the  mass  of  the  Chinese  in  America,  and 
their  enemies  know  it.  The  merchants,  artisans,  and  common 
laborers  of  that  race,  as  a  general  rule,  commend  themselves  as 
honest,  peaceable,  and  law-abiding  inhabitants  of  the  country. 
Our  missionaries  and  merchants  in  China,  and  America  as  well, 
sustain  this  statement  by  almost  unfailing  testimony.  By  rea- 
son of  their  docility,  obedience,  and  reliability  as  laborers,  they 
have  won  their  way  into  thousands  of  places  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
Their  wonderful  capability  for  acquiring  our  language,  arts, 
and  industries,  is  well  understood,  and  their  astuteness,  skill, 
and  imitative  genius,  render  them  formidable  competitors  of 
the  white  man.  There  is  scarce  any  thing  that  the  latter  does 
which  the  Chinaman  seems  incapable  of  doing,  and  the  chances 
are  that,  after  a  few  trials,  he  will  do  it  with  more  deftness 
and  dispatch  than  his  instructor.  Their  race  is  inferior  only  in 
point  of  civilization,  and  in  that  only  because  an  inferior,  a  pa- 
gan, religion,  has  cursed  their  land  for  ages,  while  Christianity, 
bom  of  heaven  and  endued  with  divine  power,  has  pro- 
duced and  nurtured  the  civilization  of  the  European  and  Amer- 
ican families  of  men.  Let  the  leaven  of  the  Gospel  and  the 
light  of  God's  word  permeate  the  dead,  stagnant  masses  of 
Chinese  ignorance  and  superstition ;  let  contact  with  foreign 
nations  go  on ;  let  modem  ideas  and  Christian  faith  enter  into 
more  vigorous  conflict  with  venerable  philosophy  and  a  worn- 
out  pagan  theology ;  give  the  Chinese  people  a  few  of  the  op- 
portunities we  have  so  long  enjoyed,  and  then  look  for  a  race 
and  nation  taking  rank  with  the  foremost  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Such  are  the  Chinese,  and  such  their  character  and  ca- 
pabilities. 

The  Akti-Chinese  Sentiment. 

Opposition  to  the  Chinese  had  its  origin  years  ago,  when 
that  people  first  began  to  appear  in  our  mining  regions  as  com- 
petitors of  white  laborers.  They  could  well  afford  to  work  for 
less  than  the  extravagant  prices  current  at  that  time.     They 


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34  ^      Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

took  the  wom-ont  "  claims "  abandoned  by  white  miners,  and 
made  themselves  rich  by  their  untiring  industry.  Hence  the 
"  Foreign  Miners'  Tax  "  was  imposed  to  check  their  operations, 
and  collected  of  no  other  foreigners. 

As  the  capabilities  of  our  soil  and  climate  for  fruit-bearing 
and  general  agriculturo  became  known,  they  again  became  act- 
ive competitors  of  the  white  laborers,  insomuch  that  they  were 
willing  to  work  for  more  reasonable  wages,  and  proved  more 
constant,  obedient,  and  reliable.  While  it  became  the  custom 
of  the  ordinary  field  hands  to  demand  high  wages  for  the  busy 
seasons,  then  lie  around  taverns  and  saloons  till  their  earnings 
were  gone,  the  Chinese  toiled  on  constantly,  willing  to  work 
for  almost  nothing  rather  than  be  idle  and  on  expense.  When 
the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  was  in  process  of  construction 
again  was  there  demand  for  their  service,  and  soon  they  proved 
themselves  more  available  railroad  builders  than  any  white  la- 
borers the  raiboad  company  could  afford  to  employ.  And 
when,  in  development  of  our  splendid  resources,  certain  manu- 
facturing enterprises  were  entered  upon,  once  more  capital  was 
glad  to  avail  itself  of  their  patient  industry  and  rapidly  ac- 
quired skill.  Multitudes  of  business  men  have  testified  that 
none  of  these  enterprises  would  have  been  possible  for  years  to 
come  had  it  not  been  for  the  presence  of  the  Chinese. 

Meantime,  the  opposition  to  their  so-called  cheap  labor  and 
reduction  of  prices,  originating  with  the  conmion  laborers  of 
America,  but  chiefly  of  European  birth,  was  gaining  strength ; 
and,  inasmuch  as  the  one  class  of  laborers  had  votes  and  the 
other  had  none,  politicians,  newspapers,  and  political  parties, 
added  fuel  to  the  flame,  while  Jesuitical  bigotry  in  the  back- 
ground was  ever  active  in  rousing  race  prejudice  and  foment- 
ing class  hatred.  A  marked  revulsion  in  business  came  on  in 
1874,  and  financial  depression  settled  down  upon  the  State. 
There  set  in  a  reaction  from  the  wild  speculation,  extravagance, 
and  high  prices  of  earlier  years.  A  crash  came  when  the 
Bank  of  California  failed,  and  soon  all  classes  began  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  "  hard  times."  The  industrious  middle  classes — 
mechanics,  artisans,  and  tradesmen — ^found  employment  more 
diflBcult  to  secure  ;  values  depreciated,  and  building  enterprises 
and  property  investments  almost  entirely  ceased.  Meanwhile, 
the  Chinese,  more  economical  than  others,  toiled  on,  steadily 


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1881.1  Ov/t  Pacific  Coast  ProUem.  85 

filling  their  places  as  cooks,  lanndrymen,  common  and  skilled 
laborers.  In  tlie  general  depression  and  discontent  it  is  some- 
what natural  that  public  attention  should  have  been  turned  to 
them,  and  the  opposition  greatly  extended  and  intensified.  At 
length  it  took  shape  and  crystallized  itself  in  the  "Working- 
man's  Movement,"  whose  motto  has  ever  been,  "  The  Chinese 
must  gol"  Largely  in  obedience  to  that  movement  a  new  Con- 
stitution was  framed  and  adopted  by  the  State  of  California, 
and  at  the  first  general  election  under  its  operation,  held  Sep- 
tember 3,  1879,  the  electors  of  the  State  were  required  by  gu- 
bernatorial proclamation  to  vote  on  the  question  of  "  Chinese 
immigration."  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  verdict  was 
overwhelmingly  "  against  Chinese  immigration."  Out  of  a 
total  vote  of  161,094,  there  were  but  883  "  for,"  while  154,638 
were  "  t^inst "  the  immigration  of  the  Chinese. 

The  politicians  and  newspapers  bear  Mr.  Miller  company  in 
pronouncing  this  vote  decisive  as  to  the  strength  of  Pacific 
coast  sentiment  on  this  question.  But  as  to  the  real  significance 
of  this  vote  some  remarks  may  be  in  order. 

First  Let  it  be  remembered  that  this  vote  was  taken  when 
political  strife  was  at  its  height,  and  politicians  of  all  parties 
were  bidding  for  votes,  and  doing  their  utmost  to  make  peo- 
ple believe  they  were  in  immediate  danger  of  an  Asiatic  inun- 
dation. 

Second.  There  was  a  heavy  silent  vote  that  would  not  be 
forced  into  an  expression  on  the  subject,  and  that  silent  vote 
represents  some  of  the  best  citizens  of  the  State. 

Third,  The  private  sentiment  of  at  least  half  the  people  of 
Calif omia  seems  to  differ  very  essentially  from  i}iQ  public  sen- 
timent thus  expressed,  inasmuch  as  they  show  themselves  quite 
in  favor  of  the  presence  of  the  Chinese,  by  giving  regular  em- 
ployment to  some  75,000  of  that  race ;  and  notably  is  this  the 
case  with  certain  well-known  editors  and  politicians,  who  in 
their  public  utterances  constantly  and  bitterly  denounce  the 
Mongolians,  while  keeping  several  of  them  steadily  engaged  in 
their  kitchens  and  gardens !  This  illustrates  the  depth  and 
sincerity  of  much  of  this  clamor. 

Fourth.  This  strong  anti-Chinese  sentiment  has  been  largely 
produced  by  the  one-sided  statements  and  misrepresentations  of 
demagogues  and  lying  newspapers ;  hence,  it  is  not  a  correct  or 


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86  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [January, 

intelligent  sentiment ;  and  an  opinion  not  based  on  substantial 
facts  is  valueless. 

Fifth.  The  so-called  anti-Chinese  element  embraces  a  great 
variety  of  people.  Lowest  in  the  scale  are  the  "  Sand-Lottei's  " 
— a  rabid,  ignorant  mob,  mainly  of  foreigners,  led  by  Dennis 
Kearney ;  and  this  is  a  large  class  of  our  population.  IS^ext  come 
the  cunning  demagogues  and  time-serving  politicians  —  that 
mighty  anny  of  office-seekers,  whose  principles  are  cheap,  and 
variable  according  to  popidar  feeling.  Then  we  have  a  great 
many  honest,  industrious,  hard-working,  and  Christian  people, 
who,  misguided  by  the  one-sided  or  false  statements  of  the 
secular,  and  the  silence  or  tame  acquiescence  of  the  religious 
newspapers  of  the  coast,  sincerely  believe  that  the  presence  of 
the  Chinese  is  a  great  evil,  and  the  immediate  cause  of  all  that 
distress  which  has  really  come  from  land  monopoly,  stock 
.gambling,  reckless  extravagance,  and  the  expensive  vices  of  the 
past.  And,  last  of  all,  there  are  legions  who  feel  no  special  op- 
position to  the  Chinese  j[>^r  ae^  but  are  so  tired  of  this  unceas- 
ing howl  and  agitation,  which  for  three  years  has  been  cursing 
the  State,  that  they  would  be  glad  to  have  the  immigration, 
cease,  or  almost  any  thing  else  take  place  that  would  give  a  res- 
pite from  disturbance.  Taking  all  the  elements  together,  Cal- 
ifornia furnishes  a  singular  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
classes  influence  each  other,  and  how  a  whole  people  may  be 
swayed  by  misconceptions,  and  placed  in  opj^osition  to  avowed 
principles  of  human  equality  and  justice  ! 

These  classes  hold  exceedingly  various  views  as  to  the  proper 
remedy  for  the  evil.  Absolute  expulsion  and  entire  exclusion 
are  demanded  by  the  first  ;,the  second  are  ready  for  any  thing ; 
the  others  favor  restriction  or  limitation  of  the  immigration, 
while  they  seem  quite  willing  the  150,000  now  here  should  re- 
main ;  and  those  who  are  able  evince  their  willingness  by  keep- 
ing that  number,  less  or  more,  at  work  on  good  wages. 

But  there  are  certain  objections  to  the  Chinese,  grave  and 
otherwise,  that  demand  passing  notice.  It  is  objected  by  Mr. 
Miller  and  others : 

1.  That  our  country  is  in  danger  of  being  overnm  by  a  pagan 
horde  from  China,  who  will  ultimately  subvert  our  Christian 
civilization. 

As  to  the  danger  of  a  large  influx  of  Chinese,  and  the  prob- 


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1881.]  Out  Pacific  Coast  Problem,  37 

abilities  in  that  direction,  perhaps  sufficient  has  abeady  been 
said  in  this  article.  But  the  subversion  of  the  superior  civili- 
zation by  the  lower  and  weaker — when  has  it  taken  place,  and 
under  what  attendant  circumstances  ?  The  western  empire  of 
the  Eomans  fell  before  the  invasion  of  Goth  and  Vandal ;  the 
Greek  empire  succumbed  before  the  invincible  Ottoman  em- 
peror and  his  daring  legions ;  but  the  best-read  liistorians  tell 
us  that  internal  corruptions,  the  decay  of  virtue,  and  the  effem- 
inacy of  civilized  life,  operating  for  generations,  subverted 
the  nations,  while  on  their  ruins  grew  the  nobler  civilization  of 
modem  times.  That  civilization  which  under  the  lead  of 
Charles  Martel  dashed  down  from  the  Pyrenees  the  hosts  of 
Saracenic  invasion,  and  in  Luther's  day  hurled  back  the  cres- 
cent from  the  plains  of  Hungary — which  has  encircled  the 
globe  with  its  institutions,  and  now  commands  the  fear  and  re- 
spect of  the  world — can  never  be  subverted,  except  by  its  own 
corruptions.  History  and  faith  unite  in  giving  this  fissurance, 
while  on  the  other  hand  the  signs  of  the  times  strongly  indi- 
cate that  a  hundred  years  of  contact  with  Christian  nations, 
and  a  hundred  years  of  missionary  effort,  will  completely  over- 
throw the  pagan  civilization  of  China,  and  place  her  among 
the  progressive  Christian  powers  of  the  earth ;  and  this  may  be 
the  las\  and  greatest  victory  of  Christianity  before  the  end  and 
consummation  of  all  things. 

2.  It  is  objected  that  they  are  coolie  slaves,  owned  by  the 
"  Six  Companies,"  degrading  free  white  labor  by  their  presence, 
and  bringing  down  the  prices  paid  for  ordinary  work  below 
living  rates. 

But  from  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  the  missionaries 
familiar  with  Chinese  customs  and  language,  the  native  Chris- 
tians and  the  mass  of  the  Chinese  people  themselves,  together 
with  the  fact  that  in  the  hundreds  of  Chinese  cases  tried  in  our 
courts  no  contract  for  the  sale  or  delivery  of  a  slave  has  ever 
been  discovered.  Dr.  Gibson  shows  conclusively  that  slavery 
does  not  exist  among  the  male  Chinese  population  of  our  coun- 
try. That  girls  and  women  are  enslaved  for  the  purposes  al- 
ready indicated  cannot  be  denied,  and  a  glaring  shame  it  is  to 
our  public  officials  and  courts  that  of  the  six  thousand  Chinese 
women  in  this  country,  about  five  thousand  are  held  in  the  vil- 
est  kind  of  servitude.     That  contracts  occasionally  exist,  accord- 

Fourth  Sebies,  Vol.  XXXIH.— 8 


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38  Methodist  Qv^aHerly  Review.  [January, 

ing  to  whose  tenriB  numbers  of  Chinamen  may  work  for  small 
wages  for  some  months,  or  longer,  may  also  be  the  case ;  nor  is 
it  uncommon  for  the  "  Six  Companies,"  or  wealthy  relatives  in 
this  country,  to  advance  passage  money  to  their  poor  country- 
men desiring  to  come  here,  and  then  require  them  to  pay  back 
the  money  advanced  by  monthly  installments  from  their  wages ; 
but  this  has  not  been  uncommon  among  other  nationalities. 
To  call  China  ^^  the  great  slave-pen  of  the  world,"  as  Mr.  Miller 
does,  is  to  considerably  exceed  the  truth.  One  must  ako  con- 
clude that  it  is  a  singular  kind  of  slavery  which  allows  its  vic- 
tims to  go  where  they  please,  make  their  own  bargains,  collect 
their  own  wages,  and  do  what  they  please  with  the  proceeds, 
as  the  Chinese  are  known  to  do  I  If  we  inquire  very  closely 
into  the  degradation  of  "  free  white  labor,"  the  discovery  will 
soon  be  made  that  laziness,  improvidence,  tobacco,  and  rum 
are  the  active  agents  operating  through  a  thousand  channels, 
and  ever  lowering  our  common  people  to  a  more  wretched 
scale  of  being. 

If  the  Chinese  have  assisted  in  bringing  down  the  prices  of 
labor  somewhat,  they  have  done  the  Pacific  coast  good  service ; 
yet  employers  know  to  their  sorrow  that  no  such  thing  z&ckea/p 
labor  exists  in  California.  Even  the  Chinese  obtain  from  one 
half  more  to  double  the  wages  paid  white  men  and  women  in 
the  Atlantic  States  for  the  same  kind  of  service,  while  the  cost 
of  living  and  clothing  is  less  in  San  Francisco  than  in  many 
Eastern  cities.  With  the  splendid  resources  of  California  for 
almost  every  kind  of  manufacture,  why  is  so  little  manufact- 
uring done?  How  is  it  that  from  an  annual  product  of 
40,000,000  pounds  of  wool,  38,000,000  are  sent  East,  worked 
up  by  skillful  operatives  there,  and  sent  back  to  us  as  woolen 
goods  ?  Hides  are  produced  by  the  million,  sold  to  the  Eastern 
buyer,  and  fifty  thousand  cases  of  boots  and  shoes  come  back 
to  us  in  a  single  year ;  other  things  are  in  much  the  same 
state.  With  all  our  opportunities,  and  protected  by  a  double 
freight  on  materials  and  goods  a  distance  of  three  thousand 
miles,  we  are  yet  unable  to  carry  on  manufacturing  enterprises 
extensively  or  successfully.  One  would  suppose  from  this  that 
one  of  our  greatest  needs  is  the  importation  of  cheaper  labor 
from  some  source.  But  our  white  laborers  refuse  to  come 
•down  from  high  prices,  and  the  Chinese  work  on  at  a  littla 


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1881.1  Owr  Pacific  Coast  Problem.  89 

below  the  standard  of  the  others ;  so  there  is  something  of 
a  dead  Jock  in  manufacturing  enterprise.  That  wages  will  ulti- 
mately come  down  in  California  to  the  level  of  other  States, 
and  that  there  will  be  plenty  to  do,  there  is  no  doubt.  Just 
how  low  the  Chinese  may  fall  in  their  prices  we  cannot  tell ; 
but  it  seems  certain  that  it  will  not  be  lower  than  the  rates  paid 
common  hands  in  the  Eastern  States. 

3.  It  is  objected  that  they  do  not  use  our  products,  that  it 
costs  them  nothing  to  live,  and  that  their  earnings  are  all  sent 
out  of  the  country. 

A  trip  through  the  Chinese  quarter  of  San  Francisco,  and  a 
little  observation  directed  to  the  variety  of  goods  and  provis- 
ions on  sale,  must  render  the  objection  somewhat  curious. 
Pork,  beef,  fish,  flour,  potatoes,  fruits  of  all  kinds;  sewing- 
machines,  jewelry,  time-pieces,  clothing,  and  '*  Yankee  no- 
tions "  of  fiJl  kinds,  abound — so  that  it  appears  from  a  careful 
estimate  of  the  value  of  these  home  products,  that  they  use 
$6,000,000  annually  1  However  much  ability  they  may  pos- 
sess for  living  on  nothing,  observation  abimdantly  shows  that 
there  are  no  more  heavy  feeders  in  the  State  than  these  same 
starveling  (?)  Chinese  I  It  may  be  remarked,  though,  that  their 
liquor  bills  are  not  so  heavy  as  thos^  of  the  superior  race. 

The  amount  sent  back  to  China  each  year  is  greatly  overes- 
timated. That  bitter  anti-Chinese  organ,  the  "  San  Francisco 
Call,"  with  a  passing  twinge  of  honesty,  in  a  recent  issue,  al- 
lowed that  it  did  not  exceed  $1,500,000  a  year,  while  Dr.  Gib- 
son places  the  figures  at  $800,000 — a  large  amount  in  either 
case,  and  better  for  us  were  it  all  spent  here ;  but  while  our 
people  are  spending  $200,000,000  a  year  in  Europe  for  pleas- 
ure, and  many  millions  besides  for  French  wines  and  silks, 
which  we  do  not  need,  it  would  seem  a  little  ridiculous  to  raise 
such  an  uproar  against  the  Chinamen  for  sending  home  a  small 
part  of  their  earnings. 

4.  Again,  it  is  objected  that  they  buy  no  real  estate,  pay  no 
taxes,  and  do  nothing  to  support  our  institutions  or  government. 

Though  little  encouragement  has  been  given  them  to  make 
permanent  investments  in  this  country,  yet  in  San  Francisco 
alone  they  have  purchased  real  estate  to  the  value  of  over 
$800,000.  In  support  of  the  government  they  annually  pay 
duties  on  their  imports  of  over  $2,000,000 ;  poll  tax,  $260,000 ; 


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40  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

other  taxes  and  for  licenses,  $500,000 ;  rents,  $100,000 ;  in- 
surance, $500,000 ;  while  our  lines  of  travel  and  freightage  are 
heavily  patronized  by  them. 

6.  Once  more,  it  is  objected  that  they  are  an  inferior  race,  in- 
capable of  "assimilation,  of  becoming  citizens  or  Christians,  and 
withal  a  most  dangerous  element  in  our  society.  This  is  Gen- 
eral Miller's  stronghold,  and  really  contains  in  itself  the  grav- 
est valid  objection  that  can  be  urged. 

But  let  us  look  into  the  merits  of  the  case.  If  the  Chinese 
are  indeed  an  inferior  race,  "a  scrub  stock,"  as  Mr.  Miller  says, 
why  should  those  who  believe  in  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest " 
feel  any  alarm  in  this  exigency?  Evolution  will  doubtless 
regulate  the  case  in  due  time,  and  we  have  little  to  fear.  As 
to  assimilation,  there  is  a  wide  distinction  to  be  made  between 
Wxe  possibility  and  the  fact  of  such  a  thing  taking  place.  If 
interma/rriage  of  the  races  is  meant,  then  the  fact  is  that  such 
assimilation  is  not  yet  very  common  ;  but  several  instances  of 
such  intermarriage,  and  troops  of  children,  whose  features  are 
mingled  Caucasian  and  Mongolian,  proclaim  the  possihility  of 
such  a  thing.  If  the  adoption  of  our  language,  mode  of  dress, 
and  habits  of  life  be  meant,  then  the  fact  is  that  in  these  re- 
gards the  Chinese  assimilate  very  slowly,  and  it  is  an  objection 
against  them  of  considerable  weight.  But  closer  examination 
will  show  that  many  thousands  of  them  do  learn  our  language, 
and  in  many  ways  assimilate  in  the  use  of  our  customs,  man- 
ners, and  inventions,  enough  to  show  the  possibility  of  their 
doing  so  generally. 

But  there  are  certain  obstacles  to  assimilation  which  need  to 
be  remarked  upon.  First,  on  the  part  of  the  Chinaman  there 
is  just  one  thing  that  renders  him  peculiar,  and  that  makes 
him  a  Chinaman  the  world  over,  and  that  one  thing  is  his 
cue.  It  is  the  crowning  glory  of  the  Mongolian  costume. 
That  cue  has  now  been  worn  for  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  and  is  the  sign  of  subjection  to  the  present  Tartar  dy- 
nasty of  the  empire,  the  badge  of  Chinese  citizenship.  But  it 
is  not  an  essential  part  of  the  man  himself,  and  may  be  cut  off 
without  risking  his  life  !  Now  then,  let  the  bai'ber,  instead  of 
shaving  the  head  of  his  patient,  cut  his  hair  a  decent  length  all 
around ;  ensconce  your  subject  in  a  suitable  suit  of  clothes,  pol- 
ish him  up  a  little  in  one  of  the  schools,  and  lo !  you  have  sucli 


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1881.]  Ov/r  Pacific  Coast  Problem.  41 

a  nice-looking,  medium-sized  youth  that  you  would  scarce  rec- 
ognize him  as  the  Chinaman  of  a  short  time  before.  Many 
have  already  made  that  change,  and  thousands  more  would  do 
so,  were  it  not  for  losing  caste  among  their  own  people,  and 
the  protection  of  their  government.  But  China  will  at  length 
do  as  Japan  has  done — ^allow  her  subjects  to  abandon  this  bar- 
barous custom,  and  dress  as  they  please. 

For  our  part,  we  have  put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  their  as- 
similation such  as  these :  We  have  made  them  ineligible  to  cit- 
izenship by  our  new  Constitution;  we  have  discriminated 
against  them  by  such  a  set  of  laws  as  have  not  for  years  dis- 
graced the  statute-book  of  any  civilized  country ;  we  have  taxed 
them  $40,000  a  year  to  support  our  public  schools  and  sedu- 
lously excluded  them  from  the  privileges  thereof ;  our  hood- 
lums have  made  it  unsafe  for  them  to  travel  or  live  where  they 
cannot  easily  secure  protection  ;  things  of  this  kind  have  ren- 
dered their  assimilation  slow,  tended  to  confirm  them  in  their 
clannishness,  and  given  them  no  encouragement  to  abandon 
the  customs  of  their  country.  Yet,  in  spite  of  it  all,  a  gradual 
change  has  been  going  on.  Many  have  abandoned  their  hea- 
thenism and  are  leading  Christian  lives  ;  many  have  their  fam- 
ihes  here  and  desire  to  make  this  their  home. 

The  charge  that  the  Chinese  are  a  most  dangerous  element 
of  our  population,  living  in  beastly  filth,  corrupting  the  young, 
and  defying  our  laws  by  secret  and  inexorable  tribunals,  is  one 
often  repeated.  The  truth  is  this :  They  are  a  heathen  people, 
with  heathen  vices — gambling  and  opium  dens,  theaters  and 
places  of  prostitution;  there  are  plenty  of  these,  and  they  have 
their  patrons.  But  competent  judges  say  the  abominations  of 
these  things  are  no  worse  than  are  found  among  white  people 
in  all  large  cities.  The  few  of  our  own  race  drawn  into  them 
have  already  been  hopelessly  corrupted  by  our  own  peculiar  in- 
stitutions. Breweries,  beer-gardens,  five  thousand  or  more 
saloons  in  Califomia,  Sunday  picnics,  excursions,  godless 
schools — these  are  mainly  responsible  for  the  army  of  hood- 
lums and  the  bad  state  of  morals  and  finances  among  our  peo- 
ple ;  and  the  Chinese  are  accountable  alone  in  the  fact  that  our 
own  people  have  unwisely  hired  them  to  do  the  work  they 
should  have  done  themselves  and  taught  their  children  to  do. 
That  they  have  secret  courts  in  operation  there  is  no  reliable 


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42  MethodA«t  QuaHerly  Review,  [January, 

evidence — ^neither  prison,  nor  dungeon,  nor  testimony  are  found 
in  proof. 

About  the  only  valid  objections,  then,  are  these,  namely : 
Their  slow  assimilation  to  American  customs  and  modes  of  life, 
and  the  fact  that  thus  far  so  few  have  come  to  remain  and  iden- 
tify themselves  with  the  interests  of  the  country,  for  which 
things  we  are  ourselves  largely  responsible. 

OUB  TEADinONAL  PoLIOY. 

Belief  in  hnman  brotherhood  and  open  doors  for  all  has 
been  our  national  doctrine  for  a  hundred  years.  Under  its  op- 
eration our  country  has  been  closed  to  none,  and  it  has  been 
our  theory  to  extend  to  all  who  might  come  the  enjoyment  of 
equal  privileges  with  ourselves  as  to  trade,  labor,  and  residence. 
We  have  made  no  conditions  looking  to  the  limitation  of  the  in- 
coming tide ;  .white  or  dusky,  rich  or  poor,  bad  or  good,  to  all 
the  gate  has  stood  open ;  but  now  we  are  confronted  with  an 
immigration  from  Asia,  differing  in  some  respects  from  that 
which  has  come  from  Europe.  What  shall  be  done  to  meet 
this  new  phase  of  the  immigration  question  ?  Shall  we  change 
our  time-honored  policy  and  plant  exclusion  on  our  western 
shore  ?  Is  this  immigration  so  threatening  that  we  must  now 
put  limitations  upon  it  and  render  it  less  free  than  in  the 
past  ?    Or  is  no  action  necessary  ? 

Were  there  no  turbulent  European  element  on  our  hands, 
holding  the  ballot,  swayed  by  crafty  priests  and  designing  dem- 
agogues, perhaps  there  would  be  no  Chinese  question  to  vex 
us  ;  but,  unfortunately,  we  cannot  eliminate  this  disturbing  ele- 
ment from  our  national  life,  and  must,  therefore,  try  to  adjust 
the  case  in  some  other  way.  Is  the  expulsion  of  the  Chinese, 
or  a  limited  immigration,  the  solution  of  the  problem  ?  Allow 
ing  that  there  are  some  grave  objections  to  them,  and  that  indi- 
rectly they  cause  some  disturbance  in  our  political  life,  will  the 
proposed  remedy  place  us  in  any  better  position  than  we  now 
occupy  ?  Yiewed  in  the  light  of  our  principles  relating  to  hu- 
man rights  and  justice,  the  plan  would  seem  to  involve  too 
many  contradictions  and  too  radical  a  change  of  policy  to  be 
acceptable  to  the  American  people  as  a  whole.  Yet  the  nation 
must  protect  its  own  life  and  secure  the  best  good  of  its  citi- 
zens.   It  woxdd  seem  from  past  experience  that  to  have  in  our 


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1881.]  Ov/r  Pacific  Coast  Problem.  48 

midst  so  large  a  foreign  element  not  possessed  of  the  rights  of 
citizenship  must  often,  owing  to  the  peculiarities  of  our  popu- 
lar government,  be  the  occasion  of  grave  disturbances  and 
sometimes  subject  our  system  to  a  too  heavy  strain.  The  ge- 
nius of  our  free  institutions  demands  that  we  should  make  no 
distinction  on  account  of  race  or  nationality  alone ;  that  we 
should  exclude  no  one  on  account  of  his  color ;  and  that  we 
should  extend  to  all  who  are  willing  to  conform  to  American 
ideas  and  modes  of  life  the  same  rights  of  residence  and  citi- 
zenship. 

True,  we  may  by  treaty  stipulations  with  China  secure  a 
limitation  of  Chinese  immigration,  provided  we  submit  to 
the  loss  of  some  of  our  privileges  in  the  Chinese  Empire ;  but 
that  can  do  little  else  than  delay  the  final  issue.  Some  time  in 
the  future  we  shall  be  compelled  to  face  the  question  fairly, 
and  settle  the  matter  forever  as  to  whether  the  Chinaman  is  a 
man  on  American  soil  or  not.  The  readiest,  safest,  and  most 
consistent  solution  of  the  case,  is  to  place  all  foreigners  on  a 
common  footing,  make  all  eligible  to  citizenship  on  certain  con- 
ditions, or  else  none  at  all,  and  then,  if  necessary  to  limit  immi- 
gration,  let  the  restrictions  apply  to  Europeans  and  Asiatics 
alike.  Let  the  most  deserving  come,  no  matter  what  the  shade 
of  his  skin  or  shape  of  his  eye.  Once  make  the  Chinese  gen- 
erally eligible  to  citizenship,  no  matter  on  how  severe  educa- 
tional and  moral  conditions,  and  the  question  is  solved.  The 
objections  will  speedily  vanish  ;  the  demagogues  and  newspa- 
pers cease  to  howl  against  them  ;  and  the  ignorant  mob  will  no 
more  dare  attempt  their  injury  than  they  now  do  that  of  the 
colored  citizen  in  the  more  civilized  parts  of  our  country. 

REorPBoorrr  Relations. 
Our  relations  of  friendship  and  commerce  with  China  are  so 
intimately  connected  with  this  question  that  we  cannot  disre- 
gard them.  The  Burlingame  Treaty  was  made  at  our  instance 
and  for  our  benefit.  Through  it  we  are  allowed  in  China  all 
privileges  granted  the  "  most  favored  nations."  We  cannot, 
therefore,  legislate  or  take  adverse  action  in  the  matter,  and 
not  be  confronted  by  certain  unpleasant  consequences.  We 
shall  not  be  sustained  in  laying  upon  China  conditions  favora- 
ble only  to  ourselves;  nor  can  we  make  conditions  for  others 


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44  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review,  [January, 

to  which  we  ourselves  are  not  willing  to  submit.  If  an  Amer- 
ican has  the  right  to  go  where  he  pleases,  stay  as  long  as  he 
pleases,  earn  all  he  can,  and  dispose  of  it  as  he  may  choose,  so 
has  any  other  man  the  same  right.  If  he  has  the  right  to  lay 
limitations  around  the  Chinaman  in  his  coming  and  the  use  of 
his  earnings  in  this  country,  the  latter  has  an  equal  right  to  re- 
taliate after  his  own  fashion. 

We  now  have  a  commerce  with  China  yearly  aggregating 
over  $24,000,000,  carried  on  chiefly  by  our  own  vessels,  and 
handled  largely  by  our  own  merchants.  With  such  a  market 
and  ever-increasing  demands  for  our  products  of  all  descrip- 
tions, it  would  seem  eminently  proper  that  we  should  foster  the 
trade  and  do  nothing  to  turn  it  into  other  channels.  England 
is  anxious  to  monopolize  the  trade  with  China  and  Japan,  and 
would  only  be  too  glad  to  sustain  China  in  any  discrimination 
she  might  make  against  American  merchants  and  American 
products,  by  way  of  retaliation  for  discriminations  against  her 
people  in  this  country.  China  is  not  the  pxmy,  helpless  power 
we  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  her ;  but,  with  the  throb- 
bings  of  a  new  civilization  and  a  new  life,  is  awaking  like  a  gi- 
ant from  long  slumber,  and  will  ere  long  be  able  to  compel  re- 
spect from  the  nations  of  the  earth.  America  and  China — the 
oldest  and  the  youngest  of  great  nations — ought  ever  to  be  on 
the  most  friendly  terms,  ought  ever  to  deal  justly  by  each  oth- 
er, and  ought  to  mutually  aid  each  other  in  the  development 
of  their  respective  destinies,  and  the  advancement  of  humanity  I 

Finally,  we  have  these  conclusions  to  act  upon : 

1.  To  exclude  or  discriminate  against  any  people  simply  on 
the  ground  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition,  is  a  grave  de- 
parture from  American  first  principles,  and  an  attempt  to 
wrest  from  others  rights  we  insist  on  for  ourselves. 

2.  It  is  too  late  in  the  history  of  the  world  for  liberal  Amer- 
ica to  adopt  the  cast-off,  selfish,  and  narrow  policy  of  China.  It 
is  better  to  aid  or  compel  China  to  adopt  and  carry  out  our  own. 

3.  While  we  may  justly  protect  home  industries,  and  allow 
to  citizens  of  all  races  superior  privileges,  we  cannot  repress 
free  competition  of  the  races,  nor  deprive  men  of  the  inaliena- 
ble right  of  hii'ing  and  being  hired  in  an  open  labor  market. 

4.  The  solution  of  the  question  is  in  placing  all  foreigners 
on  the  same  basis,  giving  to  all  the  rights  of  citizenship  only 


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1881.]  Our  Pacific  Coast  Problem.  45 

on  certain  high  conditions  of  long  residence,  education,  and 
sworn  allegiance,  and  discriminating,  if  at  all,  not  in  favor  of 
one  race  above  another,  but  in  favor  of  citizens  of  all  the  races  1 
5.  While  it  seems  almost  certain  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
will  ever  predominate  on  American  soil.  Providence,  with  the 
finger  of  destiny,  points  no  less  distinctly  to  this  land  as  the  one 
sacred  spot  where  all  the  races  of  men  shall  meet  and  dwell  in 
full  fellowship,  and  where  at  last  the  unity  and  brotherhood  of 
humanity  shall  find  their  noblest  earthly  illustration. 


Art.  HL— PAN-PRESBYTERIAN  COUNCm* 

"The  Alliance  of  the  Reformed  Churches  throughout  the 
world  holding  the  Presbyterian  System,"  is  the  official  name  of 
the  General  Triennial  CouncU  recently  in  session  in  the  city 
of  Philadelphia.  This  Pan-Presbyterian  body  originated  in  the 
action  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  (North)  in  1873,  in  appointing  Drs.  Crosby 
and  Hatfield,  of  New  York,  and  Dr.  M'Cosh,  of  Princeton,  a 
committee  "  to  correspond  with  sister  Churches  holding  the 
Westminster  standards,  with  the  view  of  bringing  about  an 
ecumenical  council  to  consider  subjects  of  common  interest  to 
all,  and  especially  to  promote  harmony  of  action  in  the  mission 
fields,  at  home  and  abroad." 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  very  inception  of  the  move- 
ment "  harmony  of  action "  in  the  prosecution  of  missionary 
work  was  made  the  special  prominent  object.  A  preliminary 
conference  was  called  in  London,  in  1875.  Of  one  hundred 
and  one  delegates  commissioned  to  attend  that  conference  only 
sixty-four  were  present ;  but  they  represented  more  than  a  score 
of  different  Presbyterian  bodies  in  Great  Britain  and  her  col- 
onies, on  the  Continent,  and  in  the  United  States.     It  was  an 

•  It  should  be  said  that  this  article  was  prepared  in  advance  of  the  oflBcial  publi- 
cation of  the  proceedings  of  the  Council,  reliance  being  chiefly  placed  on  the  re- 
ports of  "  The  Philadelphia  Press  " — reports  which  were  frequently  commended  by 
members  of  the  Council  for  their  accuracy  and  fullness.  The  official  record  may 
Bhow  some  slight  changes  in  paragraphs  herein  quoted,  but  these  can  hardly  be 
considerable  or  important,  and  the  general  drift  of  the  Council,  with  respect  to  the 
topics  discussed  in  this  article,  was  unmistakable  in  its  character. 


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46  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [January, 

important  meeting,  characterized  by  great  warmth  of  brotherly 
feeling,  and  by  the  expression  of  a  concurrent  judgment  that  a 
closer  alliance  and  a  more  manifest  fellowship  of  the  Churches 
holding  the  Presbyterian  system  was  demanded.  The  objects 
and  methods  of  the  proposed  Council  were  defined  as  follows : 

The  Council  shall  seek  to  guide  and  stimulate  public  senti- 
ment, by  papers  read,  by  addresses  delivered  and  published,  by 
the  circulation  of  information  respecting  the  allied  Churches  and 
their  missions,  by  the  exposition  of  scriptural  principles,  and  by 
defenses  of  the  truth,  by  communicating  the  minutes  of  its  pro- 
ceedings to  the  supreme  courts  of  the  Churches  forming  the  Alli- 
ance, and  by  such  other  action  as  is  in  accordance  with  its  con- 
stitution and  obiects. 

The  Coimcil  shall  consider  questions  of  general  interest  to  the 
Presbyterian  community  ;  it  shall  seek  the  welfare  of  Churches, 
especially  such  as  are  weak  or  persecuted  ;  it  shall  gather  and 
disseminate  information  concerning  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
throughout  the  world ;  it  shall  commend  the  Presbyterian  system 
as  scriptural,  and  as  combining  simplicity,  efficiency,  and  adapta- 
tion to  all  times  and  conditions  ;  it  shall  also  entertain  all  sub- 
jects directly  connected  with  the  work  of  evangelization — such 
as  the  relation  of  the  Christian  Church  to  the  evangelization  of 
the  world,  the  distribution  of  mission  work,  the  combination  of 
church  energies,  especially  in  reference  to  great  cities  and  desti- 
tute districts,  the  training  of  ministers,  the  use  of  the  press,  col- 
portage,  the  religious  instruction  of  the  young,  the  sanctification 
of  the  Sabbath,  systematic  beneficence,  the  suppression  of  intem- 
perance and  other  prevailing  vices,  and  the  best  methods  of  op- 
posing infidelity  and  Romanism. 

The  constitution  adopted  recognized  the  principle  of  equal- 
ity of  representation  from  the  clergy  and  laity,  declaring  that 
the  delegates,  "  as  far  as  practicable,"  should  "  consist  of  an 
equal  number  of  ministers  and  elders ; "  and  it  also  inhibited 
the  Council  from  interfering  "  with  the  existing  creed  or  con- 
stitution of  any  Church  in  the  Alliance,  or  with  its  internal  or- 
der or  external  relations." 

The  first  Pan-Presbyterian  Convocation,  for  which  provision 
was  thus  made,  assembled  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  in  July,  1877. 
It  was  a  large,  able,  and  influential  body,  and  fairly  representative 
of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  the  Presbyterian  order  in  different 
parts  of  the  world.  This  Council,  though  not  satisfactory  in  every 
particular,  did  much  to  promote  deeper  fellowship  among  the 
Churches,  to  advance  the  cause  of  foreign  missions,  and  to  bring 


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1881.1  Pa/r^Preshytericm  C(mncil.  47 

more  prominently  before  the  mind  of  tlie  Oliristian  world  the 
necessity  and  practicability  of  a  confederation  of  Protestantism, 
especially  in  and  throngh  its  several  distinctive  denominations, 
for  the  more  snccessfol  performance  of  evangelistic  work,  and 
for  a  stronger  demonstration  of  the  essential  nnity  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  common  headship  of  all  believers  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  The  published  volume  of  its  proceedings 
is  an  interesting  and  suggestive  document.  Provision  was 
made  for  a  triennial  meeting  of  the  Council,  and  the  Convoca- 
tion in  Philadelphia  in  the  last  days  of  September  and  the  first 
days  of  October,  1880,  was  the  result  of  that  arrangement.  It 
is  this  second  Pan-Presbyterian  Assembly  which  specially  in- 
terests us  at  the  present  time. 

The  roll  of  the  Coimcil  showed  the  attendance  of  delegates 
from  Austria,  Belgium,  France,  Italy,  Spain,  Switzerland,  En- 
gland, Ireland,  Scotland,  Wales,  United  States,  Canada  and 
other  British  colonies  and  dependencies,  Africa,  India,  Ceylon, 
and  from  Victoria,  New  South  Wales,  New  Hebrides,  South 
Australia,  and  Tasmania,  in  Australasia.  It  was,  therefore,  an 
Ecumenical  Conference,  or  Pan-Council,  representing,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  all  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
in  all  parts  of  the  habitable  world.  The  names  of  forty  men  of 
distinguished  merit  appeared  on  the  programme  who  had  not 
been  selected  by  their  respective  Churches  as  delegates.  Alto- 
gether it  was  a  body  of  men  of  marked  ability,  ripe  culture, 
distinguished  scholarship  and  unquestioned  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  Christ,  especially  as  represented  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church. 

An  order  of  exercises  had  been  carefully  prepared  for  each 
day  of  the  session,  and  themes  for  essays  and  reports  assigned 
to  certain  leading  members  of  the  Council.  Some  of  these 
were  distinctively  denominational,  such  as,  Keport  of  Statistics, 
Principles  of  Presbyterianism,  Ruling  Elders,  Creeds  and  Con- 
fessions, Presbyterianism  and  Education,  Presbyterianism  in  re- 
lation to  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty,  Presbyterian  Catholicity, 
the  Theology  of  the  Reformed  Church,  with  special  reference 
to  the  Westminster  Standards,  and  Desiderata  of  Presbyterian 
History.  The  whole  Christian  world,  however,  is  deeply  con- 
cerned in  the  relation  which  the  great  Presbyterian  body  holds 
to  some,  at  least,  of  these  subjects.    Many  of  the  themes  dis- 


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48  Methodist  QuaHerly  Beview.  [January, 

cussed  were  of  the  widest  Christian  interest,  and  of  the  highest 
importance,  as.  The  Ceremonial  and  the  Moral  in  Worship,  In- 
spiration and  Interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Rela- 
tions of  Science  and  Theology,  Agnosticism,  the  Vicarious 
Sacrifice  of  Christ,  Future  Eetribution,  and  the  Conflict  be- 
tween Faith  and  Rationalism.  Of  a  large  number  of  the  top- 
ics considered,  it  may  be  said  that  they  were  not  only  broader 
than  the  domain  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  also  that  they 
were  of  such  a  practical  character  as  to  interest  patriots,  philan- 
thropists and  Christians  in  all  lands ;  such  as,  for  instance,  Re- 
ligion in  Secular  Affairs,  Family  Religion  and  Training  oi  the 
Young,  the  Application  of  the  Gospel  to  Employers  and  Em- 
ployed, Christianity  the  Friend  of  the  Working  Classes,  How 
to  deal  with  Young  Men  trained  in  Science  in  this  Age  of  Un- 
settled Opinion,  Religion  and  Politics,  Church  Extension  in 
large  cities  and  in  sparsely  settled  regions,  Sabbath-schools,  the 
Children  in  the  Sabbath  Service,  Temperance,  Popular  Amuse- 
ments, Observance  of  the  Sabbath,  Co-operation  among  Mis- 
sionaries, Training  of  Candidates  for  the  Ministry,  Systematic 
Beneficence,  Regeneration,  and  Revivals  of  Religion.  These 
are  subjects  in  wliich  all  men,  countries,  and  Churches  are  inter- 
ested and  concerned.  They  touch  the  foundations  of  social 
order,  of  public  law,  of  personal  happiness,  of  the  progress  of 
the  race,  and  of  the  civilization  and  conversion  of  the  world. 
Their  consideration  by  such  a  body  of  intelligent,  cultured,  and 
devout  men  as  composed  the  recent  Pan-Presbyterian  Council, 
is  an  event  of  more  than  ordinary  importance,  and  likely  to 
exert  a  wide  influence  on  the  future  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 

The  able  and  eloquent  opening  sermon  delivered  before  the 
Council  by  Rev.  William  M.  Paxton,  D.D.,  is  remarkable  from 
the  fact  that  it  presents  six  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
great  family  of  Presbyterian  Churches,  not  one  of  which  differ- 
entiates the  Presbyterian  body  from  other  orthodox  Protestant 
Churches.  Change  the  name  of  the  denomination,  and  select 
a  different  class  of  historic  illustrations,  and  the  sermon  might 
as  well  have  been  preached  before  a  Metliodist  Ecumenical 
Conference  as  before  a  Presbyterian  Pan-Council.  Certainly 
Methodism  claims  to  be  loyal  to  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
bear  witness  to  the  truth,  to  be  catholic  in  spirit  and  purpose, 


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1881.]  Pom-Presbyterian  Council,  49 

to  stand  for  civil  liberty,  to  be  devoted  to  the  work  of  Christian 
education,  and  to  be  missionary  in  its  character  and  life.  The 
facts  and  incidents  of  Methodist  history  furnish  powerful  argu- 
ments and  elucidations  to  establish  and  to  illumine  every  one 
of  these  propositions — some  of  them  much  more  impressive 
than  any  which  were  employed  by  Dr.  Paxton.  This  only 
shows  that  the  greatest  and  best  things  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  and  of  the  Methodist  Church  are  those  things  which 
are  held  in  conmion  by  all  denominations  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity. It  illustrates  what  Principal  M'Vicar,  of  Montreal, 
said  before  the  Council,  that,  "  generally  speaking,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  weakest  part  of  a  man's  creed  is  that  which  he 
holds  alone,  and  the  strongest  part  is  that  which  he  holds  in 
common  with  all  true  servants  of  the  Lord."  According  to 
^the  noble  sentiment  of  the  great  D'Aubigne,  "That  which 
gives  life  to  Churches  is  not  their  diversities  of  government  or 
worship  or  of  discipline,  but  that  *  most  holy  faith '  which  is 
conamon  to  them  all." 

The  great  value  of  an  ecumenical  council  is  not,  it  seems  to 
us,  in  the  able  papers  read ;  in  the  exhaustive  reports  made ; 
in  the  brilliant  and  powerful  array  of  talent  and  influence ;  in 
setting  up  new  standards  of  orthodoxy,  or  in  showing  a  pertina- 
cious adherence  to  old  standards,  nor  in  any  thing  of  this  sort, 
however  valuable  such  results  may  be  in  themselves  considered. 
Jesus  said,  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  dis- 
ciples, if  ye  have  love  one  to  another."  Christianity  demon- 
strated by  an  exhibition  of  spiritual  brotherhood,  by  a  full  tide 
of  holy  love  which  will  submerge  all  the  rocks  and  shoals  of 
difference,  and  showed  by  a  practical  and  earnest  co-operation 
in  doing  the  Master's  work,  irrespective  of  denominational 
distinctions  or  doctrinal  divergences  —  this  is  the  great  need 
of  the  Church,  to-day,  in  order  to  compact  its  forces,  to  econo- 
mize its  expenditures,  to  harmonize  its  life  with  that  of  its  glo- 
rious Head,  and  to  make  it  victorious  over  the  empire  of  dark- 
ness and  death.  Disbelief,  in  every  form,  is  more  impressed 
and  shaken  by  exhibitions  of  Christian  love  than  by  any  other 
gospel  agency.  It  is  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  dwelling  in  the 
hearts,  shining  in  the  faces,  speaking  in  the  words,  and  em- 
bodying itself  in  the  deeds  of  Christian  men,  which,  more  pow- 
erfully than  any  other  fact  or  influence,  demonstrates  Chris- 


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60  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

tdanity  to  the  world.  Love,  and  not  orthodoxy,  is  the  test  of 
discipleship.  "  If  ye  have  love  one  to  another  " — not  if  ye  all 
agree  as  to  doctrinal  symbols — ^then  "  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  my  disciples."  Right  thinking  is  important,  and  or- 
thodoxy is  not  a  thing  to  be  disdained ;  but  denominational  dif- 
ferences are  not  usually  in  regard  to  the  most  important  mat- 
ters. The  imperishable  things  of  inestimable  value  are  those 
in  respect  to  which  the  great  majority  of  Christians  substan- 
tially agree.  "Keep  your  smaller  differences,"  said  Calvin, 
when  addressing  the  Lutheran  Churches.  "Let  us  have  no 
discord  on  that  account,  but  let  us  march  in  one  solid  column, 
under  the  banners  of  the  Captain  of  our  salvation,  and  with 
undivided  counsels  form  the  legions  of  the  cross  upon  the  ter- 
ritories of  darkness  and  of  death."  "  I  should  not  hesitate  to 
cross  ten  seas,  if  by  this  means  holy  conmiunion  might  pre- 
vail among  the  members  of  Christ." 

It  is  proper  to  judge  a  great  convocation  of  the  Church  by 
this  standard.  Did  the  Pan-Presbyterian  Council  keep  its 
smaller  differences  down  ?  Did  it  show  that  it  judged  Chris- 
tian brotherhood  to  be  of  more  value  than  exact  conformity  to 
the  standards  ?  Did  it  make  practical  provision  for  joint  and 
co-operative  labors  in  the  mission  fields  of  the  Church  %  These 
are  topics  which  require  a  candid  consideration. 

The  fact  stares  us  in  the  face  that  this  Council,  as  the  pre- 
vious one,  in  Edinburgh,  met  and  parted  without  uniting,  as  a 
hodyy  in  the  administration  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  It  seems  that  the  Presbyterians  who  sing  the  psalms 
of  David,  and  the  Presbyterians  who  not  only  sing  psalms  but 
also  hymns,  which  devout  and  spiritual,  though  uninspired, 
men  have  written,  cannot  agree,  when  set  up  as  a  spectacle  be- 
fore the  world,  to  hold  a  joint  communion  service  1 

The  following  comment  of  a  secular  journal  is  what  might 
have  been  anticipated : 

The  failure  of  tte  Council  as  a  body  to  commune  together  is 
a  matter  of  Just  lamentation  to  all  who  desire  the  Church's  uni- 
ty. It  is  vam  to  allege  in  justification  of  this  failure  that  the 
various  branches  of  the  Church  represented  differ  in  regard  to 
some  doctrines  and  dogmas.  The  tmie  is  at  hand  when  what  is 
needed  as  the  great  deed  befitting  the  manhood  of  the  Church  is 
that  its  sections,  especially  those  bearing  the  same  generic  name, 
should  resolve  on  union,  notwithstanding  differences — that  they 


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1881.]  PamrPresbyterian  Cotmcil.  51 

should  know  how  to  debate  these  differences  freely  and  earnest- 
ly, and  yet  at  the  same  time  be  one  in  outward  act  as  they  are 
really  one  in  inward  spirit. 

Do  not  the  various  delegates  on  the  floor  of  the  Alliance  rec- 
ognize their  brethren  and  the  constituencies  they  represent  as 
sustaining  a  Christian  relation  and  possessing  a  Christian  charac- 
ter ?  If  they  do  not,  why  do  they  fraternize  with  them  at  all  ? 
But  if  they  do,  why  object  to  such  close  fellowship  with  them  as 
would  bring  them  together  around  the  table  of  a  conmion  Re- 
deemer ?  Why  unite  in  common  prayer,  preachinff  and  praise, 
and  hold  back  from  a  joint  participation  of  the  ordinance  with- 
out which  all  pretense  of  union  is  a  mere  sham  ? 

How  deeply  seated  are  these  psalm-singing  differences  is  evi- 
denced by  one  little  circumstance.  When  the  letter  of  greet- 
ing to  the  various  Churches  represented  in  the  Council  was 
read  and  approved — a  letter  which  congratulates  the  Church 
on  the  flourishing  state  of  religion — Dr.  Schaff,  after  having, 
taken  the  precaution  to  consult  a  member  of  the  proper  com- 
mittee, proposed  to  sing  the  doxology,  "Praise  God,  from  whom 
all  blessings  flow,"  and,  pitching  the  tune,  led  the  Council  in  a 
hearty  singing  of  this  strain  of  lofty  praise.  But  Prof.  D.  R. 
Kerr,  of  Pittsburgh,  who  was  in  the  chair,  decided  that  the 
act  "  was  an  intrusion  and  an  incivility,"  and  Dr.  Schaff  found 
it  necessary  to  explain  and  apologize.  It  is  to  be  presumed 
that  every  man  who  had  been  guilty  of  the  grave  offense  of 
ainging  God's  praises  in  the  language  of  Bishop  Ken  rather 
than  in  the  words  of  King  David  laid  his  mouth  in  the  dust. 
Did  the  Council,  in  the^e  matters,  follow  the  direction  of  Christ 
and  the  advice  of  Calvin  ?  "  It  is  high  time,"  some  one  has 
said,  "  for  bodies  of  Christians  to  throw  overboard  their  minor 
points  of  divergence  and  come  together  in  solid  column  to  bat- 
tle with  the  enemy  which  they  all  have  to  dread,  and  for  noth- 
ing have  so  much  reason  to  dread  as  for  their  unjustifiable  di- 
visions." We  do  not  think  that  there  is  any  thing  to  "throw 
overboard  "  except  narrowness  and  bigotry.  Every  man  is  en- 
titled to  his  opinions,  but  no  man  has  a  right  to  mate  his  opin- 
ions the  test  of  Christian  brotherhood.  We  do  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  that  the  learning,  wisdom,  and  piety  of  this  Council  did 
not  accomplish  so  much  for  Christ  and  his  cause,  by  all  the  able 
papers  and  reports  which  were  presented,  as  would  have  been 
accomplished  by  a  joint  celebration  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.    The  Council  was  elevated  on  a  platform,  with 


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52  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Beview.  [January, 

the  eyes  of  the  world  fixed  on  it,  to  discover,  not  so  much  what 
it  would  do,  as  what  spirit  it  possessed.  If  its  members  had 
said,  "  We  are  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  we  are  agreed 
in  all  important  things,  we  certainly  regard  each  other  as  Chris- 
tians, and  we  can  afford  to  sink  our  minor  differences  out  of 
sight,  and,  whether  we  sing  psalms  or  hymns,  or  both,  we  will 
come  together  around  the  table  of  our  common  Lord,  and  show 
to  an  infidel  and  pagan  world  that  we  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus," 
we  believe  that  the  melting  and  glorifying  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  would  have  come  on  the  Council,  that  their  tears  of 
grateful  joy  would  have  bedewed  and  gladdened  the  waste 
places  of  Zion,  and  that  their  shouts  and  halleluiahs  would  have 
sent  their  joyful  echoes  around  the  world. 

Was  this  Pan-Presbyterian  Council  truly.catholic  in  spirit  ? 
It  professed  to  be.  Professor  Stephen  Alexander,  of  Prince- 
ton, said : 

There  is  an  apostolic  rule  of  Christian  fellowship  and  recogni- 
tion. It  is  found  in  1  Cor.  i,  2.  It  has  been  properly  quoted 
several  times  in  this  Council.  It  tells  who  we  are  to  recognize 
as  a  Christian  brother :  "  Unto  the  Clnirch  of  God,  which  is  at 
Corinth,  to  them  that  are  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus,  called  to  be 
saints,  with  all  that  in  every  place  call  upon  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord,  both  theirs  and  ours."  It  is  very  simple  and 
beautiful:  "  All  that  in  every  place  call  upon  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  Whoever  does  that,  according  to  the  apos- 
tolic rule  is  my  Christian  brother. 

Dr.  Paxton,  in  the  opening  sermon,  said : 

We  are  not  the  Catholic  Church,  but  a  part  of  the  great  Uni- 
versal Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  has  many  members,  who 
bear  many  names.  Our  name  is  Presbyterian.  As  another  has 
expressed  it,  "  Christian  is  our  name,  Presbyterian  our  surname." 
We  are  Presbvterian  Christians,  because  we  belong  to  Christ; 
Presbyterians,  because  we  beUeve  that  the  true  original  apostolic 
episcopacy  was  presbytery.  Our  principles  and  polity  and  meth- 
ods of  operation  are  all  catholic,  and  may  be  reduced  to  practice 
with  a  wonderful  facility  under  any  circumstances  and  in  any 
nationality. 

Principal  M'Vicar,  of  Montreal,  said  : 

We  hold  that  no  one  should  presume  in  his  denominational 
zeal  to  assert  that  Christ  loved  Presbyterians  or  Episcopalians  or 
Congregationalists  or  Baptists  or  Methodists  or  any  othes  body  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  rest.  The  simple  truth  is  that  he  redeemed 
the  whole  Church,  all  that  are  to  be  gathered  finally  into  glory. 


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1881J  Pan-Presbyterian  Council.  53 

Dr.  William  H.  Campbell,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  said : 

There  is  one  flock  and  one  Shepherd,  but  there  are  many  folds, 
and  we  in  our  Presbyterian  fold  must  exercise  love  and  brother- 
ly kindness  to  every  one  that  bears  the  image  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Closer  catholic  unity  is  not  going  to  diminish  but  increase  our 
love  and  labor,  our  prayers  and  faith,  and  gifts  for  the  Bible  Soci- 
ety and  the  Tract  Society  and  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  and  every 
other  form  of  good  work  which  calls  for  the  unity  of  God's  people. 

Rev.  A.  F.  Buscarlet,  of  Lausanne,  Switzerland,  said : 

Where  Christ,  as  the  head  of  his  Church,  is  firmly  acknowl- 
edged, there  the  different  members  can  harmoniously  work  to- 
gether, and  soon  sympathize  most  truly  with  each  other. 

There  were  many  other  beautiful  and  forcible  expressions  of 
similar  import,  which  we  have  not  space  to  quote,  but  we  put 
these  on  record  that  we  may  not  be  accused  of  misrepresenting 
the  Council  in  the  observations  which  we  now  have  to  offer. 
These  prof  essions  of  catholicity  were  put  to  the  test  in  two  nota- 
ble instances.  We  refer  to  the  case  of  the  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterians, and  to  the  proposal  to  send  a  deputation  to  the  Meth- 
odist Ecumenical  Conference. 

Delegates  from  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  sought 
admission  into  the  Council,  and  were  refused.  The  Business 
Committee  recommended  the  adoption  of  the  following  minute: 

In  the  judgment  of  the  Council  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Alliance  by  Churches  should  precede  the  admission 
of  delegates,  and  in  the  absence  of  evidence  that  the  Constitution 
has  been  adopted  by  either  of  these  Churches,  the  delegates  can- 
not be  received. 

Dr.  Schaff  asked  if  these  delegates  had  refused  to  accept  the 
Constitution.  He  also  asked,  "  Has  a  single  Reformed  or  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Europe,  or  Africa,  or  Asia,  formally  or  in- 
formally, adopted  the  Constitution?"  Hon.  I.  D.  Jones,  of 
Baltimore,  made  the  very  sensible  suggestion  that  the  sending 
of  delegates  to  the  Council  was  in  itself  an  act  of  subscription 
to  the  Constitution,  the  provisions  of  which  had  been  pub- 
lished to  the  Church  for  the  last  three  years.  Henry  Day, 
Esq.,  of  New  York  City,  said  : 

I  believe,  brethren,  that  this  is  an  Ecumenical  Council — that 
we  ought  to  bring  in  every  body  of  the  Presbyterian  order  and. 
PouBTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXHI.— 4 


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54  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

polity  that  comes  anywhere  near  us.  I  believe  the  Constitution 
was  intended  to  be  drawn  so  that  it  would  let  in  any  one  in  all 
these  great  assemblies  that  comes  really  near  or  is  somewhat 
joined  with  us.  Now  when  application  is  made  for  admittance 
by  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians,  who,  you  will  remember,  repre- 
sent about  a  half  million  of  the  people  of  this  country,  they  are 
refused.  They  are  Presbyterians  in  polity  and  they  are  Presby- 
terians in  doctrine.  I  think  certainly  they  come  as  near  the  re- 
quired standard  as  the  Reformed  Churches. 

But  all  appeals  for  catholicity  and  liberal  judgment  were  in 
vain.  The  Cumberland  Presbyterians  were  kept  out.  The 
controlling  reason  was  expressed  by  Dr.  Watts,  who  said  that 
the  Church  applying  must  have  a  creed  in  harmony  with  the 
concensus  of  the  Reformed  Confessions.  Wherein  do  the  Cum- 
berland Presbyterians  differ  from  the  standards  ?  They  have 
made  slight  changes  in  the  Creed,  in  the  sections  on  "  Free- 
Will,"  and  on  "  Effectual  Calling."  Instead  of  the  words  "  elect 
infants,"  they  employ  the  words  "  aU  infants."  They  affirm, 
not  that  the  saints  cannot  fall  away,  but  that  they  wUl  not. 
"  Immutability  of  the  decree  of  election,"  as  one  of  the  reasons 
for  "  Final  Perseverance,"  they  have  omitted.  For  the  chap- 
ter on  Decrees  in  the  Westminster  Confession,  they  have  sub- 
stituted the  following : 

1 .  God  did,  by  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his  own  will, 
determine  to  act,  or  to  bring  to  pass,  what  should  be  for  his 
own  glory. 

2.  God  has  not  decreed  any  thing  concerning  his  creature  man, 
contrary  to  his  revealed  will  or  written  word,  which  declares  his 
sovereignty  over  all  his  creatures,  the  ample  provision  he  has 
made  for  their  salvation,  his  determination  to  punish  the  finally 
impenitent  with  everlasting  destruction,  and  to  save  the  true  be- 
liever with  an  everlasting  salvation. 

It  is  claimed  that  there  are  other  branches  of  the  Church, 
as,  for  instance,  the  United  Presbyterians  of  Scotland,  which 
have  made  quite  as  serious  changes  in  the  subscription  to  the 
Confession,  that  the  Westminster  articles  are  not  co-extensive 
with  Presbyterianism,  and  that  a  more  liberal  interpretation  of 
the  Confession  must  be  allowed,  or  other  bodies,  as  well  as  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterians,  will  be  excluded  from  the  General 
Council  of  the  Church. 

We  have  still  another  illustration  of  the  catholicity  of  this 
^ecumenical  assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.      On  the 


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1881.]  Pcm-Presbytericm  Council.  55 

third  day  of  the  session  Eev.  Henry  A.  Nelson,  D.D.,  of 
Geneva,  N.  Y.,  a  former  Professor  in  Lane  Theological  Sem- 
inary, and  a  man  of  deserved  repute,  in  his  denomination  and 
beyond  it,  for  learning  and  piety,  offered  the  following  reso- 
lution : 

WhereaSy  We  are  informed  that  our  Christian  brethren  of  the 
Methodist  Churches  are  to  hold  an  Ecumenical  Council  in  Lon- 
don in  the  year  1881: 

Resolved^  That  two  ministers  and  two  ruling  elders  be  ap- 
pointed to  convey  to  that  body  the  fraternal  salutations  of  this 
Alliance,  with  the  assurance  of  our  hearty  fellowship  with  them 
in  the  cause  of  our  Redeemer  and  Lord. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Breed,  of  Philadelphia,  the  resolution  was 
referred  to  the  Business  Committee.  Eev.  S.  I.  Prime,  D.D., 
of  New  York  City,  made  the  report  of  the  Committee,  recom- 
mending the  adoption  of  the  following  minute :  "  That  inas- 
much as  the  Constitution  of  our  Alliance  makes  no  provision  for 
reciprocating  such  correspondence,  and  we  are  not  apprised  of 
the  wishes  of  other  Councils  in  that  regard,  it  is  not  practicable 
at  present  to  make  such  appointments  as  are  contemplated  in 
the  resolutions." 

Dr.  Nelson  stated  that  he  had  satisfactory,  though,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  of  necessity  unofficial,  assurances  that  such 
action  as  his  resolution  proposed  would  be  acceptable  to  the 
Methodist  Churches. 

Principal  Cairns,  of  Scotland ;  Hon.  W.  E.  Dodge,  of  New 
York  ;  lion.  Isiiac  D.  Jones,  of  Baltimore  ;  and  Rev.  William 
Reid,  of  Toronto,  spoke  at  length,  expressing  warm  commendar 
tion  of  the  idea  of  fraternizing  with  sister  Churches.  The 
whole  matter  was  then  sent  back  to  the  Business  Committee, 
together  with  a  preamble  to  the  resolution  offered  by  Dr. 
Bronson,  recognizing  the  "  earnest  zeal  and  faithful  works  of 
the  Methodist  Church  in  all  Christian  lands."  In  a  sub- 
sequent report,  submitted  by  Dr.  Calderwood,  it  was  recom- 
mended that  a  letter  of  friendly  greeting  and  good  wishes 
should  be  sent  from  this  Council  by  the  clerk  indicating  our 
desire  for  the  success  of  that  meeting.  The  recommendation 
was  agreed  to. 

The  two  reasons  given  for  the  adverse  report  on  Dr.  Nelson's 
resolution  are  neither  of  them  worthy  of  respect.    The  first 


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66  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [January, 

reason  presented  is,  "  The  Constitution  of  our  Alliance  makes 
no  provision  for  reciprocrating  such  correspondence."  Well, 
suppose  it  does  not.  Does  it  prohibit  such  correspondence? 
Is  not  that  precisely  one  of  the  things  which  may  be  left  to  the 
sober  judgment  and  fraternal  impulse  of  the  Council  itself  ? 
But  this  is  not,  by  any  means,  the  whole  strength  of  the 
case.  The  preamble  to  the  Constitution — the  instrument  under 
which  the  committee  takes  refuge — contains  these  memorable 
words : 

In  forming  this  Alliance  the  Presbyterian  Churches  do  not 
mean  to  change  their  fraternal  relations  with  other  Churches; 
but  will  be  ready,  as  heretofore,  to  join  with  them  in  Christian 
fellowship  and  in  advancing  the  cause  of  the  Redeemer,  on  the 
general  principle  maintained  and  taught  in  the  Reformed  Con- 
fession— that  the  Church  of  God  on  earth,  though  composed  of 
many  members,  is  one  body  in  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
of  which  body  Christ  is  the  Supreme  Head  and  the  Scriptures 
alone  are  the  infallible  law. 

Any  one  can  see  that  the  conclusion  of  the  Committee  is  not 
in  harmony  with  this  grand,  glowing,  and  truly  catholic  dec- 
laration. 

The  other  reason  given  is  a  lack  of  knowledge  in  regard  to 
the  wishes  of  other  councils.  But  it  was  proposed  to  send  a 
deputation  to  a  council  called,  but  not  yet  convened,  and 
which  could  not  be  expected  to  declare  its  wishes  in  advance 
of  its  organization.  There  was  every  reason  to  conclude  that 
a  deputation  would  be  gratefully  received.  The  final  deter- 
mination to  send  a  fraternal  letter  is  better  than  nothing,  and 
yet  what  assurance  had  the  committee  that  a  fraternal  letter 
would  be  received  any  more  graciously  than  a  deputation  ?  On 
the  very  day  on  which  the  Council  assembled.  Professor  E.  D. 
Morris,  D.D.,  of  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  published  in  the 
New  York  "Independent"  a  communication  in  which  he  ad- 
vocated what  this  Quarterly  proposed  in  its  October  number, 
in  an  article  prepared  four  months  before  its  publication,  name- 
ly, "A  Parliament  of  Protestantism,"  to  "promote  great 
causes  by  joint  action  " — causes  too  great  to  be  confined  within 
denominational  limits,  and  requiring  the  joint  exertions  of  all 
the  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  for  their  successful  establish- 
ment ia  the  earth.  Speaking  of  the  essential  unity  of  the 
Church  of  God  on  earth,  Professor  Morris  adds : 


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1881J  PamrPreabyteriam,  Council.  57 

Will  it  not  be  a  fitting  expression  of  that  sentiment  on  the 
part  of  the  Alliance  if,  during  its  present  session,  a  suitable  dele- 
gation should  be  chosen  to  represent  in  the  proposed  Conference 
the  confederated  Presbyterianism  of  the  world,  and  to  convey  to 
those  there  assembled  the  assurance  of  fraternal  regard  ?  Such 
an  act  would  not  only  be  in  itself  a  graceful  and  brotherly  thing, 
but  would  also  become  a  conspicuous  attestation  before  all  men 
of  the  reality  and  worth  of  true  Christian  fellowship.  Such  a 
delegation  would,  doubtless,  be  most  cordially  welcomed,  and  its 
assurances  would,  beyond  question,  receive  a  cordial  and  enthu- 
siastic response.  Confederated  Methodism  would  rejoice  to  grasp, 
with  characteristic  fervor,  the  extended  hand  of  confederated 
Presbyterianism;  and  Evangelical  Protestantism  the  world  over 
would  rejoice  in  the  act. 

The  Alliance  did  not  meet  this  expectation,  and,  as  we  be- 
lieve, did  not  express  the  convictions  of  the  leading  and  best 
minds  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  especially  in  this  country. 
The  fraternal  letter  which  the  clerk  of  the  Alliance  was 
directed  to  send  to  the  Methodist  Ecumenical  Conference  will, 
doubtless,  be  kindly  received,  and  wiU  be  responded  to  in  like 
manner  and  with  hearty  interest.  Beyond  that,  of  course, 
nothing  will  be  expected  of  the  Conference.  The  world  moves 
slowly,  but  it  moves,  and  as  an  admired  Presbyterian  divine  said, 
"  Christ  is  greater  than  Council  or  Conference,"  and  a  confed- 
erated Protestantism  will  yet  stand,  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  strength  of  a  common  purpose,  against  the  assaults  of 
unbelief  and  misbelief,  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  to  Christ. 

The  interest  in  the  Pan-Presbyterian  Council  rose  to  its  cul- 
mination when  the  missionary  work  was  considered;  for  in 
respect  to  the  importance  of  this  work  the  Church  is  a  unity, 
and  in  its  accomplishment,  more  emphatically  than  anywhere 
else,  is  the  necessity  of  co-operation  clearly  seen.  The  report 
of  the  Council's  Committee  on  Missions  presented  for  considera- 
tion the  following  points : 

1.  Home  arrangement  for  the  management  of  missions. 

2.  Funds  and  modes  of  raising  them. 

8.  Means  adopted  to  awaken  missionary  zeaL 

4.  Supply  and  training  of  missionaries. 

5.  Modes  of  missionary  operation. 

6.  Relation  of  missions  to  the  home  Churches. 

7.  Mutual  relations  of  missions  abroad. 

8.  Co-operation  at  home  on  behalf  of  missions. 

9.  Glance  at  fields  still  unoccupied. 


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58  MethocUst  Qua/rterVy  Review.  [January, 

The  following  facts  were  also  noticed:  Regions  lately  in- 
accessible are  now  thrown  open  to  missionary  labors ;  facilities 
of  intercommunication  are  bringing  the  ends  of  the  earth  to- 
gether ;  the  supply  of  missionaries  has  never  failed ;  an  im- 
portant portion  of  missionary  labor,  at  home  and  abroad,  is 
done  by  Christian  women ;  native  ministers  must,  for  the  sake 
of  economy  and  efficiency,  be  trained  for  their  work  in  their 
own  lands ;  and  for  all  the  highest  aims  and  ends  of  evangel- 
ism there  must  be  associate  missionary  endeavors  in  the  for- 
eign field.  "  There  is  something  sublime  and  grand,'^  said  Dr. 
Wilson,  "  in  the  idea  that  all  the  varied  branches  of  our  vener- 
able Presbyterian  Church  should  be  found  earnestly  working, 
not  to  extend  and  perpetuate  their  own  peculiarities  of  wor- 
ship and  government,  but  to  rear  one  simple,  pure,  scriptural 
Presbyterian  Church  for  each  one  of  the  great  sections  of  the 
unevangelized  world." 

The  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  sent  a  com- 
munication to  the  Council  asking  for  a  consideration  of  the 
question  "  as  to  the  mode  in  which  missionaries  of  different 
Churches  laboring  in  the  same  or  contiguous  fields  may  be  asso- 
ciated with  each  other  so  as  most  efficiently  to  secure,  in  har- 
monious co-operation,  the  ends  contemplated  in  missionary 
work."  Dr.  Hutton,  of  Paisley,  Scotland,  referring  to  this 
communication,  argued  that,  where  mission  Presbyteries  do 
not  exist,  Presbyterian  Churches  should  act  in  conjunction 
with  Churches  of  other  evangelical  denominations  in  mission 
work  in  order  to  extend  the  sweep  of  their  co-operative  enter- 
prise. Too  often,  the  speaker  said,  different  denominations  in 
the  mission  field  were  looked  upon  as  jealous  camps.  Dr. 
Murray  Mitchell  stated  that  there  is  a  project  pending  in 
China  which  has  been  advocated  by  one  of  the  leading  Scot- 
tish missionaries,  as  well  as  by  one  of  the  Presbyterian 
missionaries,  for  a  general  Presbyterian  college  in  that  coun- 
try, and  the  same  idea  has  been  suggested  to  our  brethren 
in  India.  Rev.  Mr.  Stout,  of  Japan,  informed  the  Coun- 
cil that  they  had  one  Presbyterian  Church  in  Japan  instead 
of  three,  and  that  the  Japan  Presbyterian  Church  had  a 
native  constitution ;  that,  by  means  of  this  organization,  they 
had  been  able  to  establish  a  common  theological  school; 
and    that,   having  a    conmion   Church    and  one  theological 


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1881.]  PamrPreabyterian  CoxmcU.  69 

school,  they  were  enabled  to  present  a  common  front  to  hea- 
thenism. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  overtures  and  accounts  from  mission 
fields,  the  Council  adopted  a  report  on  ^*  Co-operating  with 
Foreign  Missions,"  recognizing  "  the  strong  increasing  desire 
among  the  Churches  in  connection  with  it  that  some  suitable 
measures  should  be  taken  to  secure,  as  far  as  practicable,  co-oper- 
ation in  the  work  of  foreign  missions ; "  aflirming  that  such  de- 
sire should  be  regarded  "  as  one  of  the  most  hopeful  signs  of 
the  future ; "  and  suggesting  to  the  Reformed  Churches  the 
importance  of  further  organizing  and  unifying  their  evangelis- 
tic labors,  "  in  the  several  fields  in  which  a  plurality  of  Pres- 
byterian missions  are  contiguously  established ; "  and  to  carry 
into  effect  these  suggestions  to  the  Churches,  the  Council  ap- 
pointed two  large  committees,  one  for  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  and  one  for  Europe  and  other  places  not  otherwise 
provided  for;  and  the  work  of  these  committees  it  defined 
as  follows:  **It  shall  be  the  duty  of  these  committees  to 
communicate  in  such  manner  as  they  may  deem  best  with  the 
Churches  assigned  to  them,  and  report  the  result  to  the  next 
Council.  Should  it  become  manifest  in  the  meantime  that 
plans  of  co-operation  to  some  extent  can  be  agreed  upon 
among  some  of  the  Churches  interested,  the  said  committees 
are  authorized  and  requested  to  give  such  aid  in  carrying  them 
into  effect  as  may  be  found  practicable." 

It  may  reasonably  be  expected  that  increased  unity,  efficiency, 
and  success  in.  all  the  mission  fields  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
will  result  from  the  wise  and  earnest  action  of  the  Triennial 
Council,  and  from  the  advice  and  practical  aid  of  its  perma- 
nent supervisional  Committee. 

There  are  several  other  important  matters  which  came  before 
the  Council,  to  which  we  had  designed  to  refer,  but  our  space 
forbids.  The  utility  and  advantage  of  such  a  general  represent- 
ative assembly  was  well  expressed  by  Dr.  Paxton  in  his  intro- 
ductory discourse.    He  said : 

The  smallest  Presbyterian  body  struggling  under  discourage- 
ment in  the  most  distant  country  must  be  made  to  feel  that  it 
does  not  stand  alone,  but  is  linked  in  effective  sympathy  with  a 
great  family  of  vigorous  Churches  who  feel  for  it  and  will 
act  with   it  in  its  time  of  need.      No  Church   must   be  per- 


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60  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Review.  [Jannarj, 

mitted  to  have  a  feeling  of  solitary  orphanage.  The  brethren 
must  take  home  from  this  family  council  the  salutations  of  the 
Churches  to  each  other,  and  such  messages  of  love  and  sympathy 
as  will  make  the  discouraged  lift  their  faces  from  the  dust,  and 
thank  God  and  take  courage.  So,  too,  the  Churches  and  breth- 
ren laboring  in  the  great  centers  and  bearing  the  burdens  of 
heavy  responsibilities  must  be  made  to  feel  that  in  this  strain 
and  struggle  they  have  the  support  of  brethren  and  Churches 
who  feel  and  work  with  them  and  for  them,  and  that  from  the 
vast  family  all  over  the  earth  prayers  are  going  up  for  their  suc- 
cess. 

Dr.  Paxton  insisted,  in  an  eloquent  strain,  that  this  Chris- 
tian unity  could  not  be  secured  by  mechanical  appliances,  by 
resolutions,  or  "  ecclesiastical  pressure,"  but  that  it  must  come 
from  within,  that  it  must  be  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
that  it  must  find  manifestation  in  a  warm  Christian  affection. 

To  the  ensuing  Methodist  Ecumenical  Conference  this  Pan- 
Presbyterian  Council  will  be  both  a  beacon  and  an  example. 
It  furnishes  both  warning  and  instruction.  It  is  a  chart  which 
reveals  at  once  the  shoals  and  the  deep-sea  soundings.  It  will 
be  inexcusable  to  repeat  its  errors ;  it  will  be  6tui)idity  or  big- 
otry not  to  discern  the  noble  pattern  furnished,  and  not  to 
profit  by  its  consideration.  The  Conference  can  afford  to  be 
less  learned,  metaphysical,  and  elaborate,  but  it  cannot  afford  to 
be  less  earnest,  spiritual,  and  catholic.  It  will  be  advisable  to 
give  more  time  to  religious  exercises,  to  the  narration  of  per- 
sonal experience  in  the  things  of  God,  and  to  services  of  con- 
secration, prayer,  and  praise.  Let  the  Holy  Eucharist  be  duly 
administered,  and  the  doxology  be  frequently  sung.  The  Con- 
ference will  not  meet  to  magnify  Methodism,  but  Christ,  and 
to  devise  better  methods  of  doing  his  work  in  all  the  earth. 
That  it  may  be  successful  in  its  great  object,  let  the  whole 
Church  offer  constant  prayer  to  Almighty  God. 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  cmd  Zoroastricmism.  61 

Art.  IV.— ZOROASTER  AND  ZOROASTRIANISM. 

The  Bdiffion  of  the  ParsU.    By  Mabtin  Hauo,  Ph.D.    Boston.     1878. 

The  religion  of  Zoroaster  is  among  the  oldest  of  the  religions 
of  the  world,  and  one  of  the  eight  great  ethnic  religions  which 
possess  a  sacred  literature.  It  is  the  religion  of  our  kindred  at 
a  time  shortly  after  our  Aryan  ancestors  began  their  migrations 
from  their  primitive  home.  It  originated  probably  not  less 
than  twelve  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  became  a 
national  religion,  and,  in  spite  of  revolutions,  conquests,  and 
persecutions,  is  still  professed  by  a  small  Parsi  community  in 
India  and  a  few  devotees  in  their  fatherland.  The  religion  of 
Zoroaster  is  most  intimately  connected  with  the  religion  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  Magi  are 
mentioned  by  Jeremiah,  chap,  xxxix,  3.  The  "  Chief  ^  of  the 
Magi  "  {RaJymag)  was  in  the  retinue  of  Nebuchadnezzar  at  his 
entry  into  Jerusalem.  Ezekiel  speaks  probably  of  Zoroastrians 
when  he  says  there  were  "  about  five  and  twenty  men  "  stand- 
ing "  at  the  door  of  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  between  the  porch 
and  the  altar,"  who  "  put  the  branch  to  their  nose ; "  "  with 
their  backs  toward  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  and  their  faces  to- 
ward the  east ;  and  they  worshiped  the  sun  toward  the  east." 
Ezek.  viii,  16,  17. 

The  Bible  never  classifies  the  Persians  among  idolaters.  Isaiah 
calls  Cyrus  "  the  anointed  of  the  Lord  whose  right  hand  the 
Lord  has  holden,  to  subdue  nations  before  him : "  the  Lord's 
"  shepherd  "  to  carry  out  his  counsels ;  "  a  ravenous  bird  called 
from  the  east,  the  man  that  executeth  the  Lord's  counsel  from 
a  far  country."  Isa.  xlv,  1  ;  xliv,  28  ;  xlvi,  11. 

Herodotus  declares  that  the  Magi  worshiped  no  idols, 
(chaps,  cxxxi,  cxxxii.)  'We  shaU  find  their  own  sacred  writ- 
ings  confirming  this  testimony.  Magi  came  from  the  East  to 
worship  the  infant  Jesus  at  Bethlehem.  Matt,  ii,  1. 

In  the  famous  Behistun  trilingual  inscription,  discovered  by 
Major  Rawhnson  in  1835,  consisting  in  the  first  four  columns 
(omitting  the  fifth  half  column  of  thirty-five  lines,  which  has 
been  but  imperfectly  deciphered)  of  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  lines  in  an  Aryan,  a  Semitic,  and  a  Scjrthic  language,  the 
name  of  Ormazd  occurs  sixty-seven  times.     Darius  says,   "  By 


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62  Methodist  QuaHerly  H&vi&w.  [January, 

the  grace  of  Ormazd  I  am  king ; "  *'  By  the  grace  of  Ormazd 
I  hold  this  empire ;  "  "  Ormazd  brought  help  to  me  ; "  "  I 
prayed  to  Ormazd ; "  "  By  the  grace  of  Ormazd,  my  forces  en- 
tirely defeated  the  rebel  army ; "  "Under  the  favor  of  Ormazd 
have  I  always  acted ; ''  "  Ormazd  is  my  witness ; "  "  May  Or- 
mazd be  a  friend  to  thee."  A  true  devotional  spirit  which 
may  be  favorably  compared  with  the  spirit  disclosed  in  like 
passages  of  history  in  the  Old .  Testament,  runs  through  the 
whole  account.* 

Until  within  a  little  more  than  a  century  our  knowledge  con- 
cerning the  laws,  customs,  and  religion  of  Persia  came  principal- 
ly from  classic  sources.  Modern  Persian  literature  is  poetic  and 
traditional  Mohammedan  writers  give  only  the  conquest  of 
the  country  and  the  extinction  of  its  religion  A.  D.  636. 

Of  the  Greek  writers  who  wrote  concerning  the  religion  of 
the  Persians,  prominent  were  Ktesias,  (B.  C.  400,)  Deinon, 
(B.  0. 350,)  Theopompos  of  Chios,  (B.  C.  300,)  and  Hermippos  of 
Smyrna,  (B.  C.  250.)  Only  fragments  of  their  writings  have 
been  preserved  by  Plutarch,  Diogenes  of  Laerte,  and  Pliny. 
Theopompos  in  his  eighth  book  of  the  history  of  King  Philip 
of  Macedonia,  "  On  Miraculous  Things,"  treats  specially  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Magi.  Hermippos  wrote  a  book,  "  On  the 
Magi,"  which  must  have  been  of  great  value.  Pliny  says  that 
Hermippos  investigated  with  great  care  and  labor  the  sacred 
books  of  the  2k)roa8trian8,  which  were  said  to  comprise  two  mill- 
ions of  verses.  The  loss  of  such  a  work  is  to  be  deeply  re- 
gretted. The  Greeks  and  Romans  derived  most  of  their  in- 
formation concerning  the  2k)roastrian  religion  from  Theopom- 
pos and  Hermippos. 

To  escape  the  persecutions  of  the  Mohammedans,  the  adher- 
ents of  this  religion  left  their  native  land  and  settled  in  West- 
em  India.  Here  the  nations  of  Europe  came  in  contact  with 
them,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  manuscripts  of  their 
sacred  books  were  brought  to  Europe,  but  were  valued  only  as 
curiosities.  In  A.  D.  1700  Hyde,  a  celebrated  scholar  of  Ox- 
ford, published  Historia  RdigioiiU  Veterum  Persarmn  Eor- 
umque  Magorum^  which  contained  much  and  valuable  informa- 
tion gathered  from  many  authorities  concerning  their  religion. 
But  Hyde,  although  having  access  to  original  manuscripts,  could 
•"Records  of  the  Past,"  voL  i,  pp.  118-129. 


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1S81J  Zoroaster  and  2joroastriamam.  63 

not  read  a  word  of  them,  and  hence  his  work  cannot  be  consid- 
ered an  authority. 

In  1754  the  enthusiasm  of  Anquetil-Duperron,  a  young 
Frenchman,  pursuing  oriental  studies  at  the  Eoyal  Library, 
was  aroused  at  the  sight  of  a  Parsi  manuscript,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  visit  India  and  Persia  and  collect  manuscripts,  bring 
them  back,  translate  them,  and  give  the  results  to  the  world.  He 
enlisted  as  a  soldier  in  the  service  of  the  Indian  Company, 
marched  out  of  Paris  "to  the  lugubrious  sound  of  an  ill- 
mounted  drum,"  landed  at  Pondicherry  in  1756,  steadfastly 
kept  to  his  purpose,  studied  hard,  collected  manuscripts,  re- 
turned to  Paris  in  1762,  and  in  1771  published  his  translation 
of  the  so-called  "  Zend-Avesta.'^ 

The  authenticity  of  these  sacred  book^  was  much  discussed. 
Even  the  great  jurist  and  oriental  scholar,  Sir  William  Jones, 
believed  that  they  were  forged  and  that  Duperron  had  been 
imposed  upon  by  the  priests  from  whom  he  received  instruc- 
tion in  the  Avestan  and  Pahlavi  languages. 

Kich^rdson,  the  celebrated  Persian  lexicographer,  also  held 
the  opinion  that  these  languages  were  forgeries.  Erasmus 
Eask,  a  Danish  scholar,  in  1826,  in  a  pamphlet  "  On  the  Age 
and  Genuineness  of  the  Zend  Language,"  proved  its  close  re- 
lationship with  the  Sanscrit.  Eugene  Bumouf,  Professor  in 
the  CoU^  de  France,  (1833-46,)  laid  the  foundation  of  Aves- 
tan grammar  and  etymology ;  proved  the  translation  of  Duper- 
ron,  however  valuable  for  affording  a  general  idea  of  Avestan 
literature,  yet  utterly  inaccurate  and  incorrect ;  and  gave  the 
first  real  translation  of  two  chapters  of  the  Yasna. 

Professor  Westergaard,  of  Copenhagen,  edited  and  published 
the  first  complete  edition  of  the  Zend-Avesta  in  1852-1854. 
Martin  Haug  edited,  translated,  and  explained  The  Five  GAthAs, 
(two  voIb.,  Leipzig,  1858-1860,)  and  did  much  in  the  interest  of 
2Iend  scholarship  (1852-1874)  in  other  translations  and  philo- 
logical works.  His  latest  work,  the  title  of  which  stands  at 
the  head  of  this  article,  and  from  which  we  take  the  transla- 
tions which  we  use,  furnishes  the  most  complete  and  reliable 
account  of  Zoroastrianism  with  which  we  are  acquainted  in  the 
English  language.  Spiegel,  Windischmann,  West,  Darmes- 
teter,  Justi,  and  other  investigators  have  entered  this  field  of 
research,  and  the  scriptures  of  the  Parsis,  of  which,  a  little 


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64  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [January, 

more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  no  man  living  could  read  a 
word,  may  soon  be  accessible  to  the  general  reader. 

The  scriptures  of  the  Parsis  are  usually  called  Zend-Avesta 
by  Europeans  and  Americans.  The  Palilavi  books  call  them 
Avistdk  va  Zaridy  Avesta  and  Zend,  or  "  Text  and  Commen- 
tary," both  being  written,  probably,  in  the  Avestan  language. 
'*  Avesta,"  originally  confined  to  the  sacred  texts  ascribed  to  Zo- 
roaster, afterward  acquired  an  extended  meaning,  so  as  to  em- 
brace at  the  present  time  all  writings  in  the  Avestan  language. 
It  may  be  derived  from  a+vista^  {vista  is  pluperfect  of  vid^ 
"  to  know,")  and  hence  would  mean  "  what  is  known,"  or 
"  knowledge  ; "  or  "  what  is  announced,"  or  "  declaration,"  thus 
approaching  very  nearly  the  meaning  of  "revelation,"  like 
Veda,  the  name  of  the  sacred  scriptures  of  the  Brahmans. 
When  the  Avesta  language  became  unintelligible,  a  translation 
of  these  scriptures  was  made  by  priests  of  the  Sassanian  period 
into  their  vernacular,  the  Pahlavi.  In  later  times  the  term 
"  Zend  "  has  referred  to  this  translation.  There  are  passages 
in  the  present  Avesta  which  are  supposed  to  be  remnants  of 
the  old  Zend.  Zend  is  from  the  root  sariy  "  to  know,"  so  that 
it  means  "  knowledge,"  or  science.  Pdzand  meant  originally 
re-explanation,  and  some  passages  in  the  Avesta  may  be  the 
old  Pdzand  in  the  Avestan  language  ;  "  but  at  present  the  term 
Pdzand  is  applied  only  to  purely  Iranian  versions  of  Pahlavi 
texts,  whether  written  in  the  Avestan  or  Persian  characters, 
and  to  such  parts  of  Pahlavi  texts  as  are  not  Huz  v4rish."  *  This 
word  is  applied  to  the  Semitic  elements  in  Pahlavi.  The  an- 
cient Persians  received  their  writing  from  a  Semitic  people. 
For  Semitic  words  were  translated  bodily  into  Iranian  writ- 
ing as  logograms,  and  pronounced  as  Pahlavi  words  of  the 
same  meaning ;  as  though  we  were  to  write  the  Latin  word 
"  equus,"  but  always  pronounce  it  horse.  These  explanations 
of  terms,  in  which  I  have  followed  Haug,  seem  to  be  necessary 
to  the  reading  of  works  connected  with  Parsi  studies. 

The  sacred  writings  of  the  2k)roastrians  were  very  volumi- 
nous, but  were  greatly  reduced  when  Alexander,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  Athenian  courtesan  Thais,  (according  to  the  account, 
which  may  be  somewhat  traditional,)  in  a  drunken  frolic  burned 
the  citadel  and  royal  palace  at  Persepolis,  thus  destroying  the 

*  "The  Religion  of  the  Parsia,"  p.  122. 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  and  Zoroastrianism,  65 

historic  and  sacred  arcliives.  By  fragmentary  collections  this 
loss  was  partially  repaired,  when  the  Mohammedan  persecu- 
tions still  more  effectually  scattered  or  destroyed  the  sacred 
books.  The  names,  however,  remain  with  short  summaries  of 
their  contests.  These  summaries,  in  the  absence  of  the  works 
themselves,  are  of  great  value. 

According  to  accounts  which  remain  to  us,  the  whole  script- 
ures were  divided  into  twenty-one  books,  called  NashSj  each 
containing  an  original  text  and  commentary.  Each  nask  was 
indexed  under  a  particular  word  of  the  most  sacred  Zoroastrian 
formula :  "  YathA  ah6  vairyd,  athA  ratush,  ashM  chid  hachA, 
Vanheush  dazdA  mananh6  shkyaothnanam  anheush  mazdAi, 
KhshathremchA  ahurAi  A,  yim  dregubyo  dadhad  vAstArem.'^ 
Haug  translates :  "  As  a  heavenly  lord  is  to  be  chosen,  so  is  an 
earthly  master,  (spiritual  guide,)  for  the  sake  of  righteousness, 
(to  be)  the  giver  of  the  good  thoughts,  of  the  actions  of  life 
toward  Mazda ;  and  the  dominion  is  for  the  lord  (Ahura)  whom 
he  (Mazda)  has  given  as  a  protector  for  the  poor."  * 

The  Nasks  were  divided  into  three  classes,  to  correspond  with 
the  three  lines  of  this  formula.  Several  descriptions  of  the 
contents  of  the  Nasks  have  survived.  They  contain  advice 
concerning  prayer  and  all  religious  services  ;  they  teach  virtue, 
truth,  heedfulness,  reverence,  law,  judgment,  wisdom,  knowl- 
edge, purity;  they  teach  the  value  of  good  works  and  medita- 
tion, peace  and  obedience,  duties  to  magistrates,  and  how  kings 
should  rule ;  they  discourse  concerning  the  creation  of  all  things, 
good  and  evil,  ranks  among  men,  agiiculture  and  culture  of 
trees,  medicine,  astronomy,  botany,  philosophy ;  charities,  and 
the  merit  of  reciting  scripture  formulae;  the  attributes  of 
Ahuramazda,  and  final  deliverance  from  hell ;  bringing  man- 
kind from  good  to  evil,  and  the  preservation  and  protection 
of  cities ;  the  good  and  evil  influence  of  the  stars ;  keeping 
evil  spirits  out  of  the  heart,  and  the  attainment  of  spiritual 
life ;  purification,  care  of  the  dead,  the  resurrection,  future  ex- 
istence, rewards  and  punishments,  things  concerning  the  world 
to  come,  and  other  similar  matters. 

Of  these  Nasks,  but  one,  namely,  the  Vendidad,  is  extant 
complete.  Of  two  or  three  others  some  fragments  remain,  but 
in  the  Zend-Avesta,  as  used  at  the  present  time,  there  are  other 

"  The  Religion  of  the  Parais,"  p.  141. 


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66  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview,  [January, 

books,  sucli  as  the  Tasna  and  Visparad.  The  Yashts  also  are 
not  found  in  the  Nasks,  unless,  as  has  been  maintained,  they 
are  contained  in  the  fourteenth  and  twenty-first. 

The  Tasna  is  the  most  sacred  book  of  the  whole  Zend-Aves- 
ta. Haug  suggests  that  the  Yasna  and  Visparad  may  occupy 
with  respect  to  the  Nasks  "  the  same  rank  as  the  Vedas  in  the 
Brahminical  literature  do  in  reference  to  the  ShAstras  and  Pu- 
rdnafi."  The  contents  of  these  books  show  remarkable  literary 
activity  on  the  part  of  the  ancient  Persians.  The  texts  now 
extant  and  published  in  Westergaard's  edition  are  the  follow- 
ing :  Yasna,  Visparad,  Vendidad ;  twenty-four  Yashts,  includ- 
ing fragments  of  two  Nasks  ;  fourteen  short  prayers  of  various 
kinds,  called  AfringAn,  Nydyish,  and  Gdh  ;  nine  miscellaneous 
fragments,  and  the  Sir6zah,  or  calendar.  Not  a  voluminous  lit- 
erature to  be  sure,  but  priceless  to  him  who  is  interested  in  the 
history  of  races  when  they  think  their  first  thoughts  and  breathe 
their  first  prayers  to  God. 

Yasna  is  from  the  root  yaz^  which  means  "  to  worship  by 
means  of  sacrifice  and  prayers."  At  present  it  consists  of 
seventy-two  chapters.  There  are  two  parts,  which  differ  con- 
siderably in  contents  and  language.  The  old  Yasna  is  wiitten 
in  the  G&tha  dialect,  which  differs  from  the  Avestan  not  only  in 
the  lengthening  of  final  vowels  and  the  separation  of  certain  syl- 
lables into  two  syllables,  which  we  may  suppose  to  be  the  result 
of  chanting,  but  in  other  respects,  showing  it  to  be  at  least  one 
or  two  hundred  years  older  than  the  Avestan.  All  parts 
written  in  the  GAtha  dialect  have  formed  originally  a  separate 
book,  and  this  book  was  already  considered  sacred  when  the 
other  scriptures  were  written.  These  original  writings  are 
mentioned  several  times  in  the  Vendidad  with  the  meaning  of 
"scripture."  The  later  Yasna  is  in  the  ordinary  Avestan 
language. 

Odtha  is  from  the  root  gaiy  "  to  sing,"  and  hence  means 
"song."  "The  GAthaa,  five  in  number,  are  comparatively 
small  collections  of  metrical  compositions,  containing  short 
prayers,  songs,  and  hymns,  which  generally  express  philosoph- 
ical and  abstract  thoughts  about  metaphysical  subjects."*  These 
GAthas  contain  all  that  was  revealed  to  Zoroaster.  He  learned 
them  when  in  an  ecstatic  state  from  the  choir  of  the  archan- 
•  "  The  ReUgion  of  the  Pareia,"  pp.  142,  148. 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  and  ZoroastriamAam,  67 

gels.  The  GAtha  dialect  may  be  the  language  of  the  Dative  dis- 
trict or  city  of  Zoroaster. 

The  Visparad  in  twenty-three  chapters  is  in  the  usual  Avestan 
language,  and  in  contents  resembles  the  first  part  of  the  later 
Tasna.  The  Yashts,  twenty  in  number,  are  collections  of  prayer 
and  praise.  Some  of  them  are  highly  poetical,  and  contain 
in  many  cases  metrical  verses  to  be  traced  to  the  days  of  the 
bards  of  Media.  Unlike  the  Yasna  and  Visparad,  the  Yashts 
celebrate  the  praises  of  some  particular  divine  being  or  class  of 
beings,  instead  of  invoking  all  these  beings  promiscuously. 
The  Vendidad,  in  twenty-two  chapters,  is  the  civil,  criminal, 
and  religious  code  of  laws  of  the  Zoroastrians. 

The  live  GAthas  contain  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster  in  their 
purity.  He  is  expressly  mentioned  as  their  author,  (Yas. 
Ivii,  8,)  while  nowhere  is  he  said  to  be  the  author  of  other 
sacred  writings.  He  speaks  of  himself  in  the  first  person, 
and  acts  as  a  man  conscious  of  being  commissioned  of  God. 
He  teaches  a  pure  religion,  and  exhorts  his  coimtrymen  to  for- 
sake idolatry  and  worship  the  one  only  and  true  God.  The 
later  Yasnas  are  not  regarded  as  the  genuine  works  of  Zoroas- 
ter, but  rather  of  some  of  his  earliest  disciples.  They  descend 
somewhat  from  his  high  and  pure  principles,  make  concessions 
to  idolatry,  reform  some  of  the  old  sacrifices,  and  invoke  the 
ancient  devas^  whom  Zoroaster  charged  with  the  origination  of 
all  evil  and  sin.  The  Visparad  ranks  with  the  later  Yasna, 
and  the  Vendidad  is  still  farther  removed  from  the  purity  of 
the  five  GAthas.  The  Yashts  are  most  modem  of  all.  The 
Githas  were  composed  about  B.  0.  1200 ;  the  Vendidad,  B.  0. 
1000-900 ;  the  later  Yasna,  B.  0.  800-700 ;  the  Pazand  por- 
tion of  the  Vendidad,  B.  C.  500 ;  the  Yashts,  B.  0.  450-350. 

The  Zoroastrian  religion  in  its  origin  was  a  protest  against 
Brahmanism.  This  is  evident  from  several  considerations. 
Deva  in  the  Brahmanical  literature  is  the  name  of  the  objects 
of  Hindu  worship ;  in  the  Zend-Avesta  it  is  the  general  name 
for  evil  spirit  or  devil.  The  Vendidad  is  virdaevdddta^  "  what 
is  given  against  the  devas."  Aswra  is  the  name  of  the  Parsi 
god  in  Ahura  mazda ;  in  the  older  parts  of  the  Rigveda  it  is 
used  in  a  good  sense,  but  in  the  later  Brahmanical  literature  it 
is  applied  to  the  most  bitter  enemies  of  the  Hindu  devas.  In  the 
Yajurveda  seven  meters  are  called  Asuri,    These  are  found  in 


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68  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

the  Gdtha  Kterature.  Indra^  the  chief  god  of  the  Vedic  times, 
is  a  demon  among  the  Parsis,  second  only  to  Ahriman,  (Angro- 
mainyush.)  The  latter  the  Parsis  call  "  devil  of  devils."  The 
Brahmans  call  him  "  god  of  gods." 

However,  some  of  the  Vedic  devas  are  transformed  into  an- 
gels in  the  Zend-Avesta.  The  close  connection  of  these  relig- 
ions is  also  shown  where  there  is  no  evidence  of  hostility,  not 
only  in  the  names  of  gods,  but  also  in  the  names  and  legends 
of  heroes,  in  matters  connected  with  sacrificial  worship,  and 
in  various  other  particulars.  Brahmanism  and  Zoroastrianism, 
then,  were  originally  one  religion.  The  causes  of  the  conflict 
which  led  to  their  separation  we  may  gather  from  tlie  Gathas. 
After  the  migration  of  the  Aryan  tribes  from  their  original 
home,  they  long  led  a  pastoral  life,  paying  little  attention  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil.  This  was  their  condition  throughout 
the  earlier  Vedic  period,  while  they  lived  in  the  upper  PenjAb, 
whence  they  migrated  to  Hindustan  proper.  When  tliey 
reached  the  highlands  of  Bactria,  the  Iranians,  tired  of  a  wan 
dering  life,  formed  permanent  settlements  and  became  agricult 
uraL  The  other  Aryans  became  hostile,  and  made  many  hos 
tile  excursions  into  the  settlements  for  the  sake  of  booty.* 
Before  entering  upon  these  excursions  they  besought  the  assist- 
ance of  Indra  by  Soma  sacrifices.  Their  religion,  hence,  be- 
came an  object  of  hatred  to  the  Iranians,  and  they  came  to 
look  npon  it  as  the  source  of  all  wickedness,  and  instituted  the 
beneficent  religion  of  Ahuramazda,  which  forever  separated 
them  from  their  Aryan  and  deva-worshiping  brethren.  The 
2k)roastrian,  Mazdayasnian,  or  Parsi  religion  was  not  originated 
by  Zoroaster.  He  alludes  to  old  revelations,  and  praises  the 
"  fire  priests  "  as  possessed  of  great  wisdom.  ( Yas.  xlvi,  3,  6.) 
He  teaches  reverence  and  respect  to  the  Angra  or  Angiras 
of  the  Vedas.  (Yas.  xliii,  15.)  These  Angiras  are  often 
connected  with  the  Atharvans;  dtharva  is  the  genenil 
name  of  the  priestly  order  in  the  Zend-Avesta.  The  Angiras 
and  Atharvans  are  the  authors  of  the  Atharvaveda,  which 
greatly  resembles  the  Yashts  and  Vendidad.  To  the  Saosliy- 
anto,  or  "  fire  priests,"  perhaps  identical  with  the  Atharvans, 
it  is  said  the  Ahura  religion  was  revealed,  (Yas.  xii,  7.) 
Several  centuries  may  have  elapsed  before  the  appearance  of 

*  Vend.  Fare.  I  and  2 ;  Tas.  xxxiii,  xlvi. 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  and  Zoroastrianism,  69 

Zoroaster.  He  completed  the  separacion  of  the  hostile  Aryan 
elements,  established  new  laws,  and  absorbed  the  old  religion  of 
the  fire  priests  (he  himself  seems  to  have  been  one  of  their 
number)  into  the  true  Parsi  religion,  and  hence  became  its  real 
founder. 

But  little  is  known  concerning  the  h'fe  of  Zoroaster.  Greek 
and  Roman  accounts  are  legendary.  Only  in  the  Yasna  does 
he  appear  as  a  real  historic  character.  He  belonged  to  the 
Spitama  family.  The  H6chadaspas  appear  to  have  been  his 
nearest  relatives.  (Yas.  xlvi,  15.)  His  father's  name  was  Pour- 
ushaspa.  (Vend,  xix,  4,  6.)  One  daughter  is  mentioned  under 
two  names,  HaechadaspAnd  SpitAml.  His  sumamfe  was  Zara- 
thushtra,  which  the  Greeks  changed  to  Zarastrades  or  2k)roa8- 
tres,  the  Eomans  to  2k)roaster,  the  Persians  and  Parsis  to  Zar- 
dosht.  This  name  seems  at  first  to  have  designated  the  office 
of  high-priest,  afad,  after  having  been  worn  by  Spitama  as  high- 
priest,  clung  to  him  as  pre-eminent  in  that  office.  When  there 
were  several  high-priests  in  a  district  or  province,  Zarathush- 
tr6tem6  was  sometimes  used  to  designate  the  office  of  "  the 
highest  Zarathushtra."  There  might,  then,  have  been  many 
Zarathushtras  before  Zoroaster  and  during  his  life,  yet  the  one 
called  Spitama  was  alone  the  founder  of  the  Parsi  religion. 
His  home  was  in  Bactria.  He  lived  probably  not  later  than 
B.  C.  1000.    We  place  him  B.  C.  1200,  as  more  probable. 

Zoroaster  was  imdoubtedly  a  great  soul  who  enjoyed  a  large 
share  of  divine  illumination.  He  passed  through  great  spirit- 
ual struggles.  The  .Vendidad  preserves  traditions  which  may 
refer  to  such  struggles.  Drukhsh,  an  evil  spirit  in  the  service 
of  Ahriman,  attempted  to  destroy  him,  but  2k)roaster  repeated 
the  most  sacred  formula,  Ydtha-ahA-vairyo,  and  the  evil  spirit 
was  defeated  ;  Zoroaster  threatens  the  destruction  of  the'  evils 
produced  by  the  demons  of  Ahriman.  Ahriman  tempts  him 
to  curse  the  Mazdayasnian  religion,  with  the  promise  of  the 
fortune  of  the  traditional  hero-king  Vadhaghana.  Zoroaster 
replies :  "  I  will  not  curse  the  good  Mazdayasnian  religion,  not 
(if  my)  body,  not  (if  my)  soul,  not  (if  my)  life  should  part  asun- 
der." He  will  smite  the  evils  of  Ahriman  with  the  words  of 
Mazda.* 

The  early  Zoroastrian  religion  was   strictly  monotheistic^ 

*  Vend.  Fare.,  xix,  1,  2,  5-9. 

Fourth  Seeibs.  Vol.  XXXHL— 5 


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70  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review,  [January, 

The  Saoshyanto,  or  "^^e  priests,"  worshiped  good  spirits, 
called  Ahuras,  "  the  living  ones,"  of  whom  those  who  possessed 
creative  powers  may  have  been  called  Mazd4onh6,  "  joint  crea- 
tors," or  "  creators  of  all."  Zoroaster  reduced  this  plurality  of 
gods  tb  unity,  and  called  the  one  supreme  being  Ahura-mazd4o, 
of  which  Mazd&o  was  the  chief  name,  and  Ahura  an  adjectival 
epithet.  Both  words  were  at  first  inflected,  (in  which,  how- 
ever, there  was  a  difference  of  custom,)  but  afterward  were 
united  in  a  compound,  Ahuramazda;  at  the  time  of  the 
AchsBmenians,  Ai\ramazda ;  in  the  Sassanian  times,  AAhar- 
mazdi ;  in  modern  Persian,  Ilormazd  or  Ormazd.  Their  con- 
ception of*  Ahuramazda  was  quite  identical  with  the  idea  of 
Jehovah  held  by  Job  and  other  early  characters  of  the  Old 
Testament. 

2k)roa6ter  was  told  by  Ahuramazda  that  the  best  way  to 
guard  against  evil  spirits  was  to  utter  his  different  names.  He 
then  gave  twenty  names,  among  which  we  find :  "  I  am,"  "  the 
living  one,"  "  1  am  the  wisdom,"  "  I  am  who  I  am,  Mazda." 
These  cannot  but  remind  us  of  some  of  the  names  of  Jehovah 
as  revealed  to  men. 

Ahuramazda  is  creator  of  all  things,  most  munificent  spirit, 
righteous,  wisdom,  everlasting,  eternal,  good,  brilliant,  glori- 
ous, happy,  the  essence  of  truths  manifesting  his  life  in  his 
works,  primeval  spirit,  faithful,  generous,  father  of  the  good 
mind,  "having  his  own  light,"  (Yas.  xxxi,  7;)  "originator  of 
all  the  best  things,  of  the  spirit  of  nature,  (ffdush^)  of  righteous- 
ness, of  the  luminaries,  and  the  self -shining  brightness  which  is 
in  the  luminaries,"  (Yas.  xii.  1  ;)  giver  of  health,  truth,  piety, 
earthly  good,  and  immortality  ;  the  rewarder  of  the  good  and 
the  punisher  of  the  evil. 

Zoroaster  was  evidently  staggered  by  the  problem  of  evil. 
In  attempting  to  solve  it,  he  gave  to  one  God  two  spirits,  a 
l)eneficent  spirit  and  a  hurtful  spirit. 

Spento-mainyush,  and  Angro-mainyush,  (Yas.  xix,  9  ;  Ivii,  2,) 
"  the  two  creators,"  "  the  two  masters."  These  two  spirits  fought 
against  the  devas,  but  not  against  each  other.  "  Spefito-mainyush 
was  regarded  as  the  author  of  all  that  is  bright  and  shining,  of 
all  that  is  good  and  useful  in  nature,  while  Angro-mainyush 
called  into  existence  all  that  is  dark  and  apparently  noxious. 
Both  are  as  inseparable  as  day  and  night,  and,  though  opposed  to 
^ach  other,  are   indispensable  for  the  preservation  of  creation. 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  wad  ZoroaaPncmism.  71 

The  beneficent  spirit  appears  in  the  blazing  flame,  the  presence 
of  the  hurtful  one  is  marked  by  the  wood  converted  into  char- 
coal Spefit6-mainyu8h  has  created  the  light  of  day,  and  Angr6- 
mainyush  the  darkness  of  night ;  the  former  awakens  men  to 
their  duties,  the  latter  lulls  them  to  sleep.  Life  is  produced  by 
Spefito-mainyush,  but  extinguished  by  Angr6-mainyush,  whose 
hands,  by  releasing  the  soul  from  the  fetters  of  the  body,  enables 
her  to  rise  into  immortality  and  everlasting  life."  * 

The  transition  from  this  form  of  Monotheism  to  the  later 
dualism  was  easy.  Spefito-mainyush,  "  the  beneficent  spirit," 
was  taken  as  a  name  of  Ahuramazda  himself,  and  Angr6-main- 
yush,  "the  hurtful  spirit,"  was  opposed  to  Ahuramazda. 
Hence  arose  the  Zoroastrian  notion  of  God  and  Devil,  each  in- 
dependent and  waging  war  against  the  other.  Certain  abstract 
ideas  representing  the  gifts  of  Ahuramazda  were  personified 
and  became  archangels,  forming  the  celestial  council  over  which 
he  presided.  These  were  Vohu-man6,  Asha-vahishta,  Khsha- 
thra^vairya,  Spenta-Armaiti,  Haurvatdd,  and  AmeretM,  mean- 
ing originally,  respectively,  "good  mind,"  "the  best  truth," 
"wealth,"  "devotion  and  piety,"  "health,"  and  "immortality." 

Separate  from  the  Ameshaspentas  or  archangels  stood  the 
archangel,  Sraosha,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  media- 
tor between  God  and  man,  the  great  teacher  of  the  good  relig- 
ion, lie  points  out  the  way  to  heaven  and  judges  human  ac- 
tions after  death ;  at  least,  a  part  in  these  offices  seems  to  have 
been  astsigned  to  him.  Like  Ahuramazda,  Angr6-mainyush 
(Ahriiiian)  liiUi  an  infernal  council  over  which  he  presides. 

Fravardiii  Ya^ht  is  dedicated  to  the  praise  of  the  FroKara^ 
in  the  A  vesta  FravuHJu^  in  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  Fra/vcurtr 
iah^  which  means  prutectoi-s.  Every  being,  living,  dead,  or 
still  unborn,  h&s  its  own  guardian  spirit,  Fravashi.  Originally 
tliey  represented  only  the  departed  souls  of  men,  like  the 
vuine^  of  the  Romans,  and  the  pitwroH  of  the  Brahmans.  We 
may  compare  them  with  the  ideas  of  Plato. 

In  favor  of  a  primitive  Parsi  Monotheism  we  may  consider 
such  passages  as  the  following ; 

In  the  beginning  there  was  a  pair  of  twins,  two  spirits,  each  of 
a  peculiar  activity;  these  are  the  good  and  the  base,  in  thought, 
word,  and  deed.  Choose  one  of  these  two  spirits  !  Be  good,  not 
base.    And  these  two  spirits  united  created  the  first  (the  mate- 

•  The  '*  Religion  of  the  Pareis,"  p.  80i. 


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72  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

rial  things,)  one,  the  reality,  the  other,  the  non-reality.  ...  Of 
these  two  spirits  you  must  choose  one,  either  the  evil,  the  orig- 
inator of  the  worst  actions,  or  the  true,  holy  spirit.  •  •  .  You 
cannot  belong  to  both  of  them.  (Yas.  xxx,  3-6.) 

Although  Haug  urges  a  primitive  Monothei8m,lii8  translations, 
as  may  be  seen  above,  do  not  make  this  as  plain  as  could  have 
been  desired.     (See,  however,  Yas.  xlviii,  4,  and  other  passages.) 

If  you  choose  the  good  spirit  it  will  be  well : 

Ahuramazda  gives  through  the  beneficent  spirit,  appearing  in 
the  best  thought,  and  in  rectitude  of  action  and  speech,  to  this 
world,  (universe,)  perfection  and  immortality,  wealth  and  devo- 
tion. From  his  most  beneficent  spirit  all  good  has  sprung  in  the 
words  which  are  pronounced  by  the  tongue  of  the  Good  Mind, 
( Vohii-man6^)  and  the  works  wrought  by  the  hands  of  Armaiti, 
(spirit  of  the  earth.)  By  means  of  such  knowledge  Mazda  him- 
self is  the  father  of  all  rectitude  in  thought,  word,  and  deed. 
(Yas.  xlvii,  1,  2.) 

Ahuramazda  created  the  world  in  six  periods  in  the  fol- 
lowing order :  In  the  first  period  heaven  was  created,  in  the 
second  the  waters,  in  the  third  the  earth,  in  the  fourth  the 
trees,  in  the  fifth  the  animals,  and  in  the  sixth  man. 

There  was  a  golden  age  in  the  reign  of  Yima, "  the  most  sun- 
like of  men,"  during  which  men  and  cattle  were  free  from 
death,  water  and  trees  free  from  drought,  food  inexhaustible ; 
there  was  "  neither  cold  nor  heat,  neither  decay  nor  death,  nor 
malice  produced  by  the  demons  ;  father  and  son  walked  forth, 
each  fifteen  years  old  in  appearance."  (Yas.  ix,  4,  5.) 

Besides  the  doctrines  we  have  named,  we  may  mention 
among  the  other  original  doctrines  of  Zoroaster,  the  following : 
The  two-fold  nature  of  man  as  body  and  soul,  the  two-fold 
origin  of  knowledge  as  heavenly  and  earthly,  human  responsi- 
bility, the  value  of  prayer,  angelic  mediatorship,  heaven  and 
hell,  immortality,  a  general  judgment,  future  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments according  to  the  works,  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
the  final  overthrow  of  evil,  and  the  renovation  of  all  things. 

A  few  quotations  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  Zoroaster's  teach- 
ings on  some  of  these  points : 

I  will  proclaim,  as  the  greatest  of  all  things,  that  one  should 
be  good,  praising  only  righteousness.  Ahuramazda  will  hear 
those  who  are  bent  on  furthering  (all  that  is  good.)  .  .  .  All  that 
have  been  living,  and  will  be  living,  subsist  by  means  of  his 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  amd  Zoroastria/riism.  73 

bounty  only.  The  soul  of  the  righteous  attains  to  immortality, 
but  that  of  the  wicked  man  has  everiasting  punishment.  Such 
is  the  rule  of  ^uramazda,  whose  the  creatures  are.* 

The  soul  of  the  dead  during  three  days  sits  near  the  head 
chanting  the  Gdtha  Ushtavaiti,  and  experiences  as  much  of 
pleasure  each  day  as  all  that  which  it  had  experienced  when  a 
living  existence. 

On  the  passing  away  of  the  third  night,  as  the  dawn  appears 
the  soul  of  the  righteous  man  appears,  passing  through  plants 
and  perfumes.  To  him  there  seems  a  wind  blowing  forth  from 
the  more  southern  side,  from  the  more  southern  quarters,  a  sweet 
scent,  more  sweet-scented  than  other  winds.  Then,  inhaling 
that  wind  with  the  nose,  the  soul  of  the  righteous  considers: 
Whence  blows  the  wind,  the  most  sweet-scented  wind  which  I 
have  ever  inhaled  with  the  nostrils  ?  Advancing  with  the  wind 
there  appears  to  him  what  is  his  own  religion,  (i.  e.,  religious 
merit,)  m  the  shape  of  a  beautiful  maiden,  bnlliant,  white-armed, 
strong,  well-grown,  erect,  tall,  high-bosomed,  graceful,  noble, 
with  a  dazzling  face,  of  fifteen  years,  with  a  body  as  beautiful  in 
(its)  limbs  (lit.  growth)  as  the  most  beautiful  creatures.  Then 
the  soul  of  the  righteous  man  spoke  to  her,  asking,  what  maiden 
art  thou  whom  I  have  thus  seen  as  yet  the  most  beautiful  of 
maidens  in  form  ?  Then  answered  him  his  own  religion,  I  am, 
O  youth !  thy  good  thoughts,  good  words,  good  deeds,  (and) 
good  religion,  who  am  thy  own  religion  in  thy  own  self.  Every 
one  has  loved  thee  for  such  greatness  and  goodness  and  beauty 
and  perfume  and  triumph  and  resistance  to  loes,  as  thou  appear- 
est  to  me. 

The  soul  of  the  righteous  theu  advances  four  steps  and  reaches 
the  four  grades  in  heaven — ^good  thought,  good  word,  good  ac- 
tion, and  the  eternal  luminaries.  Before  entering  heaven,  the 
angel  Vohuman  has  given  him  a  cup  of  Zarjemaya  oil,  which 
has  made  him  oblivious  of  all  worldly  concerns  and  prepared 
him  for  eternal  happiness. 

The  course  of  the  wicked  is  directly  opposite  in  all  its  stages 
till  he  reaches  the  fourth  or  lowest  grade  in  hell,  "  eternal 
glooms."  t 

The  Vendidad  adds  somewhat  more  to  this  account : 

After  a  nian  is  dead,  at  daybreak  after  the  third  night,  he 
reaches  Mithra,  rising  above  the  mountains  resplendent  with 
their  own  rightful  luster.  The  demon  Vizareshd  by  name 
carries  the  soul  bound  toward  the  country  of  the  wicked 
Deva-worshipmg  men.  It  goes  on  the  time-worn  paths,  which 
•  G&tha  Ushtayaiti,  Yas.  xlv,  6,  1  \  Hdddkht  Nask,  Yt,  xxii,  1-86. 


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74  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

are  for  the  wicked  and  which  are  for  the  righteous,  to  the 
Chinvad  bridge,  created  by  Mazda,  and  right,  where  they 
ask  the  consciousness  and  soul  their  conduct  in  the  settle- 
ments, (i  e.,  world.)  She,  the  beautiful,  well-formed,  strong 
(and)  well-grown,  comes  with  the  dog,  with  the  register,  with 
children,  with  resources,  with  skillf  ulness.  She  dismisses  the  sin- 
ful soul  of  the  wicked  into  the  glooms  ^hell.)  She  meets  the  souls 
of  the  righteous  when  crossing  the  (celestial  mountain)  Har6- 
berezaiti,  (Alborz,)  and  guides  over  the  Chinvad  bridge.  Vohu- 
mano  (the  archangel  Bahman)  rises  from  a  golden  throne;  Vohu- 
mand  exclaims:  "How  hast  thou  come  hither  to  us,  O  righteous 
one!  from  the  perishable  life  to  the  imperishable  Hfe  ?  The  souls 
of  the  righteous  proceed  joyfully  to  Ahuramazda,  to  the  Ame- 
shaspentas,  to  the  golden  tnrone,  to  paradise  (6ar6-nemana.)  * 

Gar6-nem4na  is  "  the  house  of  song,"  with  which  we  may 
compare  the  Christian  idea  of  heaven. 

A  splendor  originally  created  by  Ahuramazda  attaches  itself 
to  the  dead,  causing  them  to  rise. 

This  splendor  attaches  itself  to  the  hero  (who  is  to  rise  out  of 
the  numoer)  of  prophets  (called  SaoahyaTitd)  and  to  his  compan- 
ions, in  order  to  make  life  everlasting,  undecayable,  imperishable, 
imputrescible,  incorruptible,  forever  existing,  forever  vigorous, 
full  of  power,  (at  the  time)  when  the  dead  shall  rise  agam,  and 
imperishableness  of  life  shall  commence,  making  life  lasting  by 
itself,  (without  further  support.)  All  the  world  will  remain  for 
eternity  in  a  state  of  righteousness;  the  devil  will  disappear  from 
all  those  places  where  he  used  to  attack  the  righteous  man  in  or- 
der to  kill  (him) ;  and  all  his  brood  and  creatures  will  be  doomed 
to  destruction.! 

Garo-demdna,  "  house  of  hymns,"  heaven,  where  the  angels 
sing  hymns,  is  the  abode  of  Ahuramazda  and  the  righteous 
dead.  (Yas.  li,  15.)  Another  name  is  ahu  vahishta^  afterward 
shortened  to  vahishta  only ;  modem  Persian  hahisht^  "  the 
best  life,"  "  paradise." 

DrAjo-demdna,  "  house  of  destruction,"  hell,  is  the  abode  of 
the  bad,  especially  the  devotees  of  the  Deva  religion.  (Yas. 
xlvi,  11.) 

Chinvad  bridge  which  the  pious  alone  can  pass,  the  wicked 
falling  from  it  into  hell,  is  also  mentioned  in  the  G4thas.  (Yaa. 
xlvi,  10,  11.) 

The  resurrection  and  the  renovation  of  all  things  are  also 
mentioned  in  the  Gdthas.  (Yas.  xxx,  9.)    We  see,  then,  that 

•Far.  xix,  28-82.  \ Zamydd  Yt.  xix,  89,  90. 


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1881.]  Zoroaster  and  Zoroastriani»m.  75 

these  were  original  doctrines  of  Zoroaster,  and  only  reached  a 
fuller  development  in  the  lat^r  Avestan  writings. 

The  Zoroastrians  divided  into  two  parties  ;  the  Magi  held  to 
the  primitive  monotheism  of  their  religion  ;  the  Zendiks,  whose 
doctrines  are  expounded  in  the  Bnndahish,  adopted  the  later 
dualistic  doctrine.  The  Magi  found  a  proof  of  the  unity  of 
the  supreme  Being  in  the  term  Zarvan  dkarana^  "  boundless 
time."  (Vend,  xix,  9.)  This  doctrine  concerning  "  Zarvan  aka- 
rana,"  which  has  been  held  from  early  Sassanian  times  to  the 
present,  resultefl  from  a  grammatical  misunderstanding.  Trans- 
lating in  the  locative  instead  of  nominative  and  the  doctrine 
disappears :  "  The  beneficent  spirit  made,  he  made  (these  weap- 
ons required  to  defeat  the  influence  of  the  evil  spirit)  in  hound- 
less  time,  the  immortal  benefactors,  ( Amesh-aspentas,)  the  good 
rulers  and  good  arrangers  co-operated."  (Hang.) 

The  Zoroastrian  religion  is  emphatically  in  its  spirit  a  religion 
of  work,  devoted  especially  to  the  encouragement  of  agricult- 
ure. The  five  most  pleasing  spots  of  this  earth  are :  the  tem- 
ple, the  home  of  the  pious,  cultivated  lands,  stables,  and  past- 
ures. (Vend,  iii,  1-6.)  The  history  of  the  rise  of  Zoroastrian- 
ism  shows  its  close  connection  with  agriculture.  The  earth  was 
considered  especially  pure,  and,  lest  it  should  be  defiled,  the 
dead  were  exposed  on  an  iron  grating  in  the  Dokhma,  or  the 
"  Tower  of  Silence,"  to  be  devoured  by  fowls  of  the  air,  or  to 
decay.  The  bleached  bones  fall  through  into  a  pit  beneath, 
from  which  they  are  removed  to  a  subterranean  cavern. 

This  religion,  which  at  one  time  prevailed  throughout  Upper 
Thibet,  Cabulistan,  Sogdiana,  Bactriana,  Media,  Persia,  and 
other  contiguous  territory,  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the  vic- 
tories of  Marathon  and  Salamis,  might  have  extended  widely 
over  the  woild,  is  now  confined  to  a  very  limited  territory.  In 
India,  near  Bombay,  there  are  (1879)  132,000  Zoroastrians,  or 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population.  In  Yezd  and  Kir- 
man  and  twenty-three  other  surrounding  villages  there  are 
8,000.  A  few  are  found  in  Teheran,  Ispahan,  Shiraz,  and  Ba- 
ku. The  whole  number  in  Persia  is  8,188.  The  Parsis  of 
Yezd  and  Kirman  are  poor,  degraded,  and  ignorant ;  those  of 
Bombay,  wealthy,  intelligent,  and  philanthropic,  even  beyond 
the  other  inhabitants. 

The  Parsis  are  monogamists  j  they  eat  nothing  cooked  by  a 


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76  Methodist  Quarterly  Hevieio.  [January, 

person  of  another  religion ;  they  object  to  eating  beef  and  pork. 
Their  priesthood  is  hereditary,  but  the  son  of  a  priest  need  not 
become  a  priest  unless  he  so  wish.  They  have  many  and  care- 
ful purification  ceremonies. 

They  pray  sixteen  times  per  day,  but  none  of  them — not  even 
the  priests — understand  the  language  in  which  these  prayers 
are  composed.  They  have  no  pulpits,  and  no  discourses  in 
the  vernacular  of  the  people.  The  Parsi  devotee  may  recite 
his  prayers  for  himself ;  or,  at  any  time  when  he  pleases,  he 
may  go  to  the  fire  temple  and  give  something  t#  the  priests  to 
pray  for  him.  The  priests  are  bigoted  and  superstitious. 
There  may  be  a  dozen  priests  who  know  the  meaning  of  the 
words  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  but  know  not  the  language. 

There  are  two  parties  among  the  Parsis,  the  Conservatives, 
and  the  Liberals.  The  Conservatives  hold  to  all  the  old  and 
traditional  customs ;  the  Liberals  are  striving  to  work  reforms 
in  abolishing  the  filthy  purifications ;  in  reducing  the  number 
of  obligatory  prayers,  in  customs  concerning  marriages,  wed- 
dings, and  funerals ;  and  in  the  education  of  women,  in  all  of 
which  they  have  made  considerable  progress. 

To  the  Parsi,  the  sun  and  other  heavenly  bodies,  or  fire,  are 
symbols  of  the  divine  presence.  In  their  Catechism  (pub- 
lished less  than  fifty  years  ago)  they  say ; 

We  believe  in  only  one  God,  and  do  not  believe  in  any  besides 
him,  the  God  who  created  the  heavens,  the  earth,  the  angels,  the 
stars,  the  moon,  the  fire,  the  water,  or  all  the  four  elements,  and 
all  things  of  the  two  worlds  ;  that  God  we  believe  in.  Him  we 
worship,  him  we  invoke,  him  we  adore.  Our  God  has  neither 
face  nor  form,  color  nor  shape,  nor  fixed  place. 

The  commands  God  has  sent  us  through  his  prophet  Zoro- 
aster are : 

To  know  God  as  one;  to  know  the  prophet,  the  exalted  Zur- 
thost,  as  the  true  prophet;  to  believe  the  religion  and  the  Avesta 
brought  by  him  as  true  beyond  all  manner  of  doubt;  to  believe 
in  the  goodness  of  God;  not  to  disobey  any  of  the  commands  of 
the  Mazdiashna  religion;  to  avoid  evil  deeds;  to  pray  five  times 
in  the  day;  to  believe  on  the  reckoning  and  justice  on  the  fourth 
morning  after  death;  to  hope  for  heaven  and  to  fear  hell;  to 
consider  doubtless  the  day  of  general  destruction  and  resurrection ; 
to  remember  always  that  God  has  done  what  he  willed,  and  shall 
do  what  he  wills;  to  face  some  luminous  object  while  worship- 


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1881J  Zoroaster  <md  Zoroastriamsm.  77 

ing  God.  Your  Saviour  is  your  deeds  and  God  himself.  He  is 
the  pardoner  and  the  giver.  If  you  repent  your  sins  and  reform, 
and  if  the  Great  Judge  consider  you  worthy  of  pardon,  or  would 
be  merciful  to  you,  he  alone  can  and  will  save  you.* 

It  wiU  be  seen  how  unjust  it  is  to  call  the  Parsi  "  Fire  wor- 
shipers." They  feel  reverence  in  the  presence  of  the  sacred 
flame  as  it  is  a  symbol  of  the  divine  presence.  The  priests 
protect  the  face  with  a  veil  lest  their  breath  might  defile  the 
fire.  They  will  not  blow  out  a  candle  if  they  can  help  it. 
They  are  the* only  eastern  nation  not  addicted  to  smoking. 
They  cling  to  their  creed,  which  has  become  so  compact,  for 
the  very  reason  that  they  cannot  read  it  from  their  sacred 
books ;  they  cling  to  their  creed  with  great  tenacity  of  relig- 
ious affection.  Pure  thoughts,  pure  words,  pure  deeds  ;  this  is 
the  substance  of  its  practical  part.  Its  most  earnest  exhorta- 
tion to  every  man  is,  "  Be  bright  as  the  sun,  pure  as  the  moon." 
— Mvller. 


Art.  v.— THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  APOCRYPHA. 

Whatever  sheds  light  upon  the  history  and  literature  of  the 
Israelitish  people  is  of  permanent  interest  to  the  Christian  stu- 
dent. Christianity  is  not  independent  of  Judaism.  The  Law, 
the  Prophets,  and  the  Psahns,  all  spoke  of  Christ ;  and  now 
that  Christ  has  appeared,  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light,  we  can  read  and  understand  the  ancient  Scriptures  more 
perfectly  than  those  to  whom  the  prophecies  first  came.  We, 
in  a  measure,  see  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  may  trace 
the  gradual  unfoldings  of  divine  revelation  from  its  compara- 
tively indistinct  beginning.  The  history  and  substance  of  the 
revelation  are  embodied  in  our  Holy  Scriptures,  and  whatever 
confirms  and  illustrates  the  Book  of  books,  must,  therefore,  be 
of  interest  and  value  to  the  Christian. 

The  present  century  has  surpassed  all  others  in  the  amount 
of  labor  bestowed  upon  antiquarian  research.  The  hoary  mon- 
uments of  Egypt,  by  the  persevering  efforts  of  such  men  as 

•  Catechism  in  the  Guzerati,  translated  by  Mr.  Dadabhai  Naoroji,  an  adherent 
of  the  Pare!  religion.  Professor  of  Guzerati  at  University  College,  London;  quoted 
by  Max  Muller  in  Chips,  vol.  i,  pp.  169-174. 


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78  Methodist  Qiux/rterly  Heview.  [January, 

Young,  Champollion,  Lepsius,  and  Brugsch,  have  been  made  to 
yield  up  tlieir  secrets  to  the  modern  world.  The  deciphering 
and  translation  of  the  inscriptions  on  the  monuments  of  ancient 
Babylon,  Assyria,  and  Persia,  have  thrown  great  light  both  on 
the  history  and  customs  of  those  nations,  and  also  on  the  narra- 
tives of  Scripture.  The  minute  and  thorough  exploration  of 
Palestine,  now  in  progress,  promises  to  discover  the  sites  of 
many  a  lost  city,  and  to  give  fresh  interest  to  the  history  of 
the  Hebrew  people.  The  zeal  of  research  and  exploration  in 
these  and  other  fields  seems  to  be  constantly  increasing,  for  the 
discoveries  already  made  are  regarded  as  only  a  sort  of  first- 
fruits  of  a  wondrous  harvest. 

Meanwhile,  as  we  grow  richer  in  such  acquisitions,  it  is  well 
for  us  not  to  neglect  other  treasures  of  antiquity.  The  sacred 
books  themselves  will  never  be  superseded  by  all  the  hiero- 
glyphic lore  of  Egypt,  and  all  the  libraries  of  Assyrian  kings. 
The  Book  of  Daniel  is  worth  immeasurably  more  than  the  Ro- 
setta  Stone.  And  there  are  other  ancient  books,  not  held  as 
sacred,  but  so  connected  with  the  history  and  literature  of  the 
Bible  as  to  be  of  priceless  value.  Who  would  exchange  the 
writings  of  Josephus  for  all  that  Assyrian  research  has  yet  pro- 
duced? And  yet  there  are  other  ancient  hooks,  quite  neg- 
lected by  even  well-read  Christians,  and  some  of  them  scarcely 
known,  which,  if  now  first  discovered,  would  be  heralded  as 
matters  of  the  greatest  moment  to  the  Christian  world.  It  is 
the  purpose  of  this  article  to  call  attention  to  the  character  and 
value  of  some  of  these  ancient  writings. 

Titles  and  Subject-matter. 

The  following  books  are  found  incorporated  in  most  editions 
of  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old  Testament :  Esdras,  Tobit, 
Judith,  Additions  to  Esther,  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Wisdom  of 
Jesus,  son  of  Sirach,  Baruch,  Epistle  of  Jeremiah,  Song  of  the 
Three  Holy  Children,  History  of  Susanna,  Bel  and  the  Dragon, 
and  three  Books  of  Maccabees.  In  some  editions  we  find  a 
Fourth  Book  of  Maccabees,  and  the  Prayer  of  Manasseh.  Most 
of  these  books  are  also  contained  in  the  Vulgate  version,  and 
all  of  them,  except  Third  and  Fourth  Maccabees,  were  trans- 
lated into  English  and  published  with  King  James'  version  of 
the  Bible.     In  this  latter  also  appeared  the  Second  Book  of 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testament  Aj>ooryj>ha.  79 

Esdras.  These  books  now  commonly  pass  under  the  name 
Apocrypha,  a  word  which  means  hidden  or  secret^  and  early 
came  to  be  nsed  by  Christian  writers  to  denote  a  class  of  books 
whose  age  and  authorship  were  unknown.  The  word  was  also 
applied  to  forged,  spurious,  and  heretical  works.  "Let  us 
omit,"  says  Augustine,  "  those  fabulous  books  of  Scripture  whidi 
are  called  ajpocryphal^  because  their  obscure  origin  was  un- 
known to  the  Fathers."  In  another  place  he  writes  :  "  Apoc- 
ryphal books  are  not  such  as  have  authority,  but  books  whose 
original  is  obscure,  and  which  are  destitute  of  proper  testimo- 
nials, their  authors  being  uAkown,  and  their  characters  either 
heretical  or  suspected." 

By  reason  of  their  long  and  honorable  association  with  the 
Septuagint  and  Yulgate  versions  of  the  Bible,  these  apo6ryphal 
books  acquired  a  sort  of  semi-sacred  character.  They  were  fre- 
quently quoted  as  Scriptm-e  by  the  ancient  Christian  Fathers, 
and  their  incorporation  with  many  modem  editions  of  the  Bi- 
ble has  given  them  currency  and  name.  The  Church  of  Rome 
has  pronounced  most  of  them  canonical,  and  this  fact  has,  per- 
haps, been  one  reason  why  Protestants  have  treated  them  with 
so  little  respect.  They  are  rarely  included  in  modern  editions 
of  the  Bible,  and  still  more  rarely  are  they  published  separate- 
ly. We  are  not  aware  that  the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha  has 
ever  been  published  separately  in  the  United  States. 

The  period  of  Jewish  history  between  Ezra  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Temple  by  the  Romans  was  prolific  of  this  class  of 
books.  A  creative  fancy  evidently  led  some  bold  scribes  to  at- 
tempt to  replace  some  of  the  lost  books  of  the  ancient  Hebrews. 
Every  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  has  noticed  the  references 
to  "  The  Book  of  the  Wars  of  the  Lord,"  (Num.  xxi,  14,)  "  The 
Book  of  Jafiher,"  (Josh,  x,  13,)  "  The  Book  of  the  Acts  of  Sol- 
omon," (1  Kings  xi,  41,)  and  "The  Book  of  Shemaiah," 
(2  Chron.  xii,  15,)  and  numerous  other  books  no  longer  known. 
These  allusions  probably  suggested  or  inspired  the  composition 
of  apocryphal  stories,  prompting  inventive  minds  to  construct  a 
romantic  narrative  in  connection  with  some  ancient  hero's  name. 

The  contents  of  these  several  books  are  of  a  very  varied  char- 
acter. We  have  history  and  fable,  legend  and  romance,  poetry 
and  prophecy,  and  hence  these  books  are  invaluable  for  the 
light  they  shed  on  the  history,  civilization,  life,  customs  and 


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80  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [January, 

beliefs,  hopes  and  superstitions  of  the  Jews,  during  the  period 
from  300  B.C.  to  about  100  A.D.  This  was  a  notable  period 
of  transition  and  decay  in  Judaism,  and  much  of  its  literature 
has  a  most  intimate  relation  to  the  origin  and  early  history  of 
Christianity. 

I  ESDBAS. 

Esdras  is  the  Grecized  form  of  the  name  Ezra,  the  famous 
priest  and  scribe  who  fills  so  important  a  place  in  Old  Testa- 
ment history.  Many  apocryphal  traditions  would  naturally 
gather  round  his  name.  But  this  book  might,  perhaps,  as  well 
have  been  called  the  Book  of  Zerubbabel ;  for  the  writer's  ob- 
ject seems  to  have  been  to  give  a  history  of  the  restoration  from 
Babylon,  and  to  immortalize  Zerubbabel  as  the  hero  of  a  le- 
gend which  forms  the  central  portion  and  the  only  original  sec- 
tion of  his  work.  The  legend  is  about  three  young  men  who 
contended  for  the  honor  of  speaking  the  wisest  proverb,  (chaps, 
iii  and  iv,)  and  is  a  document  of  great  interest  and  beauty.  Its 
tribute  to  women  and  truth  is  worthy  of  a  place  among  the 
choicest  passages  of  ancient  literature.  With  the  exception  of 
this  legend,  the  book  is  but  a  loose  compilation  from  the  canon- 
ical books  of  Chronicles,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah.  The  narrative 
is.  involved  in  inextricable  confusion  by  making  Zerubbabel 
live  and  act  under  the  reign-of  Darius.  The  author  was  evi- 
dently a  Jew,  familial*  with  the  history  and  sacred  books  of  his 
people,  but  inexact  and  careless  in  his  statements.  He  must 
have  lived  a  century  or  more  before  the  CJiristian  era,  for  his 
work  had  acquired  such  currency  and  reputation  that  Josephus 
used  it  freely,  and  even  followed  it  more  closely  than  he  did 
the  corresponding  biblical  narrative.  His  name  and  country, 
however,  are  unknown.  Among  scholars  he  is  often  called  the 
"Pseudo-Ezra,"  and  the  Greek  text  of  his  work  has  been 
thought  to  be  of  some  value  in  emending  certain  doubtful  pas- 
sages in  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  canonical  Scriptures. 

II  ESDRAS. 

The  book  called  "  Second  Esdras  "  in  the  English  translation 
of  the  Apocrypha  is  known  by  different  titles.  In  most  of  the 
Latin  MSS.  it  is  named  The  Fourth  Book  of  Ezra,  because  it 
follows  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  the   Greek  Esdras,  which  are 


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1881.]  The  Old  TeatamerU  Apocrypha.  8L 

reckoned  as  First,  Second,  and  Third  Ezra.  St.  Jerome  calls 
it  by  this  name,  and  thus  it  is  most  commonly  designated  by 
modem  scholars.  But  the  most  appropriate  title,  and  that 
which  it  still  bears  in  the  Greek  Church,  is  "The  Apocalypse 
of  Ezra."  It  is  generally  believed  that  the  book  was  origin- 
ally written  in  Greek ;  but  the  original  was  lost,  and  we  have 
its  substance  imperfectly  preserved  in  five  different  versions, 
Latin,  Armenian,  Arabic,  Ethiopic,  and  Syriac,  The  Latin 
version  is  published  in  Walton's  Polyglot,  and  appears  to  have 
been  the  only  version  known  to  exist  at  the  time  of  the  issue 
of  that  great  work,  (1657.)  The  Armenian  version  was  pub- 
lished along  with  the  Armenian  Bible  of  1666.  An  Arabic 
version  was  discovered  among  the  MSS.  of  the  Bodleian  Libra- 
ry, and  was  translated  into  English  by  Simon  Ockley,  and  pub- 
lished by  Wliiston  in  the  last  volume  of  his  "  Primitive  Chris- 
tianity," (London,  1711.)  Still  later  an  Ethiopic  version  was 
found  in  the  same  library,  and  was  published  by  Archbishop 
Lawrence,  together  with  English  and  Latin  translations  of  the 
same,  (Oxford,  1820.)  The  Syriac  version  was  published'  in 
1868. 

The  first  two  and  last  two  chapters  of  the  Latin  version  are 
wanting  in  the  other  versions,  and  are  allowed  on  all  hands 
to  be  the  work  of  a  later  writer.  These  interpolations  are 
probably  as  late  as  the  second  or  third  century  after  Christ,  and 
from  the  anti-Jewish  spirit  which  pervades  them  we  may  rea- 
sonably infer  that  the  author  was  a  Gentile  Christian.  The 
temptation  for  Christian  writers  to  add  such  passages  to  Jewish 
apocalyptic  works  was  often  strong,  and  the  additions  them- 
selves are  fully  in  keeping  with  much  of  the  early  Christian  apoc- 
ryphal literature.  There  exists  a  spurious  Revelation  of  Esdras, 
a  weak  imitation  of  this  book ;  also  a  Revelation  of  Paul,  and 
of  Peter,  and  of  others.  It  is  very  manifest  that  this  Second 
Esdras  has  been  greatly  corrupted  by  later  writers  and  transcrib- 
ers, and  hence  it  is  diflScult  to  decide  what  was,  and  what  was  not, 
a  part  of  the  original  work.  The  most  extensive  and  thorough 
work,  on  the  text  and  exposition  of  this  book  is  Prof.  Volk- 
mar's,  in  his  "  Handbuch  der  Einleitung  in  die  Apokryphen."  * 

•  «« EsDRA  Prophra,  nnno  primom  integrum  edidit  ex  duobus  manuscriptia 
Italae,  adbibitis  orientalibas  prorsos  recognitis,  cum  Commentariis  et  Glossario." 
Tubingen,  1868. 


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82  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview,  [January, 

Notwithstanding  the  uncertainty  of  the  text  the  work  is  of 
great  value  to  the  biblical  scholar.  The  principal  interpola- 
tions are  so  easily  detected,  that  we  can  make  out  with  tolera- 
ble certainty  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  original  work.  Its 
probable  date  is  near  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  The 
expectation  of  the  Messiah,  the  rewards  of  the  righteous,  the 
small  number  of  the  saved,  the  resurrection  and  judgment,  the 
eternal  counsels  of  God,  the  shortness  and  uncertainty  of  life, 
the  wickedness  and  miseries  of  mortal  men,  their  relations  to 
Adam,  the  efficacy  of  good  works — ^these  and  other  related  doc- 
trines are  prominent  throughout  the  book,  and  some  of  the 
early  fathers  regarded  and  quoted  its  texts  as  if  they  were 
canonical  and  authoritative. 

ToBir. 

The  book  of  Tobit  contains  the  history  of  a  pious  Israelite  of 
the  tribe  of  Naphtali,  who  was  carried  captive  to  Nineveh,  and, 
having  passed  through  various  fortunes,  ended  a  long  life 
greatly  blessed  and  comforted  by  reason  of  God's  special  favor 
toward  himself  and  his  only  son.  The  historical  truth  of  the 
narrative  seems  to  have  b€en  unquestioned  till  about  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  but  internal  evidence  militates  against  this 
view.  There  are  inaccuracies  in  the  historical  allusions  and 
the  general  tone  of  the  narrative,  and  the  character  of  the 
miraculous  events  detailed  are  far  removed  from  the  lofty 
spirit  and  impressive  dignity  of  the  sacred  history.  The  story 
of  Asmodeus  killing*  seven  husbands  of  Sara,  and  then  driven 
away  by  fumigation ;  the  peculiar  modes  of  Raphael's  appear^ 
ance  and  action ;  his  deceiving  Tobit,  and  his  journey  with  a 
servant  and  camels  to  bring  ten  talents  of  silver  from  Rages  to 
Ecbatana,  are  alien  from  the  character  and  style  of  Holy 
Scripture.  There  may  be  a  basis  of  truth  for  the  narrative, 
but  if  so,  the  real  facts  have  become  hidden  by  the  legends  of 
tradition  and  the  genius  of  the  author. 

But  aside  from  the  question  of  its  historical  character,  the 
book  of  Tobit  has  a  manifest  religious  and  esthetic  value.  As 
a  work  of  Jewish  fiction  it  abounds  in  beautiful  domestic  scenes, 
exhibitions  of  paternal  care  and  of  filial  devotion,  and  also  of 
the  confiding  friendship  and  brotherly  devotion  of  the  scattered 
exiles.    Its  moral  and  religious  lessons  are  numerous,  and  in  a 


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♦ 


1881.]  The  Old  Testament  Apocrypha.  83 

doctrinal  point  of  view  it  is  specially  valuable  as  showing  the 
later  Jewish  notions  of  good  and  evil  angels.     The  date  and 
I  authorship  are  altogether  uncertain,  but  from  the  writer's  ap- 

parent familiarity  with  localities  in  the  far  East,  and  with  the 
habits  and  customs  of  distant  exiles,  we  may  infer  that  he  was 
an  eastern  Jew,  and  lived  some  time  before  the  beginning  of 
our  era.  The  best  scholars  incline  to  a  date  somewhere  be- 
tween 400  and  200  B.C.  It  is  generally  believed  that  the 
book  was  first  written  in  Hebrew  or  Chaldee,  but  the  original 
text  is  lost,  and  the  oldest  and  best  version  is  the  Septuagint, 
from  which  our  common  English  version  was  made.  There 
are  numerous  other  versions,  and  they  vary  greatly  in  details, 
80  that  on  the  whole  the  text  of  Tobit  is  in  a  very  corrupt 
and  confused  condition.  In  his  scholarly  and  truly  valuable 
"Exegetiches  Handbuch  zu  den  Apocryphen,"  Fritzsche  has 
undertaken  to  construct  a  revised  text,  giving  part  in  (ireek 
and  part  in  Latin.* 

JuDirH. 

It  is  reported  as  a  saying  of  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby,  that  he 
could  accept  the  Book  of  Judith  as  a  true  narrative  if  only  he 
could  find  a  place  for  it  in  ancient  history.  But  not  only 
is  there  no  place  in  ancient  history  for  it,  but  we  believe 
it  is  also  impossible  to  make  it  self-consistent.  It  con- 
tains historical,  geographical,  and  chronological  statements 
which  no  efforts  of  learning  or  ingenuity  have  been  able  to  har- 
monize with  well-established  facts.  And  yet  there  have  not 
been  wanting  writers,  at  almost  every  period  of  the  Christian 
Church,  who  have  accepted  the  book  as  a  genuine  history. 

The  more  ancient  writers  have  assigned  the  history  of  Judith 
to  a  post-exile  period,  but  they  could  not  agree  as  to  the  exact 
date.  The  main  difficulty  was  to  find  a  Persian  monarch  who 
would  answer  to  the  Nebuchadnezzar  of  this  book.  Oambyses, 
Darius  Hystaspes,  Xerxes,  and  Artaxerxes  were  all  tried,  but 
when  or  how  any  of  these  reigned  at  Nineveh,  or  why  a  post- 
exile  writer  came  to  call  either  of  them  by  the  name  Nebuchodr 

*  See,  also,  ^*  The  Book  of  Tobit.  A  Chaldee  text  from  a  unique  MS.  in  the 
Bodleian  Library,  with  other  Rabbinical  texts,  English  translations  and  the  Itala," 
edited  by  Ad.  Neubaner.  Oxford,  1878.  Also  **Da8  Buch  Tobias,  abersetzt  und 
erklart,"  by  Heinrich  Reusch,  Frieburg,  1867;  and  "Das  Buch  Tobit,  erklart," 
by  H.  Sengelman.    Hamburg,  1867. 


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84  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  PJanuary, 

onoser^  we  nowhere  find  explained.  The  kingdoms  of  Assyria 
and  Media  had  perished  long  before  the  Babylonish  exile,  and 
Nebuchadnezzar,  the  great  Chaldean  conqueror,  was  too  prom- 
inent a  character  and  too  well  known  to  be  spoken  of  by  any 
historian  as  king  of  the  Assyrians,  and  reigning  at  Nineveh. 

More  recent  writers  have  referred  the  book  to  a  pre-exile 
period.  Prideanx  places  the  events  narrated  in  the  reign  of 
Manasseh,  after  that  monarch  had  been  brought  back  from  his 
captivity  in  Babylon  (2  Chron.  xxxiii,  11-13)  and  had  been  re- 
stored to  his  kingdom.*  The  most  recent  work  in  defense  of 
the  historical  character  of  the  book  is  that  of  Wolflf,  who  de- 
votes thirty-six  pages  of  his  "  Comraentar  uber  das  Buch  Ju- 
dith ''  to  a  "  Refutation  of  the  chief  objections  to  the  historical 
worth  and  character"  of  this  ancient  workf  The  principal 
results  at  which  he  arrives  are  the  following:  The  Nebu- 
chadnezzar of  Judith  is  identical  with  Kiniladmi  of  Ptolemy's 
Canon,  and  Arphaxad  is  the  same  as  Phraortes^  the  son  of 
Deioces,  King  of  the  Medes,  who,  having  first  subjugated  the 
Belgians,  made  war  against  the  Assyrians,  but  was  defeated, 
and  perished  with  the  greater  part  of  his  army,  after  he  had 
reigned  twenty-two  years.  (See  Herodotus  i,  102.)  But  to  all 
this  it  is  sufficient  to  reply,  that  the  narratives  of  Herodotus 
and  Judith,  (assuming  Arphaxad  to  be  Phraortes,)  do  not  well 
agree.  Judith  represents  the  Assyrians  as  the  aggressors, 
(chap,  i,  5,  13,)  but  Herodotus  makes  the  Medes  the  invaders 
of  Assyria.  Instead  of  becoming  master  of  Ecbatana,  and  ut- 
terly destroying  the  power  of  the  Medes,  as  Judith  affirms,  the 
King  of  Assyria  was  soon  after  defeated  in  battle  by  Phraortes' 
son,  Cyaxares,  and  Nineveh  itself  was  taken.  (Herod,  i,  103, 
106.)  Judith  says  Arphaxad  (i.  e.,  Phraortes)  fortified  Ecba- 
tana, (i,  2,)  but  according  to  Herodotus,  it  was  Deioces,  the 
father  of  Phraortes,  (i,  98.) 

But  we  have  not  space  for  this  discussion.  Let  us  only  say 
that  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  the  events  of  this  book  occurred 
during  any  period  of  biblical  history,  and  received  no  notice  by 
any  sacred  writer.  We  find  no  hint  or  allusion  to  it  in  the  an- 
cient histories,  no  mention  of  it  in  the  writings  of  Philo  or 

*  Prideaux's  "  Oonnectioii,"  vol.  i,  pp.  82-87. 

f  **  Das  Buch  Judith^  als  gesohiohtliohe  Urkunde  Tertheidigt  and  erklart,"  bj 
O.Wolff.    Leipsic     1861. 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testament  Apocrypha,  85 

Josephus ;  and  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  a  late 
Jewish  fiction  of  no  historical  value,  and  that  its  author  was  ut- 
terly indifferent  as  to  historical  and  chronological  accuracy. 
More  plausible  and  satisfactory  is  the  view  of  Volkmar,  who 
maintains  that  "  the  Book  Of  Judith  is  a  poetical  narrative  of 
the  historical  victory  of  Judith  or  Judea  over  the  Legates  of 
the  new  Nebuchadnezzar  Trajan^  after  his  victorious  war 
against  the  seemingly  i^vincible  new  Medes  or  ParthianH. 
The  historical  narrative  is  celebrated  in  the  guise  of  Old  Testa- 
ment language  for  the  feast  of  the  Jewish  triumph-day  of 
Adar  after  Trajan's  death."*  Substantially  the  same  view  is 
advanced  by  Gratz,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  (English 
Trans.,  p.  96,  ff.)  He  holds  that  the  Book  of  Judith  is  a  ficti- 
tious story,  written  about  116  A.  D.,  to  encourage  the  Jews  of 
Palestine  under  the  oppression  of  Lucius  Quietus,  who  was  sent 
thither  by  Trajan  to  put  down  insurrection.  He  conceives 
that  by  Nebuchadnezzar  Trajan  is  intended,  and  that  Holof er- 
nes is  but  a  fictitious  personage  designed  to  represent  the  cruel 
Quietus.  In  a  time  of  general  despondency  and  gloom,  the 
beautiful  and  pious  Judith,  representing  "Judaism  in  trans- 
figured personification,"  emerges  from  the  dark  background 
to  inspire  the  Israelites  with  hope  and  confidence,  and  nerve 
their  hands  for  war. 

Luther  regarded  the  work  as  a  sort  of  allegory,  "  a  religious 
fiction  or  poem,"  in  which  Judith  represents  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple, Holofemes  godless  and  persecuting  heathenism,  and  Beth- 
ulia  the  virgin  purity  of  the  Jews  of  that  period.  The  same 
general  idea  is  also  held  by  others,  who,  however,  refer  its  ori- 
gin to  the  Maccabean  times.  According  to  Wescott,  "the 
value  of  the  book  is  not  lessened  by  its  fictitious  character. 
On  the  contrary,  it  becomes  even  more  valuable  as  exhibiting 
an  ideal  type  of  heroism,  which  was  outwardly  embodied  in  the 
wars  of  independence."  f 

Additions  to  Esther. 

Li  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Book  of  Esther  are  found  a 
number  of  apocryphal  additions  to  the  Hebrew  narrative,  which 

***Handbach  der  Einleitung  in  die  Apokrjphen,  Erate  Abtheilung:  Judith.'" 
Tabingen,  1860;  p.  6. 
fSmitli's  "Bible  Dictionary/*  art.  Juditli. 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXHL— 6 


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86  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [January, 

have  been  translated  and  published  in  the  Authorized  Yersion 
of  King  James  under  the  title,  "  The  Eest  of  the  Chapters  of 
the  Book  of  Esther,  which  are  found  neither  in  the  Hebrew 
nor  in  the  Chaldee."  They  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  pure 
inventions  of  the  Greek  translators,  but  their  subject-matter 
probably  consists  of  national  traditions  widely  current  among 
the  Jewish  people,  which  these  translators  gave  definite  shape 
and  form  in  their  version  of  the  canonical  Esther.  Josephus 
cites  them  (Ant.  xi,  6,)  as  historically  true,  though  he  must  have 
known  that  they  formed  no  part  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
Similar  additions  are  found  in  the  Chaldee  Targum  of  Esther, 
as  also  in  the  Targums  of  other  canonical  books.  We  need  not 
suppose  that  they  are  without  any  historical  basis,  though  they 
are,  doubtless,  to  be  largely  attributed  to  the  inventive  tenden- 
cies of  the  later  Judaism  to  embellish  and  amplify  the  heroic 
narratives  of  sacred  history.  These  additions  to  Esther  aim 
to  supply  what,  doubtless,  many  a  pious  Jew,  like  many  de- 
vout Christians,  deemed  strangely  wanting  in  the  Hebrew 
book,  namely,  a  noticeable  religious  and  theocratic  character. 
The  name  of  God  does  not  occur  in  the  Hebrew  book ;  these 
Additions  plentifully  supply  that  defect. 

AnDmoNs  to  Daniel. 

The  honored  name  of  Daniel  would  naturally,  like  that  of 
Esther,  Ezra,  and  others,  become  associated  with  numerous  tra- 
ditions among  the  Oriental  Jews.  Three  ancient  documents, 
known  as  apocryphal  additions  to  Daniel,  have  come  down  to 
us  in  connection  with  the  Greek  translations  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. The  English  version  gives  them  separately  under  the 
titles  of  "History  of  Susanna,"  "Song  of  the  Three  Holy 
Children,"  and  "Bel  and  the  Dragon."  The  first  of  these 
is  found  in  the  Septuagint  at  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  and  is  called  in  some  copies  "  The  Judgment  of  Dan- 
iel." Its  design  is  to  celebrate  the  womanly  virtue  of  a  pious 
Jewish  matron  of  Babylon,  and  also  to  extol  the  wisdom  of 
Daniel  in  proving  her  innocence,  and  in  exposing  the  wicked- 
ness of  two  corrupt  judges  who  sought  her  ruin.  There  may 
have  been  some  basis  of  fact  upon  which  the  stoiy  rested,  but 
in  its  present  form  it  is  evidently  a  highly  embellished  tradition 
of  the  later  Judaism. 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testammt  Apocrypha.  87 

The  song  of  the  three  holy  Children  is  inserted  in  the  Sep- 
tnagint  between  the  twenty-third  and  twenty-fourth  verses 
of  the  third  chapter  of  Daniel.  In  the  Alexandrian  Codex 
it  is  "placed  at  the  end  of  the  Psalms,  and  designated  as 
hymns  nine  and  ten,  with  the  titles  "  The  Prayer  of  Azarias," 
and  "  The  Hymn  of  our  Fathers."  This  position  was,  doubt- 
less, given  it  on  account  of  its  liturgical  character.  It  consists 
properly  of  three  distinct  parts.  1.  The  prayer  of  Azariaa. 
(Verses  1-22.)  2.  The  angel's  smiting  of  the  flame  of  the  fur- 
nace. (23-28.)  3.  The  song  of  the  three  companions.  The 
first  and  third  of  these  parts  are  probably  not  from  the  same 
author,  and  are  not  in  exact  harmony  with  each  other. 

The  Hiitory  of  the  Destruction  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon  is 
found  in  the  Septuagint  appended  to  the  Book  of  Daniel.  The 
story  belongs  to  the  Ptolemaic  period  of  Alexandrine  Judaism, 
and  was  probably  designed  to  fortify  the  Jews  of  Egypt 
against  the  prevailing  superstitions  of  that  land.  The  an- 
achronisms and  absurdities  with  which  it  abounds  defy  all 
serious  claim  for  either  genuineness  or  credibility.  That  Cy- 
rus, the  Persian,  a  Zoroastrian  Monotheist,  was  a  worshiper  of 
the  Babylonian  Bel,  is  not  to  be  supposed.  That  the  temple  of 
Bel  was  destroyed  by  Daniel  is  contrary  to  Herodotus  and 
Strabo,  who  declare  tliat  Xerxes  plundered  and  destroyed  it. 
The  worship  of  snakes  and  dragons,  common  in  Egypt,  was 
foreign  to  all  we  know  of  the  Babylonian  cultus.  The  Prophet 
Habakkuk  flourished  a  century  before  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  and 
the  story  of  his  being  carried  by  the  hair  of  his  head  from 
Judea  to  Babylon,  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  a  dinner  to 
Daniel  in  the  lion's  den,  is  utterly  preposterous.  The  work, 
like  other  similar  productions,  is  chiefly  valuable  as  illustrative 
of  Jewish  legendary  lore. 

The  Pkayer  of  Manasseh. 

The  captivity  of  the  Jewish  king  Manass^  recorded  in 
2  Chron.  xxxiii,  furnished  the  subject  of  numerous  apocryphal 
legends.  The  Targum  on  Chronicles  says  that  the  Chaldeans 
made  a  brazen  image,  perforated  all  around  with  small  holes^ 
and  shut  Manasseh  in  it.  Then  they  encompassed  it  with  fire, 
and  when  the  king  began  to  suffer  torture  he  prayed  unto  all 
the  idols  he  had  made,  but  they  gave  no  anawen    Then  he 


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88  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Review.  [Januaiy, 

humbled  himself  and  called  upon  the  God  of  his  fathers.  As 
soon  as  he  thus  prayed  all  the  angels  that  guard  the  gates  of 
prayer,  which  are  in  heaven,  closed  those  gates  and  all  the  win- 
dows of  the  sky,  that  his  prayer  might  not  be  recognized*.  But 
immediately  the  tender  compassion  of  the  Lord  was  moved, 
and  his  right  hand  was  stretched  forth  to  help  the  penitent 
transgressor.  lie  opened  a  window  under  the  throne  of  his 
glory,  listened  to  Manasseh's  prayer,  shook  the  world  by  his 
word,  and  cleft  the  brazen  image,  so  that  the  captive  king  went 
free.  Then  ManaBseh  knew  that  Jehovah  was  God  alone,  who 
made  the  heavens  and  wrought  these  miracles.* 

The  apocryphal  Prayer  of  Manasseh  is  evidently  an  attempt 
of  some  Jewish  writer  to  supply  the  prayer  referred  to  in 
2  Chron.  xxxiii,  18.  There  is  a  simplicity  and  directness  about 
it  which  certainly  speak  in  its  favor,  but  we  have  no  means  of 
determining  the  place  of  its  composition,  its  date,  or  its  author- 
ship. It  is  found  in  the  Alexandrian  Codex,  and  the  Greek 
text  was  first  published  by  Robert  Stephens,  at  Paris,  in  1540. 
It  was  also  published  in  the  Apostolical  Constitutions  in  1563,t 
and  in  the  fourth  volume  of  Walton's  Polyglot,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  apocryphal  books.  It  also  exists  in  a  Latin  ver- 
sion which  is  older  than  the  times  of  St.  Jerome. 

The  Wisdom  of  Solomon. 

If  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon  did  not  inaugurate,  they  certain- 
ly gave  definite  and  permanent  form  to,  the  ethical  philosophy 
of  the  Hebrews.  It  is  beautifully  observed  by  Stanley  that 
Solomon  was  not  only  the  Augustus,  but  the  Aristotle  of  his 
age  and  nation.  But  the  Israelite  philosophy,  discarding  the 
rigid  rules  and  speculative  tendencies  of  Greek  thought,  fol- 
lowed a  more  simple  and  practical  course.  The  Wisdom,  cele- 
brated in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  extolled  in  all.  the  later 
Jewish  literature,  has  its  deep  foundations  in  religion,  and  aims 
directly  to  correct  and  exalt  human  life  and  character.     "  Her 

♦  Fabriciu8,  "Godex  Ffleud.  Vet.  Test.,"  p.  1100. 

f  In  the  Jlpostolical  Gonstitutioiis  the  Prayer  of  Manasseh  appears  entire,  and 
is  followed  by  the  statement :  *'  There  appeared  a  flame  of  fire  about  him,  and  all 
the  iron  shackles  and  chains,  which  were  about  him,  fell  off,  and  the  Lord  healed 
Manasseh  from  his  affliction.*'— "  Apos.  Const,**  book  ii,  82.  Eng.  Trans,  in  yoL 
rvii  of  Clark*s  "  Ante-Nicene  Chr.  Library.*' 


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1881.3  The  Old  Testament  Apocrypha.  89 

seat  is  the  bosom  of  God;  her  voice  the  harmony  of  the 
world."  "With  God  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and 
during  the  creation,  Wisdom  evermore  endures,  pointing  out 
the  paths  of  righteousness,  and  leading  to  happiness,  honor, 
and  immortality. 

This  doctrine  of  Wisdom,  by  reason  of  Jewish  contrast  with 
Oriental  and  Occidental  modes  of  thought,  received  various 
modifications  with  the  lapse  of  time.  The  founding  of  Alex- 
andria, in  Egypt,  opened  a  field  for  the  commingling  and  con- 
flict of  all  the  leading  systems  of  philosophy.  Here  Egyptian 
sages,  Asiatic  transcendentalists,  Greek  philosophers,  and  Jew- 
ish rabbins,  met  a^nd  disputed  with  each  other.  Here,  encour- 
aged by  the  Ptolemies,  they  founded  schools  and  taught  their 
several  systems.  Under  such  circumstances  the  diverse  sys- 
tems would  naturally  modify  each  other,  and  produce  not  a  few 
eclectics. 

Among  the  first  settlers  of  Alexandria  the  Jewish  population 
was  conspicuous.  Alexander  himself  gave  them  an  eligible 
part  of  the  city  for  their  quarter,  and  allowed  them  equal  priv- 
ileges with  the  Macedonians.*  Ptolemy  Lagus  transported 
great  numbers  of  Jews  from  various  parts  of  Palestine  into 
Egypt,  and  multitudes  voluntarily  emigrated  thither,  so  that  the 
Jewish  population  of  Alexandria  beciime  a  very  important  portion 
of  the  whole  Jewish  nation.  At  Alexandria  the  Septuagint 
version  of  the  Old  Testament  was  made.  Notwithstanding  oc- 
casional persecutions,  some  of  them  very  bitter,  the  Alexandrian 
Jews  maintained  their  influence  and  power,  and  by  their  wor- 
ship and  teachings  largely  afEected  the  civilization  of  the  East. 

The  author  of  the  "  Book  of  Wisdom  "  f  is  now  generally 
believed  to  have  been  an  Alexandrian  Jew,  who  flourished 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the  Christian  era. 
Luther  and  several  others  assigned  the  authorship  to  the  distin- 
guished Riilo  Judseus ;  but  the  writings  of  Philo  and  the  doc- 
trines of  this  book  are  too  often  in  conflict  to  allow  of  this  opin- 
ion. The  religious  and  doctrinal  value  of  the  book  places  it 
among  the  highest  of  apocryphal  productions.  "  It  seems  im- 
possible to  study  the  book  dispassionately,"  says  Westcott,  ''and 
not  feel  that  it  forms  one  of  the  last  links  in  the  chain  of  provi- 
dential connection  between  the  old  and.new  covenants.   Though 

♦  Josephus,  Ani.f  xii,  1 ;  Apion,  ii,  4.  f  This  is  its  title  in  the  Vulgate. 


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90  MetKodAst  Qua/rterly  Beview.  [January, 

it  falls  short  of  Christian  tmth,  or  rather  is  completely  silent 
on  the  essential  doctrines  of  Christianity,  yet  Christianity  offers 
the  only  complete  solution  of  the  problems  which  it  raises  on 
the  immortality  of  man,  on  future  judgment,  on  the  catholicity 
of  the  divine  Church,  and  the  specialty  of  revelation.  It  would 
not  be  easy  to  find  elsewhere  any  pre-Christian  view  of  religion 
equally  wide,  sustained,  and  definite.  The  writer  seems  to  have 
looked  to  the  East  and  the  West,  to  the  philosophy  of  Persia 
and  of  Greece,  and  to  have  gathered  from  both  what  they 
contained  of  divine  truth,  and  yet  to  have  clung  with  no  less 
zeal  than  his  fathers  to  that  central  revelation  which  God  made 
first  to  Moses,  and  then  carried  on  by  the  Old  Testament 
prophets."  * 

ECOLESIASTICUS. 

This  book  was  originally  written  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  but 
has  come  down  to  us  in  a  Greek  translation,  made  professedly 
by  the  author's  grandson.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important 
apocryphal  books  extant,  and  the  only  one  of  which  we  have 
any  account  of  the  author.  The  common  title  in  the  Greek 
MSS.,  and  in  the  printed  editions  of  the  Septuagint,  is,  '^  The 
Wisdom  of  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach,"  or  simply,  "  Wisdom  of 
Sirach."  The  name  Ecclesiasticus  is  derived  from  the  Old 
Latin  version,  adopted  by  Jerome,  and  has  been  the  common 
title  used  by  the  Latin  Church,  and  in  most  modem  versions. 

From  the  prologue  to  the  book  we  learn  that  the  author  was 
an  Israelite,  who  had  given  himself  to  a  thorough  study  of  the 
sacred  writings  of  his  people,  and,  having  become  deeply  versed 
therein,  he  himself  essayed  to  put  in  writing  his  own  matured 
reflections  upon  discipline  and  wisdom.  In  chap.  1,  27,  he  calls 
himself  Jesus,  [or  Joshua,]  the  son  of  Sirach  of  Jerusalem, 
whence  it  appears  that  he  was  a  Palestinean  Jew.  From  other 
passages  it  also  appears  that  he  occasionally  traveled  abroad, 
observing  men  and  things,  and  was  frequently  exposed  to  dan- 
ger and  death.  The  Greek  translator,  grandson  of  the  author, 
informs  us  in  the  prologue  that  he  came  into  Egypt  in  the 
thirty-eighth  year  of  King  Euergetes.  Thus  doubtless  he  came 
in  contact  with  the  Greek  spirit  and  culture  which  had  its 
chief  seat  at  Alexandria,  and  he  thought  it  important  to  trans- 

♦  Smith's  "  Dictionafy  of  the  Bible.**    Art.,  Wisdom  of  Solomon. 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testament  ApocryjpJia.  91 

late  the  learned  work  of  his  grandfather  into  the  current  lan- 
guage of  the  land.  This  translation  has  lived,  and  is  the  basis 
of  other  versions,  but  the  Hebrew  original  is  lost. 

The  great  theme  of  the  author  is  Wisdom.  He  endeavors 
to  set  forth  its  true  nature,  illustrate  its  practical  value,  and 
celebrate  its  praise.  His  work  abounds  in  passages  of  the  high- 
est elegance  and  beauty,  and  not  a  few  of  its  precepts  have 
worked  their  way  into  the  popular  language  of  most  modem 
nations.  "  It  would  be  regarded  by  our  modem  wits,"  says 
Addison,  "  as  one  of  the  most  shining  tracts  of  morality  that 
are  extant,  if  it  appeared  under  the  name  of  a  Confucius,  or  of 
any  celebrated  Grecian  philosopher."  We  add  two  other 
extracts,  to  show  the  estimation  in  which  the  work  is  held  : 

In  some  respects  the  Book  of  the  Son  of  Sirach  is  but  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  ancient  writings  of  Solomon.  In  some  of  its  maxims 
it  sinks  below  the  dignity  of  those  writings  by  the  homeliness  of 
its  details  for  guidance  of  behavior  at  meals,  of  commercial  spec- 
ulation, of  social  advancement.  But  its  general  tone  is  worthy 
of  that  first  contact  between  the  two  great  civilizations  of  the 
ancient  world,  and  breathes  a  spirit  which  an  Isaiah  would  not 
have  condemned,  nor  a  Sophocles  or  a  Theophrastus  have  de- 
spised. There  is  not  a  word  in  it  to  countenance  the  minute 
casuistries  of  the  later  rabbis,  or  the  metaphysical  subtleties  of 
the  later  Alexandrians.  It  pours  out  its  whole  strength  in  dis- 
cussing the  conduct  of  human  life,  or  the  direction  of  the  soul  to 
noble  aims.* 
y  The  ancients  styled  this  book  by  the  Greek  name  Travoperof ,  sig- 
nifying that  it  treats  of  and  comprises  all  sorts  of  virtues.  And, 
indeed,  it  is  a  system  of  morality  so  full  and  comprehensive  that 
there  is  scarce  any  virtue  which  this  excellent  piece  does  not 
recommend,  and  lay  down  rules  for  obtaining ;  nor  a  vice  or  in- 
decorum which  it  does  not  expose  or  discourage.  It  forms  the 
manners  of  persons  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions,  by  an  infin- 
ity almost  of  useful  maxims  and  instructions.  One  learns  from 
it  all  the  duties  of  religion  and  civil  life,  both  what  piety  com- 
mands and  politeness  and  good  manners  expect.  Every  one  may 
here  discover,  so  full  and  obvious  is  it,  what  he  owes  to  God,  to 
his  country,  his  neighborhood,  his  family,  and  to  himself;  how 
to  behave  in  the  different  relations  of  life,  either  to  superiors  or 
inferiors,  friends  or  enemies;  and  so  it  may  be  thought,  as  indeed 
some  have  represented  it,  to  comprise  all  the  duties  of  both  tables 
of  the  law.  For  the"  precepts  wnich  it  delivers,  and  the  princi- 
pal matters  which  it  treats  of,  may  be  divided  into  four  sorts  : 
1.  Theological.     2.  Political.     3.  Economical.    4.  Ethical.    These 

•  Stanley,  "  ffistory  of  Jewiah  Church."    Third  Series,  p.  800. 


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92  Methodist  Quarterly  Bemew.  [January, 

four  heads  take  in  most,  if  not  all,  the  maxims  of  this  book,  so 
that  what  lies  dispersed  in  the  great  volumes  of  philosophers  and 
moralists,  is  collected  into  a  short  compass,  and  to  be  found  here, 
as  it  were,  in  miniature.  In  short,  tiie  author  has  given  U)S  at 
once  a  whole  treasury  of  wisdom,  and  with  great  profusion  has 
intermixed  reflections,  counsels,  exhortations,  reproofs,  examples, 
prayers,  praises,  etc. ;  so  that  truth  appears  in  different  attitudes 
and  forms,  but  beautiful  and  engaging  under  each,  and  shines 
with  so  complacent  a  luster  as  cannot  but  draw  attention  and 
command  respect  and  admiration.* 

Babuoh. 

The  apocryphal  Book  of  Barueh  contains,  1.  An  introduc- 
tion, (chap,  i,  1-14,)  in  which  the  writer,  assuming  to  be  Ba- 
rueh, the  son  of  Neriah,  declares  that  he  read  his  book  to 
Jehoiachin,  the  nobles,  and  all  the  people  who  dwelt  in  Baby- 
lon, and  sent  it,  together  with  money  and  other  things,  to 
Joachim,  the  high-priest,  and  all  the  people  who  were  still  at 
Jerusalem.  2.  A  penitential  prayer,  (i,  15-iii,  8,)  in  which 
the  afflicted  people  of  God  are  represented  as  confessing  their 
sins,  and  greatly  humbling  themselves,  and  supplicating  the 
divine  compassion.  3.  An  address  to  Isi*ael,  (iii,  9-iv,  8,)  in 
which  the  writer  abruptly  turns  from  prayer  to  exhortation, 
and  calls  upon  the  Israelites  to  heed  the  counsels  of  wisdom. 
4.  Jerusalem's  lament,  (iv,  9-29,)  in  which  the  Holy  City  is 
introduced  as  a  forsaken  widow,  mourning  over  the  sins  and 
captivity  of  her  children,  yet  hopeful,  and  urging  her  children 
to  cry  unto  God  that  they  may  be  saved.  5.  Jerusalem  com- 
forted, (iv,  30-v,  9,)  God  himself  addressing. her,  and  giving 
assurance  that  the  enemies  shall  be  destroyed,  and  Israel  shall 
be  restored  in  great  triumph  and  glory. 

The  language  of  the  book  is  largely  appropriated  from  the 

prophetical  books  of  Holy  Scripture,  especially  from  Jeremiah 

and  Daniel,  but  the  chronological  data  are  full  of  confusion  and 

obscurity. 

Epistle  of  Jekemiah. 

In  some  editions  of  the  Septuagint,  and  in  the  Latin  and 
Syriac  versions,  this  epistle  appears  as  the  sixth  chapter  of 
Barueh.  Thus  it  stands  in  the  English  version  of  King  James. 
But  in  the  Codex  Alexandrinus,  and  most  editions  of  the  Sep- 

♦  Richard  Amald,  "Commentary  on  the  Apocrypha."    Preface  to  Ecclesiasticus. 


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1881.1  The  Old  Testament  Apocrypha.  93 

tuagint,  it  is  placed  immediately  after  the  Lamentations  of  Jere- 
miah. It  is  entitled,  "A  Copy  (avrtypatpov)  of  an  epistle  which 
Jeremiah  sent  unto  them  who  were  about  to  be  led  captives  to 
Babylon,  by  the  king  of  the  Babylonians,  to  make  known  to 
them  according  as  it  was  enjoined  upon  him  by  God."  It  ad- 
monishes the  Jews  that  in  Babylon  they  will  come  in  contact 
with  gross  idolatry,  and  then  proceeds  at  great  length  to  expose 
the  emptiness  and  folly  of  infidelity.  Its  form  as  an  epistlte 
is  modeled  after  the  twenty-ninth  chapter  of  Jeremiah,  and  its 
exposure  of  idolatry  is  based  chiefly  on  Jer.  x,  1-16.  Nothing 
is  known  of  the  author,  and  the  time  and  place  of  his  writing 
are  uncertain.  Fritzsche  infers,  from  the  purity  of  the  writer's 
Hellenistic  dialect,  and  his  accurate  acquaintance  with  idola- 
trous worship,  that  the  epistle  was  written  outside  of  Palestine, 
and  probably  in  Egypt. 

The  Books  of  the  Maccabees. 

Of  the  several  ancient  works  which  bear  the  name  of  the  Mac- 
cabees that  commonly  known  as  the  First  is  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant and  trustworthy.  It  contains  a  history  of  the  Maccabean 
straggles  for  independence,  and  covers  a  period  of  about  forty 
years,  from  175  to  135  B.  C.  Its  value  as  a  historical  document, 
pertaining  to  a  most  important  and  interesting  period  of  Jewish 
history,  cannot  be  easily  overestimated.  It  furnishes  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  "  It  almost 
equals,"  says  Luther,  "the  sacred  books  of  Scripture,  and 
would  not  have  been  imworthy  to  be  reckoned  among  them, 
because  it  is  a  very  necessary  and  useful  book  for  understand- 
ing the  eleventh  chapter  of  DanieL" 

It  is  generally  agreed  among  critics  that  the  author  was  a 
Palestinean  Jew.  This  is  seen  from  the  lively  sympathy 
which  he  evinces  for  his  Maccabean  heroes,  and  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  localities  of  Palestine.  From  the  ab- 
sence of  any  reference  to  a  future  life,  or  to  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  it  has  been  inferred  that  the  author  was  a  Saddu- 
cee.  The  book  was  probably  written  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
reign  of  John  Hyrcanus,  somewhere  between  120  and  107 
B.  C.  Most  critics  believe  that  the  closing  words  of  the  book 
(chap,  xvi,  24)  imply  that  John  was  still  living.  They  speak 
of  the  beginning  of  his  priesthood,  but  make  no  mention  of  its 


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94  Methodist  Quarterly  Bemew.  [January, 

close,  a  fact  somewhat  singular,  if  his  entire  reign  had  already 
passed  into  history. 

According  to  Origen  and  Jerome  the  work  was  originally 
written  in  Hebrew,  and  their  statement  is  corroborated  by  a 
critical  study  of  the  Septuagint  version,  in  which  occur  numer- 
ous Hebraisms  of  such  a  character  as  to  show  that  they  are 
literal  translations  of  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  expressions.  The 
Greek  translator  is  unknown,  but  the  version  was  probably 
made  soon  after  the  composition  of  the  original.  The  wide 
prevalence  of  the  Greek  language  gave  general  currency  to  this 
translation,  so  that  it  gradually  superseded  and  displaced  the 
Hebrew  original. 

The  Second  Book  of  Maccabees,  though  ancient  and  full  of 
interest,  is  of  far  less  historical  value  than  the  First.  The  re- 
ligious and  hortatory  aim  of  the  writer  is  noticeable  in  connection 
with  a  most  glaring  neglect  of  chronological  order,  and  an  un- 
pardonable inaccuracy  in  details.  The  style  of  the  writer  is 
very  uneven,  and  he  uses  many  new  and  unusual  words. 
Though  showing  a  clever  command  of  the  Greek  language,  he 
sometimes  epitomizes  his  narrative  with  a  rough  brevity,  (e.  g. 
chap,  xiii,  19-26,)  which  presents  a  strange  contrast  with  the 
rhetorical  flow  of  other  sections,  (e.  g.,  iii,  13-30.) 

The  author  claims  to  furnish  only  an  abridgment  of  a  larger 
work  in  five  books,  by  Jason  of  Gyrene,  (chap,  ii,  23.)  The 
date  of  Jason's  work,  and  of  this  epitome,  cannot  be  very  ap- 
proximately fixed.  The  original  work  must  have  been  written 
after  Nicanor's  death,  (160  B.  C.,)  and  probably  some  time 
after,  and  the  abridgment,  of  course,  still  later.  Opinions  on 
this  point  range  from  150  B.  0.  to  70  A.  D. 

The  religious  character  of  the  book  is  one  of  its  most  impor- 
tant and  interesting  features.  God  is  throughout  recognized  as 
ordaining  even  the  most  minute  affairs  of  his  people;  the  calami- 
ties which  befell  them  are  looked  upon  by  the  Jews  as  a  tempo- 
rary visitation  for  their  sins;  and  the  sufferings  which  come  upon 
the  righteous  in  this  common  visitation  are  regarded  as  atoning 
for  the  sins  of  the  rest  of  the  people,  and  staying  the  anger  of 
God.  What  is,  however,  most  striking,  is  that  not  only  did  the 
Jews  then  believe  in  the  surviving  of  the  soul  after  the  death  of 
the  body,  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  in  their  reunion 
with  those  near  and  dear  to  them,  but  that  God  does  not  irrev- 
ocably seal  the  eternal  doom  of  man  immediately  after  his  de- 
parture, and  that  the  decision  of  our  heavenly  Father  may  be 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testament  Apo(yry;pha.  95 

influenoed  by  the  prayers  and  sacrifices  of  the  surviving  friends 
of  the  departed.  The  striking  distinction  between  the  religious 
sentiments  of  this  book  and  those  of  the  former  goes  far  to 
justify  Geiger's  conclusion  that  the  two  books  are  party  pro- 
ductions; the  author  of  the  first  was  a  Sadducee  and  a  friend  of 
the  Maccabean  dynasty,  while  the  author  or  epitomizer  of  the 
second  was  a  Pharisee,  who  looked  upon  the  Maccabees  with 
suspicion.* 

What  is  commonly  known  as  the  Third  Book  of  Maccabees 
is,  strictly  speaking,  not  about  the  Maccabees  at  all.  It  nar- 
rates the  persecutions  and  marvelous  deliverances  of  the  Jews 
of  Egypt  during  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philopator.  After  his 
victory  over  Antiochus  the  Great,  Ptolemy  visited  Jerusalem, 
and  offered  sacrifices  at  the  temple.  But  attempting  to  enter 
the  holy  of  holies,  he  was  smitten  by  a  judgment-stroke  from 
Heaven.  Thus  baffled,  he  returned  to  Egypt  and  attempted  to 
wreak  his  vengeance  on  the  Jews  who  were  settled  in  that 
country.  He  had  them  arrested  and  sent  to  Alexandria,  de- 
signing there  to  have  them  crushed  to  death  by  intoxicated 
elephants.  But  his  purposes  were  miraculously  frustrated,  his 
anger  was  turned  into  pity,  and  the  Jews  in  his  dominions 
were  advanced  to  greater  authority  and  glory  than  ever  before. 

There  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt  or  dispute  the  historical* 
character  of  the  main  parts  of  the  narrative.  Its  form  shows 
the  plentiful  embellishments  and  exaggerations  of  a  writer 
anxious  to  color  his  story  with  all  that  will  give  effect.  But, 
aside  from  this,  there  appears  a  demonstrable  basis  of  truth. 
It  was  probably  written  in  the  Greek  language,  at  Alexandria, 
by  an  Alexandrian  Jew.  Its  date  is  probably  as  early  as  100 
B.  0.  English  translations  of  the  Greek  text  have  been  made 
by  William  Whiston,  (1727,)  by  Henry  Cotton,t  and  by  an  un- 
named writer  in  Bagster's  edition  of  the  "Apocrypha,"  Greek 
and  English,  in  parallel  columns,  (1871.) 

The  Fourth  Book  of  Maccabees  is  a  philosophical  treatise. 
In  this  respect  it  noticeably  differs  from  the  other  books  of  this 
name;  for,  while  it  records  numerous  events  of  Maccabean 
history,  it  makes  all  subservient  to  a  philosophical  argument. 
The  incidents  recorded  are  brought  to  illustrate  and  confirm 

•  Ginsburg,  in  Eitto's  new  "  Cyc.  of  Bib.  Literature."    Art,  Maccabees. 
fThe  "Five  Books  of  Maccabees,"  in  English,  with  Notes  and  Blustrations. 
Oxford,  1882. 


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96  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [January, 

Hie  tnndamental  proposition  that  religious  principle  is  master 
of  the  passions.  The  book  is  usually  printed  in  editions  of  Jo- 
sephus'  works,  where  it  is  entitled  "Josephus'  Treatise  on  the 
Maccabees,  or  on  the  Supremacy  of  Reason."  But  the  Greek 
text  of  the  Codex  Alexandrinus  is  supposed  to  be  the  most 
ancient  and  preferable.  Modem  critics  quite  generally  reject 
the  opinion,  once  entertained,  that  Josephus  was  the  author. 
It  is  rather  believed  to  be  the  production  of  an  Alexandrian 
Jew,  and  probably  written  about  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.  It  is  chiefly  valuable  for  illustrating  the  religious 
beliefs  and  moral  philosophy  of  the  Jewish  people  at  that  time. 
Like  the  Second  Book  of  Maccabees,  it  teaches  the  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection,  and  that  the  death  of  the  righteous  is  a  vica- 
rious atonement.  English  translations  are  given  in  Cotton's 
"  Five  Books  of  Maccabees,"  and  Bagster's  "Apocrypha,"  men- 
tioned above. 

In  the  Paris  and  London  'Polyglots  appears  still  another 
Book  of  Maccabees.  It  is  published  in  Arabic,  with  a  Latin 
translation,  under  the  title  of  "  Second  Maccabees ; "  but  Cot- 
ton, who  made  an  English  translation  from  the  Latin,  entitled 
it, "  The  Fifth  Book  of  Maccabees."  It  contains  the  Jewish  his- 
tory of  178  years,  from  the  attempt  of  Heliodorus  to  plunder 
the  temple,  to  the  murder  of  the  two  Maccabean  princes,  Alex- 
ander and  Aristobulus,  (184  to  6  B.  C.)  Of  its  historical  value 
and  general  trustworthiness  there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  it  can 
scarcely  be  classed  with  the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha. 

Differing  from  the  above-named  books  in  their  literary  his- 
tory, but  like  them  in  general  character  and  worth,  is  another 
class  of  ancient  Jewish  writings,  which  we  may  appropriately, 
and  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  caU  Pseudepigrapka.  This 
word  implies  that  the  titles  of  such  books  are  false,  and  that 
they  were  not  really  written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they 
bear.  And  this  is  equally  true  of  some  of  the  books  called 
apocryphal.  Under  the  Old  Testament  Pseudepigrapha  we 
may  name  the  following :  The  Book  of  Enoch,  the  Testaments 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  The  Revelation  of  Moses,  The  As- 
sumption of  Moses,  The  Book  of  Jubilees,  The  Psalms  of  Sol- 
omon, The  Ascension  of  Isaiah,  The  Revelation  of  Baruch,  and, 
perhaps.  The  Sibylline  Oracles.  These  ancient  works,  however 
falsely  named,  are  all  of  great  importance  in  the  department  of 


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1881 J  The  Old  Testament  Apocrypha.  97 

Sacred  Literature ;  but  they  are  rare  and  costly,  some  of  them 
not  extant  in  an  English  version,  and  consequently  hardly 
known  to  many  an  intelligent  Christian  reader.  Our  space  will 
not  allow  us  to  present  their  contents  in  the  present  article. 

The  Question  of  CANONicmr. 
Most  of  these  apocryphal  books  were  in  existence  and  well 
known  before  the  Christian  era.  That  the  New  Testament 
writers  were  familiar  with  them  is  rendered  probable  by 
numerous  coincidences  of  language.*  They  are  frequently 
quoted  as  Scripture  by  the  ancient  Christian  fathers,  such  as 
Clement  of  Rome  and  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Irenseus,  Ori- 
gen,  Hippolytus,  and  Athanasius.  This  honorable  treatment 
of  these  books  was,  doubtless,  largely  owing  to  the  general  use, 
among  the  early  Christians,  of  the  Septuagint  version  of  the 
Old  Testament.  "  In  proportion  as  the  fathers  were  more  or 
less  absolutely  dependent  on  that  version  for  their  knowledge 
of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  they  gradually  lost  in  common 
practice  the  sense  of  the  difference  between  the  books  of  the 
Hebrew  Canon  and  the  Apocrypha.  The  custom  of  individ- 
uals grew  into  the  custom  of  the  Church ;  and  the  public  use 
of  the  apocryphal  books  obliterated  in  popular  regard  the  char- 
acteristic marks  of  their  origin  and  value,  which  could  only  be 
discovered  by  the  scholar."  f  Augustine  seems  to  have  been 
the  first  who  included  the  apocryphal  books  in  the  Canon  of 
Holy  Scripture.  Yet  in  some  parts  of  his  writings  he  distin- 
guidies  between  certain  books,  as  the  Maccabees,  which  were 
used  in  the  Church,  but  not  included  in  the  Jewish  Canon. 
Westcott  observes  that  this  great  father  of  the  Western  Church 
"frequently  uses  passages  from  the  apocryphal  books  as  co- 
ordinate with  Scripture,  and  practically  disregards  the  rules 
of  distinction  between  the  various  classes  of  sacred  writings 
which  he  himself  lays  down.  He  stood  on  the  extreme  verge 
of  the  age  of  independent  learning,  and  follows  at  one  time  the 
conclusions  of  criticism,  at  another  the  prescriptions  of  habit, 
which  from  his  date  grew  more  and  more  powerful."  This 
enlargement  upon  the  Jewish  Canon  received  the  sanction  of 

♦  Compare  1  Esdras  iil,  12,  with  2  Cor.  xiii,  8 ;  Tobit  iv,  15,  with  Matt  vii,  12 ; 
Judith  viii,  27,  with  1  CJor.  x,  10 ;  WiBdom  iv,  10,  with  Heb.  xi,  6 ;  Ecclus.  v,  11, 
with  James  i,  19;  Baruch  iv,  7,  with  1  Cor.  x,  20 ;  1  Mace,  iv,  69,  with  John  x,  22. 

\  Westcott,  in  Smith*0  "  JDioUonaiy  of  the  Bible.*'    Art.,  Canon. 


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98  Methodist  Qua/rUrVy  Review.  [January, 

one  of  the  Councils  of  Carthage,  and  of  several  of  the  Popes 
of  Rome.  Finally,  in  1546,  the  Council  of  Trent  decreed: 
"  If  any  one  shall  not  receive  these  books  entire,  with  all  their 
parts,  as  they  are  wont  to  be  read  in  the  Catholic  Clinrch,  and 
the  old  Latin  Yulgate  edition,  for  sacred  and  canonical,  and 
shall  knowingly  and  intentionally  despise  the  traditions  afoi*e- 
said,  let  him  be  accursed."  In  another  decree  the  same  Council 
declared,  "  that  this  same  old  Yulgate  edition,  which  has  stood 
the  test  of  so  many  ages'  use,  in  the  Church,  in  public  readings, 
disputings,  preachings,  and  expoundings,  be  deemed  authentic, 
and  that  no  one,  on  any  pretext,  dare  or  presume  to  reject  it." 
This,  of  course,  settles  the  question  with  aU  such  as  accept  the 
infallibility  of  Popes  and  Councils. 

But  the  Protestant  Churches  have  rejected  the  apocryphal 
books  from  the  Sacred  Canon.  They  have  generally  aclmowl- 
edged  their  value  for  reading  and  study,  and  in  some  places 
sanctioned  their  public  use  in  the  Church  services,  but  have  de- 
nied their  authority  in  matten  of  faith.  The  argument  against 
their  canonical  authority  is  decisive,  and  may  be  outlined  as 
follows : 

1.  These  books  were  not  among  those  which  were  received 
as  sacred  Scripture  in  the  days  of  Jesus  and  the  apostles.  There 
can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  "  the  law  of  Moses,  and  the 
Prophets,  and  the  Psalms,"  referred  to  in  Luke  xxiv,  44,  were 
identical  with  the  "  only  twenty-two  books  which  contain  the 
history  of  aU  past  times,  and  are  justly  believed  to  be  divine," 
mentioned  by  Josephus,  {ApioUy  i,  8.)  There  is  evidence  that 
Josephus  knew  and  used  some  of  our  apocryphal  books,  but  he 
never  treated  them  as  Holy  Scripture. 

2.  These  books  are  not  mentioned  in  the  catalogue  of  Melito, 
Bishop  of  Sardis,  (A.D.  175,)  who  made  a  special  journey  to 
the  East  to  learn  by  careful  inquiry  the  number  and  names  of 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 

3.  Origen,  (A.D.  200,)  who  was  very  familiar  with  the  apoc- 
ryphal books,  and  frequently  quoted  them  as  Scripture,  never- 
theless affirms  that  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hebrew  canon  were 
only  twenty-two,  according  to  the  number  of  the  letters  of  the 
Hebrew  alphabet. 

4.  The  same  testimony  is  repeated  in  substance  by  Athana- 
sius,  (A.D.  330  ;)   Hilary,  (350 ;)  Epiphanius,  (360;)    Gregory 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testament  Apochrypha.  9& 

Nazianzen,  (390 ;)  Amphilochius,  (390 ;)  and  the  Councils  of 
Laodicea,  (367  ;)  and  Chalcedon,  (451.) 

5.  Then  comes  the  weighty  testimony  of  St.  Jerome,  (A.D. 
400j)  the  author  of  the  Latin  Yulgate,  who  enumerates  the 
twenty-two  books  of  the  Jewish  Canon,  and  declares,  (Prologus 
Galeatus,)  that  "  whatever  is  beyond  these  must  be  put  in  the 
Apocrypha."  He  also  expressly  says  in  the  same  coimection 
that  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Jesus  son  of  Sirach,  Judith,  Tobit, 
and  the  Pastor,  "  are  not  in  the  canon."  In  another  place  he 
adds:  "The  Church  indeed  reads  the  books  of  Judith,  and 
Tobit,  and  Maccabees,  but  does  not  receive  them  among  the 
canonical  Scriptures." 

6.  To  all  this  add  that,  notwithstanding  the  decrees  of  Popes 
and  Councils,  a  succession  of  the  most  learned  writers  of  the 
Western  Church,  down  to  the  period  of  the  Keformation, 
maintained  the  position  of  Jerome  in  rejecting  from  the  canon 
the  so-called  Apocrypha.  And  even  after  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  were  published,  there  were  Roman  Catholic 
divines  who  thought  it  strange  "  that  five  cardinals  and  forty- 
eight  bishops  should  take  it  upon  themselves  to  decide  so  per- 
emptorily in  regard  to  points  of  religion  of  so  much  weight, 
declaring  books  to  be  canonical  which  had  thus  far  been  regarded 
as  apocryphal,  or  at  most  uncertain,  and  making  a  translation 
authentic,  which  in  numerous  passages  departs  widely  from  the 
original  text."  * 

DEUTERO-CANOinOAL   ChABACTEB. 

Although  these  books  were  never  included  in  the  Jewish 
Canon,  and  internal  as  well  as  external  evidence  shows  that 
they  have  no  authority  as  well-authenticated  sacred  books,  their 
connection  with  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate  versions,  and  their 
extensive  use  in  the  Christian  Church,  have  given  them  a  char- 
acter and  prominence  which  has  been  designated  as  Deutero- 
Canonical^  that  is,  having  a  kind  of  secondary  authority.  We 
have  noticed  above  how  Augustine  distinguished  between  ca- 
nonical books,  and  books  that  might  be  used  in  the  churches. 
This  distinction  seems  to  have  been  observed  by  the  principal 
writers  during  the  Middle  Ages.    The  apocryphal  books  are 

*  See  Stow*8  article  on  **  The  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the 
Reasons  for  their  exclusion  from  the  Canon  of  Soripturei**  in  the  "  Bibliotheca 
Sacra,'*  for  April,  1864. 


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100  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [January, 

spoken  of  as  "doubtful  Scriptures,"  "excellent  and  useful, 
but  not  in  the  Canon,"  "  not  equaling  the  sublinie  dignity 
of  the  other  books,  yet  deserving  reception  for  their  laud- 
able instruction."  When  the  first  complete  edition  of  Luther's 
Bible  appeared,  in  1534,  these  doubtful  books  were  placed  by 
themselves  between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  with  the 
title  :  "  Apocrypha ;  that  is.  Books  which  are  not  to  be  consid- 
ered as  equal  to  Holy  Scripture,  and  yet  are  useful  and  good  to 
read."  This  same  arrangement  was  followed  in  Coverdale's 
Enghsh  translation,  (which  was  printed  in  1535,)  and  was 
adopted  in  the  principal  English  translations  down  to  and  in- 
cluding that  of  King  James  in  1611.  The  Sixth  Article  of  the 
Church  of  England,  after  enumerating  the  commonly  received 
canonical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  "  of  whose  authority 
there  never  was  any  doubt  in  the  Church,"  says :  "  And  the 
other  books  the  Church  doth  read  for  example  of  life  and  in- 
struction of  manners ;  but  yet  it  doth  not  apply  them  to  estab- 
lish any  doctrine  ; "  and  then  follows  a  list  of  the  apocryphal 
books  according  to  their  order  in  King  James'  version.  In  the 
Book  of  Homilies  these  deutero-canonical  books  are  cited  as 
Scripture,  and  treated  with  reverence;  and  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  they  are  spoken  of  as  being  agreeable  to  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  The  Confession  of  the  Dutch  Churches, 
(1566,)  after  naming  the  canonical  books,  "  respecting  which  no 
controversy  existed,"  has  the  following  :  "  We  make  a  distinc- 
tion between  these  and  such  as  are  called  apocryphal,  which 
may  indeed  be  read  in  the  Church,  and  proofs  adduced  from 
them,  so  far  as  they  agree  with  the  canonical  books  ;  but  their 
authority  and  force  are  by  no  means  such  that  any  article  of 
faith  may  be  certainly  declared  from  their  testimony  alone ; 
stilMess  that  they  can  impugn  or  detract  from  the  authority  of 
the  others."  The  Helvetic  Confession  (1566)  holds  substan- 
tially the  same  position.  The  Westminster  Confession  declares 
that  the  "  Apocrypha,  not  being  of  divine  confirmation,  are  no 
part  of  the  Canon  of  Scripture,  and  therefore  of  no  authority 
in  the  Church  of  God,  nor  to  be  any  otherwise  approved  or 
made  use  of  than  other  human  writings."  From  all  this  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  apocryphal  books  have  held  a  historical  Church 
importance,  even  among  those  who  denied  their  canonical  au- 
thority. 


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1881.]  The  Old  Teatanimi  Apochrypha.  101 

Profitable  for  History  and  Doctrine. 

From  what  we  have  observed  above  of  the  dates,  contents, 
and  character  of  these  ancient  books,  it  will  be  seen  at  once 
that  they  mnst  be  of  great  value  in  tracing,  through  a  most 
important  period  of  their  history,  the  movements,  customs,  and 
opinions  of  the  Jewish  people.  In  some  of  these  books  appear 
the  later  Jewish  notions  of  the  Messiah  who  was  to  come ;  in 
others  we  read  of  their  struggles  against  idolatry,  and  their  at- 
titude toward  the  Gentile  nations  around  them.  In  one  place 
we  find  encouragement  to  offer  prayers  for  the  dead ;  in  an- 
other, prayer  and  fasting  are  extolled ;  in  another,  great  stress  is 
put  upon  the  necessity  and  importance  of  ahnsgiving.  The 
doctrines  of  the  unity  and  holiness  of  God,  of  Providence  and 
grace,  and  of  the  ministry  of  good  and  evil  angels,  appear  in 
various  connections.  We  may  also  discover,  in  several  books, 
evidences  of  the  great  doctrinal  variance  between  Pharisee  and 
8adducee,  exhibiting  itself  unconsciously  in  the  narratives  of 
different  authors.  Thus  in  First  Maccabees  we  find  no  allusion 
to  a  future  life,  or  to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  although  the 
narrative  offered  plenty  of  opportunity  for  such  allusion,  had 
these  doctrines  formed  a  part  of  the  writer's  creed  ;  but  in  Sec- 
ond Maccabees  we  have  accoxmts  of  tortured  martyrs,  express- 
ing in  the  hour  of  death  their  confidence  that  in  the  resurrec- 
tion they  would  receive  again  the  very  limbs  which  their  per- 
secutors mangled  and  severed  from  their  bodies.  Various  oth- 
er ideas  of  life,  death,  immortality,  resurrection,  and  future 
judgment  are  to  be  found  scattered  here  and  there  through  the^ 
several  books,*  so  that  it  is  evident  the  Old  Testament  apocry- 
phal literature  must  necessarily  hold  an  important  place  in  bib- 
lical and  theological  study,  and  is  in  some  degree  like  the  in- 
spired Scriptures  of  God,  "  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness."  (2  Tim. 
iii,  16.) 

Criticism  and  Literature. 

Although  these  books  are  allowed  on  all  hands  to  be  very  an- 
cient and  valuable,  they  have  received  from  critics  and  scholars 
comparatively  little  attention.     The  most  considerable  attempt 

♦  See  Dr.  Bissel  on  "Eschatology  of  the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha,"  in  "Biblio- 
theca  Sacra,"  of  April,  1879. 
Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 7 


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103  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [January, 

at  an  English  commentary  is  the  work  of  Richard  Amald,  and 
is  more  than  a  hundred  years  old.  It  is  entitled :  "  A  Critical 
Commentary  on  such  Books  of  the  Apocrypha  as  are  appointed 
to  be  read  in  the  Churches,  namely :  Wisdom,  Ecclesiasticus, 
Tobit,  Judith,  Baruch,  History  of  Susanna,  and  Bel  and  the 
Dragon ;  with  Two  Dissertations  on  the  Books  of  Maccabees 
and  Esdras.  Being  a  Continuation  of  Bishop  Patrick  and  Mr. 
Lowth."  (London,  1753.)  But  two  German  scholars,  Fritzsche 
and  Grimm,  have  furnished  a  complete  and  thorough  commen- 
tary, entitled  :  "  Kurzgefasstes  Exegetisches  Ilandbuch  zu  den 
Apokryphen  des  Alten  Testamentes."  (Leipsic,  1851-1860.) 
This  able  and  exhaustive  work  treats  all  the  books  commonly 
included  in  the  Apocrypha,  with  the  exception  of  Second  Es- 
dras. Notes,  more  or  less  full,  on  the  apocryphal  books,  may 
be  found  in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  "  Critici  Sacri,"  and  in  Cal- 
met's  Commentary.  A  very  thorough  examination  of  tliese 
books  is  also  given  by  Eichhom  in  his  "Einleitung  in  die 
Apokryphischen  Schriften  des  Alten  Testaments."  (Leipsic, 
1795.)  Compare  also  the  other  leading  works  on  Biblical  In- 
troduction, such  as  those  of  Home,  (Ed.  Davidson,)  De  Wette, 
Keil,  and  Bleek,  (German  editions,)  Gray's  "  Key  to  the  Old 
Testament  and  Apocrypha,"  and  Wilson's  "Books  of  the 
Apocrypha,  with  Critical  and  Historical  Observations." 

There  are  numerous  valuable  treatises  on  separate  books, 
such  as  Wolff  on  Judith,  Reusch,  Sengelmann,  and  Neubauer 
on  Tobit ;  Van  der  Vlis,  Volkmar,  and  Ewald  on  Second  Es- 
dras ;  and  Cotton  and  Keil  on  the  Books  of  Maccabees.  See 
also  Hilgenfeld's  "  Die  Jiidische  Apokalyptic,"  (Jena,  1857,) 
and  numerous  articles  by  the  same  author  in  the  German  peri- 
odical, "  Zeitschrift  fur  wissenschaf tliche  Theologie."  Valuable 
suggestions  and  information  may  also  be  found  in  Prideanx's 
"  Connection,"  Ewald's  "  History  of  Israel,"  (vol.  v,  Eng.  trans.,) 
Stanley's  "  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,"  (vol.  iii,)  and  Mil- 
man's  and  Graetz's  "  Histories  of  the  Jews."  And  especially 
valuable  and  comprehensive  are  the  articles  touching  these 
books,  in  Smith's  "  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  (American  ed., 
4  vols.,)  Kitto's  "New  Cyclopeedia  of  Biblical  Literature," 
M'Clintock  and  Strong's  "Cyclopaedia  of  Biblical,  Theological, 
and  Ecclesiastical  Literature,"  and  Herzog's  "  Real-Encycklo- 
padie,"  (new  edition,  now  issuing  from  the  German  press.) 


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1881.]  The  Old  Testammt  Apocrypha.  103 

The  original  texts  and  ancient  versions  are  given  in  the  fourth 
volume  of  Walton's  "  Polyglot."  The  Greek  texts  appear  in  the 
various  editions  of  the  Septuagint,  and  have  been  published  sep- 
arately by  Fabricius,  Augusti,  Apel,  and  others.  The  latest 
and  best  is  that  of  O.  F.  Fritzsche  :  "  Libri  Apocryphi  Veteris 
Testamenti  Graece,"  (Leipsic,  1871.)  Bagster  &  Sons,  of  Lon- 
don, publish  the  Greek  and  English  in  parallel  columns.  The 
Latin  texts  are  found  in  the  editions  of  the  Vulgate.  The 
Syriac  versions  were  separately  published  in  1861  by  Lagarde. 
Wahl  published,  at  Leipsic,  in  1863,  a  special  lexicon  for  the 
Apocrypha,  entitled  :  "  Clavis  Librorum  Vet.  Test.  Apocrypho- 
rum  philologica." 

Just  as  this  article  goes  to  press,  (November,  1880,)  the 
Scribners  issue,  as  a  supplemental  volume  of  the  American 
edition  of  Lange's  Commentary,  a  large  octavo  of  680  pages, 
entitled :  "  The  Apocrypha  of  the  Old  Testament ;  with  His- 
torical Introductions,  a  Revised  Translation,  and  Notes  Critical 
and  Explanatory ; "  by  E.  C.  BisseU,  D.D.  The  author  is  said 
to  have  devoted  several  years,  in  Germany  and  in  this  country, 
to  the  special  study  of  the  Apocrypha,  and  his  work,  which 
seems  in  fullness  and  critical  accuracy  to  surpass  even  that  of 
Fritzsche  and  Grimm,  will  meet  a  desideratv/m  in  our  biblical, 
literature  which  has  long  been  felt. 


Abt.  VI.— BAIRD'S  "RISE  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.**^ 

JBstory  of  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  of  France,     By  Henkt  M.  Baird.     Two  toI- 
umes.     Svo.     Charles  Scribners'  Sons. 

We  have  in  these  two  handsomely  printed  volumes  the  latest 
and  best  results  of  scholarly .  research  into  the  history  of  a 
period  which,  with  the  new  hopes  of  Protestantism  in  France, 
,has  acquired  a  fresh  interest.  Several  historians,  French,  Ger-* 
man,  and  English,  have  treated  the  subject,  and  original  mate- 
rials are  abundant ;  but  the  investigations  of  Professor  Baird 
have  included  numerous  documents  brought  to  light  in  a  re- 
cent period,  and  the  solution  of  certain  questions  which  conflict- 
ing statements  had  left  in  doubt.  The  manuscript  collections 
preserved  in  Paris  and  Zurich  have  been  carefully  consulted 
for  the  latter  purpose  j  while  the  mass  of  contemporary  correr 


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104  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [January, 

Bpondence,  hitherto  inedited  memoirs  and  important  State  pa- 
pers, now  published  and  still  in  serial  course  of  publication,  have 
been  drawn  lipon  to  enrich  these  pages.  The  author  refers  in 
his  preface  particularly  to  the  Astor  Library,  in  New  York, 
which  he  has  found  surprisingly  well  furnished  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  studies,  and  it  is  a  credit  to  the  Library  that  so  ex- 
haustive a  treatment  of  this  subject  could  be  conducted  chiefly 
by  its  aid.  The  more  familiar  chronicles  and  memoirs  of  the 
period  in  question,  as  well  as  the  prominent  historians,  have 
evidently  been  well  read  and  digested,  and  we  have  here  a 
work  quite  unequaled  on  the  subject  for  extensive  research 
and  copiousness  of  illustration,  as  exhibited  both  in  the  text  and 
in  the  notes  and  dissertations. 

Lideed,  the  present  work  is  the  product  of  special  studies  con- 
tinued through  nearly  twenty  years,  and  of  an  ardent  interest 
in  the  theme,  conceived,  as  we  know,  by  the  author  in  his  youth, 
which  has  prompted  him  to  a  careful  and  faithful  perform- 
ance of  his  -task.  We  have,  therefore,  the  satisfaction  of  read- 
ing pages  in  which  every  statement  has  been  well  weighed. 
The  style  is  characterized  especially  by  sobriety,  which  is, 
nevertheless,  quite  devoid  of  dullness.  The  conception  which  the 
author  has  formed  of  the  true  historian's  work  is  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  finished  but  plain  record  of  facts  which  shall  be  at- 
tractive to  the  reader  rather  by  its  transparency  than  its 
brilliancy  of  expression.  The  most  exciting  events  are  nar- 
rated without  passion,  and  yet  with  a  clearness  and  force  which 
brings  them  the  more  eflfectually  under  the  eye  of  a  calm 
judgment.  These  volumes  will  have  a  deserved  place  as  the 
classic  American  history  of  the  events  to  which  they  are  de- 
voted, side  by  side  with  the  works  of  Prescott  and  Motley, 
though  dijffering  from  them  both  in  rhetorical  qualities.  One 
feels  at  once,  in  reviewing  here  the  rise  of  French  Protestant- 
ism, that  he  is  treading  on  more  carefully  explored  ground 
than  when  carried  along  by  the  somewhat  ardent  imagination 
of  Dr.  Merle  d' Aubign6 ;  though  it  would  be,  doubtless,  un- 
fair to  bring  the  truly  interesting  and  valuable,  but  professed- 
ly fragmentary,  chapters  of  the  latter,*  which  touch  the  same 
subject,  into  full  comparison  with  the  present  systematic 
work. 

*  "  Histoire  de  la  J^ormation  en  Europe  au  temps  de  Calvin/*    8  vols. 


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1881.]  Ba4/rd'8  ''Bise  of  the  Huguenots:'  105 

Though  systematic  and  thorough,  Professor  Baird's  history 
does  not,  indeed,  comprehend  all  that  we  might  wish  to  see 
treated  in  this  connection.  This  was  not  to  be  expected. 
The  development  of  Protestantism  gave  rise  to  civil  strife  in 
France  under  circumstances  of  absorbing  interest  After  the 
period  of  passive  submission  to  persecution,  the  successive 
civil  wars,  of  which  there  were  no  less  than  seven  in  the  cent- 
ury, the  remarkable  characters  they  developed,  the  tragic 
scenes  enacted  in  connection  with  them — the  political  relations 
of  Protestantism — ^these  are  the  matters  of  special  prominence 
in  this  epoch  in  France,  and  such  as  chiefly  engage  the  attention. 
A  more  precise  and  fuller  presentation  of  the  doctrinal  and  eccle- 
siastical system  of  the  French  Protestants,  and  a  more  extended 
history  of  the  Synods  in  which  it  was  perfected,  would  have 
been  welcome.  A  fuller  chronicle  of  facts  concerning  the  meth- 
ods and  work  of  propagating  the  new  faith  would,  of  course, 
possess  great  interest :  but  the  narrative  must  have  some  limit. 
The  author  has  evidently  not  thought  lit  to  extend  the  plan  of 
his  work  very  far  beyond  the  external  relations  of  the  subject. 
Yet  the  historical  student  has  certainly  much  to  be  thankful 
for  in  these  two  stately  volumes  of  six  hundred  pages  each.  The 
general  state  of  the  Idngdom,  of  society,  and  the  Church,  at  the 
opening  of  the  period,  is  exhibited  in  a  clear  and  interesting 
manner,  in  those  points  more  immediately  related  to  the  fortunes 
of  the  rising  Reformed  faith.  The  wide  scope  and  intricate  ac- 
tion of  political  influences,  both  internal  and  foreign,  during 
this  period  in  France  have  been  well  studied,  and  the  different 
authorities  carefully  balanced  to  secure  a  just  statement  of  fact. 
The  author  is  specially  to  be  commended  for  the  evident  im- 
partiality which  marks  his  judgment  on  events  and  characters. 
K  the  truth  of  history  compels  the  restatement  of  facts  in  the 
conduct  of  the  Catholic  party  toward  their  opponents  wliicli 
we  can  only  abhor,  so  likewise  does  Professor  Baird  not  shun 
to  record  corresponding  acts,  though  far  less  in  number  and 
magnitude,  on  the  part  of  the  Protestants,  as  particularly  in  the 
course  of  the  civil  wars  ;  while  the  erroneous  conceptions  con- 
cerning the  rights  of  conscience  every-where  prevalent,  and  the 
partial  barbarity  of  the  times,  are  seen  to  be  to  a  large  extent 
the  occasion  of  these  painful  events. 
TBe  period  treated  in  the  work  before  us  embraces  about 


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,  106  'Methodist  QtLoHerly  Review.  [January, 

sixty  years,  extending  from  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Fran- 
cis I.,  in  1515,  to  the  death  of  Charles  IX.,  in  1574.  This  was 
the  period  of  the  "  Rise  "  of  the  Huguenots  of  France,  at  the 
close  of  which,  having  survived  five  sanguinary  wars,  "  they 
stood  before  the  world  a  well-defined  body  that  had  .  .  . 
proved  itself  entitled  to  consideration  and  respect."  Our  au- 
thor lays  before  us  at  the  outset  valuable  observations  on  the 
general  condition  of  the  kingdom,  upon  which  the  limits  of 
this  article  will  forbid  any  enlargement,  although  a  considera- 
tion of  such  matters  contributes  much  to  a  full  understanding 
of  the  subject  of  this  history.  The  constitution  of  the  Parlia- 
ments, the  university  and  municipal  corporations,  the  condition 
of  the  clergy,  and  the  relation  of  the  Crown  to  all  these  bodies, 
are  chief  features  in  the  case.  The  arbitrary  institution  by 
Francis  I.  of  his  Concordat  with  the  Pope,  the  provisions  of 
which  continued  to  be  recognized  down  to  the  Revolution,  and 
which  effectually  nullified  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  St.  Louis 
and  of  Bourges,  that  palladium  of  Gallican  liberties,  and  sub- 
stituted for  electoral  rights  in  the  Church  the  royal  preroga- 
tive of  appointment,  is  a  point  of  marked  importance.  The 
spiritual  indifference  of  the  clergy,  the  non-residence  of  the 
chief  officials,  the  incompetence  and  general  negligence  of 
others,  and  the  dissolute  manners  of  many,  were  noted  in  those 
times  by  the  Catholic  authorities  as  the  principal  causes  of  the 
spread  of  the  Refonnation. 

If  we  attempt  now  a  general  survey  of  events  in  the  period 
before  us,  which,  it  may  be  thought,  present  interest  in  tlie  sub- 
ject will  warrant,  we  can  do  no  more  than  touch  upon  certain 
portions  of  the  narrative.  The  highly  dramatic  character  of 
the  period  and  its  development  of  most  important  consequences 
for  the  interests  of  mankind  will  receive  but  imperfect  illus- 
tration. 

A  genuine  ray  of  the  light  about  to  rise  upon  Europe  shone  in 
the  heart  and  scholarly  mind  of  Jacques  Lefevre,  of  Etaples,  in 
Picardy,  who  came  to  a  professor's  chair  in  the  Sorbonne  in 
the  later  years  of  Louis  XII.  Of  humble  origin,  but  pure 
morals  and  attractive  spirit,  his  active  mind  and  travel  abroad 
made  him  a  master  in  varied  learning.  lie  is  credited  with 
having  "  restored  letters  to  France."  In  his  commentaries  on 
the  Pauline  Epistles,  in  1512,  he  clearly  enunciated  the  ddctrine 


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1881.1  Bawd' 8  ''jRiee  of  the  HuguenotsP  107 

of  justification  by  faith.  Further  utterances  of  like  purport 
occasioned  his  condemnation  by  the  Sorbonne.  Guillaume 
Farel  of  Dauphiny  was  his  pupil.  Both,  like  the  Wesleyg, 
were  scrupulous  observers  of  religious  duties  and  ceremonies. 
"Together  they  frequented  the  churches  and  united  in  the 
pious  work,  as  they  regarded  it,  of  "decking  out  with  flowers 
the  pictures  of  the  saints  to  whose  shrines  they  made  frequent 
pilgrimages."  But  the  teacher  saw  the  coming  light,  and  more 
than  once  exclaimed  to  his  pupil,  "  Guillaume,  the  world  is  go- 
ing to  be  renewed,  and  you  will  behold  it." 

A  conspicuous  example  of  the  more  spiritual  class  of  prelates 
was  Guillaume  Bri^onnet,  Bishop  of  Meaux.  He  was  the  en- 
voy of  both  Louis  XII.  and  Francis  I.  to  the  papal  court,  where 
he  conceived,  it  is  said,  his  desire  for  a  reform  of  the  Church. 
Lefe\Te  was  invited  to  his  diocese  in  1521,  and  there  made  a 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  French,  which  waB  freely  read 
in  the  churches  of  the  diocese,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  people. 
Farel  had  accompanied  his  teacher,  and  Gerard  Roussel  and 
Mazurier,  both  eloquent  speakers,  followed.  The  bishop  him- 
self was  zealous  in  pronouncing  against  abused  and  in  com- 
mending the  new  preachers.  With  all  this  activity  Meaux 
seemed  likely  to  be  another  Wittemberg.  But,  alas !  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  monastic  orders,  and  the  power  of  the  University 
and  the  Parliament,  proved  too  strong  for  the  bishop,  who  re- 
tracted his  former  utterances  in  favor  of  reform.  The  preach- 
ers were  compelled  to  withdraw,  which  Farel  did  in  1523,  going 
home  to  the  Dauphin^,  where  he  labored  zealously,  and  thence 
to  Switzerland ;  Lef^vre  and  Eoussel,  in  1528,  retiring  to 
Sti-asburg.  Eoussel's  courage  was  inadequate  to  a  course  of 
decided  activity  in  the  new  movement.  Lefevre  also  shrank 
from  bold  action,  was  patronized  by  the  Queen  of  Xavarre,  and 
resided  at  last  near  her  court  at  Nerac.  His  reputed  confes- 
sion of  remorse  at  the  close  of  his  life,  for  having  "basely 
avoided  the  martyr's  crown,"  is  confirmed  by  a  memorandum 
in  Farel's  own  handwriting,  recently  discovered  in  the  Geneva 
library.  Merle  d'Aubign6  gives  a  highly  interesting  account 
of  the  meeting  at  N6rac  between  Calvin  and  Lefevre.*  The 
latter  also  met  Farel  again  at  Strasburg.  Farel  was  a  man  of 
the  people  who  spoke  in  aU  places — in  the  field  or  by  the  road- 
*  **HiBt.  de  la  B^.  en  Europe  au  temps  de  Calvin,"  iii,  82. 


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108  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review,  [January, 

side — with  a  fiery  eloquence  "  which  penetrated  the  heart  and 
swayed  the  masses."  He  was  not,  however,  to  be  the  leader  of 
the  Reformation  in  France.  No  less  a  man  than  Calvin  was 
fitted  for  that  work. 

But  the  Keform  party  had  at  the  outset  a  warm  friend  at 
court.  If  Calvin  came  later  to  instruct  by  his  writings,  and 
sent  letters  of  hearty  encouragement  to  ^;lie  martyrs  from  his 
stronghold  in  Geneva,  the  ardent  sympathies  of  Margai-et  of 
Angouleme,  the  king's  sister,  and  later  Queen  of  Navarre,  cher- 
ished the  movement  of  the  new  faith,  and  she  remained  ever  a 
friend  to  the  leaders  and  sufferers  in  the  cause;  although  toward 
the  last  she  gave,  under  certain  circumstances,  her  countenance 
to  persecution.*  Iler  youth  was  devoted  to  study,  and  many 
of  her  verses  evince  a  poetic  talent  equal  to  that  of  Marot.  At 
court  she  exhibited  great  intelligence,  and  was  consulted  on 
every  occasion.  The  Bishop  of  Meaux  was  her  confessor,  and 
an  extended  correspondence  between  them  exists.  She  wrote 
encouragingly  to  him  in  the  days  of  his  efforts  for  reform.  '*  I 
assure  you,"  slie  said,  "  that  the  king  and  madame  are  entirely 
decided  to  let  it  be  understood  that  the  truth  of  God  is  no 
heresy."  Her  conception  of  reform,  however,  was  such  as 
could  obtain  within  tlie  Church.  Her  religion  was  of  a  mys- 
tical cast ;  she  abhorred  disputation,  and  would  preserve  exter- 
nal unity.  But  her  personal  devotion  to  evangelical  work  was 
verj^  marked.  ''  There  was  not  in  the  sixteenth  century,"  says 
Merle  d'Aubigne,  "an  evangelist,  at  least  no  woman,  more 
active  than  she."    Iler  "  Mirror  of  the  Sinful  Soul,"  f  issued  in 

•  Baird,  i,  226. 

f  Merle  d'Aubign^  observes :  **  These  verses  contain  voices  of  the  soul  and  aspi- 
rations toward  heaven  which  had  been  for  a  long  time  unknown  to  the  world." 
For  a  specimen  sec  "Les  Marguerites  de  la  Marguerite,"  i,  63, 

**  Oh  Jesus  Christ !  dos  aiues  vrai  pecheur ! 
Mon  avocat,  mon  uniipie  sauvour  I 
Je  ne  crains  plus  d'etre  jamais  defaite, 
Car  vous  avez  justice  sati>faite. 

"  Unio  k  Christ  je  ne  puis  avoir  peur, 
Peine,  travail,  ennui,  nial  ni  doulcur, 
Tres  faible  suis  en  nioi,  en  Dieu  tres  forte, 
Car  je  puis  tout  en  Lui  qui  me  conforte. 

"Ni  de  ton  ciel  Tinfinie  hauteur, 
Ni  de  Tenfer  rabiuie  et  profondeur, 
Ni  le  peche  qui  me  fait  taut  de  guerre, 
Ne  me  pcuve  sf^parer  un  soul  jour, 
0  pere  saint  1  de  ton  parfait  amour." 


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1881.]  Bmrd'8  ''Bwe  of  the  EuguenoUy  109 

Paris  in  1533,  was  condemned  by  the  Sorbonne,  which,  with 
other  indignities  shown  to  his  sister  at  the  instigation  of  the 
theologians,  greatly  enraged  the  king.  Margaret  cherished  an 
ardent  love  for  her  brother,  as  recorded  in  many  of  her  writ- 
ings, bnt  it  is  not  easy  to  measure  the  extent  of  her  influence 
with  him  in  rehgions  matters. 

There  was  much  in  the  character  of  Francis  I.  to  attract 
regard.  He  was  tall,  athletic,  of  fair  complexion,  and  so  dis- 
tinguished for  courteous  manners  as  to  be  called  "  Le  roi  des 
gentilshommes."  " No  ruler  of  the  day,"  says  our  author,  "sur- 
passed him  in  gravity  and  nobility  of  bearing."  He  was,  how- 
ever, addicted  to  sensuality,  and  was  often  guilty  of  duphcity. 
He  had  little  affection  for  the  pope,  quite  disliked  the  monks 
and  the  Sorbonne,  but  lacked  earnestness  in  religious  matters. 
Martin  says :  *'  More  than  once,  indeed,  the  flame  which  had 
touched  the  Elector  of  Saxony  appeared  to  glow  upon  the  heart 
of  Francis  I. ;  but  Louise  of  Savoy  was  too  corrupt,  and  her 
son  at  least  too  volatile,  too  far  removed  from  the  sense  of  an 
interior  life  and  a  serious  spirituality,  to  admit  of  any  decision 
under  the  guidance  of  truly  religious  motives."  * 

But  Francis  was,  after  the  dictates  of  his  nature,  in  ardent 
sympathy  with  the  Renaissance  spirit  of  the  times ;  and  this 
made  him  friendly  to  the  Reformers,  for  at  the  outset  all  the 
truly  learned  favored  them.  Tlie  king's  cultivation  of  art  could 
not,  perhaps,  directly  contribute  to  incline  him  toward  a  more 
simple  faith  and  a  stricter  rule  of  morals,  yet  it  doubtless  had 
no  little  influence  in  liberalizing  his  disposition,  Francis  ren- 
dered genuine  aid  to  learning.  He  renewed  the  decree  of 
Louis  XII.,  which  introduced  the  French  language  in  place  of 
Latin  into  the  public  documents.  He  established,  (1530,)  con- 
trary to  the  will  of  the  Sorbonne,  the  College  de  France,  after 
the  model  of  the  Italian  universities,  with  new  systems  and  free 
lay  instruction.  Erasmus  was  called  to  the  post  of  director, 
but  declined.  In  the  same  spirit  the  king  upheld  Lefevre 
against  the  Sorbonne,  and  favored  the  measures  of  Brigonnet 
at  Meaux.  He  read  the  Bible  freely  with  his  sister,  and  in  the 
earlier  years  evidently  felt  no  hostility  toward  the  Reformers. 

Of  the  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  Francis  to  change  his 
mind  in  this  regard,  probably  the  most  effective  was  the  idea, 

*  "  Histoire  de  France,"  viii,  149. 


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110  Methodist  Qua/rterh/  Heview.  [January, 

studiously  urged  upon  him,  that  "  a  change  of  religion  neces- 
sa/riZy  involves  a  change  of  governments"  He  was  also  made 
to  listen  to  slanders  against  the  Protestants  to  the  effect  that 
they  were  one  in  spirit  with  the  rebellious  Anabaptists  of  Ger- 
many. The  German  ambassador  in  Paris  declared  to  him  that 
"  the  Protestants  only  wanted  to  rob  the  Church  of  its  wealth, 
would  have  no  ranks  in  society,  no  marriage,  no  rights  of  prop- 
erty, no  king."  Policy,  moreover,  at  various  times,  and  espe- 
cially in  furthering  his  designs  upon  Italy,  required  him  to 
maintain  friendship  with  the  pope.  On  the  other  hand,  with 
a  view  of  strengthening  himseK  against  his  rival,  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  Francis,  on  different  occasions,  professed  the  most 
favorable  sentiments  toward  the  Protestant  princes  and  leaders 
of  Germany.  He  invited  Melanchthon  to  Paris,  and  proposed 
a  very  liberal  plan  for  the  pacification  of  the  Church.  His  du- 
plicity and  purely  political  aims  were,  however,  made  apparent. 
Still,  intense  interest  was  every-where  excited  in  the  negotia- 
tions. The  Teutonic  nations  might  be  said  to  have  become 
Protestant.  Italy  and  Spain  were  moved.  What  would  be  the 
course  of  the  Romanic  peoples  ?  All  eyes  were  turned  to  France 
as  the  predominant  representative  of  the  latter  element.  More- 
over, at  the  papal  court  itself  there  were  strong  signs  of  a  new 
spirit.  From  the  time  of  Leo  X.  an  "association  "  for  the  refor- 
mation of  the  Church  existed  at  Rome.  The  party  of  Contarini 
labored  for  the  general  pacification  of  the  Church ;  they  obtained 
in  the  Conference  of  Katisbon  (1541)  a  very  liberal  scheme, 
which,  however,  was  nullified  by  the  curia.  The  French  king 
proved  unequal  to  the  demands  of  this  great  crisis,  and  Pro- 
fessor Fisher  *  has  very  justly  said :  "  Francis,  by  his  undecided 
and  vacillating  attitude,  brought  upon  his  country  incalculable 
miseries — civil  wars,  in  which  France  became  not  the  arbiter, 
but  the  prey  of  Europe." 

It  is  uncertain  whether  Francis  ever  read  the  dedication 
to  the  king  which  Calvin  published  with  his  "Institutes,"  a 
work  first  issued  in  its  unexpanded  form  in  1536.  Calvin 
was  bom  in  1509  at  Noyon,  a  small  city  of  Picardy ;  received 
a  Church  benefice  at  the  age  of  twelve,  but  later  studied  law, 
though  interested  finally  in  a  profound  examination  of  the 
Scriptures,  which  resulted  in  his  gradually  embracing  evangel- 
•  "  History  of  the  Reformation." 


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1881.]  Baird's  ''Rise  of  the  HugumoU:'  111 

ical  views.  At  Parifl  he  was  charged  with  being  the  author 
of  Rector  Cop's  evangelical  address,  delivered  in  November, 
1533,  which  compelled  the  flight  of  both  from  the  city.  Cal- 
vin went  to  Angonl6me,  where  he  decisively  renounced  the 
Romish  Church.  Professor  Baird  distrusts  the  account  given 
by  Merle  d'Aubignfe,  and  others,  of  Calvin's  preaching  at  this 
period  in  the  "caverns"  of  Poitiers,  and  earlier  in  Paris  and 
Bourges.*  At  Basle,  in  1535,  he  fii-st  conceived,  according  to 
our  author,  the  idea  of  giving  a  practical  direction  to  the  great 
work  which  he  had  been  composing,  sending  it  out  as  a  defense 
for  the  Protestants  of  France  before  the  king.  On  his  return 
from  the  Court  of  Ren6,  in  Ferrara,  he  proposed  to  retire  to 
Germany,  where  he  might  serve  his  Protestant  fellow-country- 
men by  a  course  of  quiet  study ;  but  in  passing  through  Geneva 
(1536)  he  was  detained  there  by  Farel,  with  great  urgency  of 
entreaty,  that  his  conmianding  energy  might  be  made  of  service 
to  the  struggling  Protestant  Church  in  that  city  of  exceedingly 
varied  social  influences,  of  intellectual  activity,  of  gay  and  dis- 
solute life.  The  difficulties  encountered  by  Calvin,  and  the 
long  reign  of  his  influence  at  Geneva,  the  energetic  impulses 
which  went  out  thence  through  the  thirty  printing-presses,  the 
missionaries,  and  letters  of  the  leaders,  into  France,  are  well 
known.  The  year  1534,  when  violent  placards  against  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  mass  were  posted  on  the  walls  of  Paris,  which 
provoked  a  cruel  persecution,  was  a  marked  epoch  for  the 
French  Protestants.  The  king  thenceforth  exhibited  a  decided 
aversion  to  them.  Hope  could  no  longer  be  fixed  upon  the 
Court,  and  the  followers  of  the  Reformed  faith  learned  to  look 
toward  Geneva  and  its  great  ecclesiastical  ruler  for  their  .en- 
couragement. With  Francis  faithful  to  them  they  would  have 
remained  "Lutherans,"  as  they  were  generally  called;  but 
henceforth  they  became  Calvinists. 

Professor  Baird  does  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge  Calvin's 
participation  in  the  illiberal  views  of  the  age  concerning  the 
rights  of  conscience,  and  leaves  him  chargeable  with  promoting 
the  execution  of  Servetus.  Calvin  "  did,  indeed,  desire  and 
urge  that  Servetus  should  be  punished  capitally,  .  .  .  but  the 
other  principal  Reformers  of  Germany  and  Switzerland — 
Melanchthon,  Haller,  Peter  Martyr,  and  Bullinger  gave  their 

*  3aird,  i,  201,  note. 


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112  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [January, 

hearty  indorsement  to  the  cruel  act."*  The  condemned  Prot- 
estants themselves  confessed  that  real  heresy  ought  to  be  pun- 
ished with  death.  Farel  wrote  of  himself  that  he  "  was  most 
worthy  of  any  punishment  imaginable,  if  he  seduced  any  one 
f roni  the  doctrines  and  faith  of  Christ."  In  further  illustration 
of  the  subject  of  the  persecutions,  see  the  account  given  here 
and  in  other  historians  of  the  barbarous  practices  of  the  age  in 
the  forms  of  punishment  used  for  different  offenses.  The 
origination  of  the  course  of  persecutions  in  France  is  charge- 
able not  upon  the  king,  but  upon  the  Sorbonne,  the  Parlia- 
ment, the  queen-mother,  Louise  of  Savoy,  and  the  chancellor, 
Dupmt.  AVe  cannot  here  note  the  history  of  the  severe  meas- 
ures adopted,  nor  trace  the  heroic  record  of  the  martyrs.  Some- 
times indiscreet  and  imjustifiable  acts  were  the  occasion  of 
arrest,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  iconoclastic  rage  which  broke 
out  in  Paris,  1528-30.  The  king  had,  before  the  year  of  the 
placards,  on  certain  occasions  expressed  a  decided  hostiUty  to 
heresy ;  but  from  that  year  onward  persecution  became  sys- 
tematic in  the  kingdom,  and  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  did  not 
close  (1547)  till  he  became  in  a  great  degree  responsible  for  the 
bloody  deeds  of  the  Baron  d'Oppede  in  the  Vaudois  villages  of 
Provence. 

Henry  II.  is  said  to  have  had  aU  the  faults  of  his  father 
with  but  one  of  his  excellences — physical  prowess.  Dull  of 
understanding,  he  was  easily  influenced  by  his  surroundings. 
He  had  married  Catherine  de  Medicis,  the  niece  of  Pope 
Clement  YII.,  and  the  latter's  fatal  gift  to  France  in  1533. 
Diana  of  Poitiers  was  the  avaricious  mistress  of  the  king; 
Anne  de  Montmorency,  a  valorous  but  rude  soldier,  the  con- 
stable of  the  realm.  The  rivalries  of  noble  houses  and  factions, 
and  schemes  of  personal  ambition,  now  became  prominent  at 
court.  The  house  of  Guise,  sprung  from  the  Duke  of  Lorraine, 
appears  upon  the  scene.  In  1538  James  of  Scotland  mar- 
ried Mary  of  Lorraine.  Their  issue  was  Mary  Stuart,  married 
to  the  Dauphin,  afterward  Francis  H.,  and  the  Guises  thus 
rose  to  arrogate  a  regal  dignity  which  they  claimed  to  deduce 
from  Charlemagne. 

Francis,  Duke  of  Guise,  was  a  soldier  of  great  ability,  but 
ignorant,  it  is  said,  in  all  other  matters,  and  in  religious  affairs 

•Baird,  i,  212. 


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1881.]  Baird'8  ''Rise  of  the  Huguenots:'  113 

led  by  his  brother  Charles,  who,  on  the  death  of  his  uncle, 
John,  succeeded  him  as  Cardinal  of  Lorraine.  The  extrava- 
gance of  the  court  during  this  reign,  and  the  selfishness  everj'- 
where  prevalent  in  grasping  after  offices  of  profit  in  Church 
and  State,  is  generally  attested  by  historians.  "France," 
says  our  author,  "  became  a  scene  of  rapacity  beyond  preced- 
ent." The  patronage  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  Guises 
and  Montmorencies. 

jS^either  Henry  nor  his  advisers  had  any  sympathy  for  the  Re- 
formed faith,  and  persecution  raged.  Nevertheless  the  new  re- 
ligion grew,  was  openly  embraced  by  persons  of  high  rank,  and 
the  Protestant  party  exhibited  more  and  more  that  predomi- 
nance of  gentle  blood  and  superior  intelligence  which  character- 
ized it  in  France.  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  titular  King  of  Na- 
varre, was  the  first  prince  of  the  blood.  He  had  married  Jeanne 
d' Albret,  who,  as  daughter  of  the  king,  Henri  d' Albret  and  Mar- 
garet, was  Queen  of  Navarre.  They  resided  at  Pan,  where  their 
son,  afterward  the  illustrious  Henry  IV.,  was  bom.  After  listen- 
ing to  the  Protestant  preachers  in  his  southern  home,  Antoine 
joined  their  assemblies  in  Paris.  His  brother,  Louis  de  Bour- 
bon, Prince  of  Cond6,  also  declared  himself  a  Protestant,  and 
likewise  their  cousin,  Francois  d'Andelot,  son  of  the  Marquis 
de  Ch&tillon.  D'Andelot  sent  Protestant  books  to  his  brother, 
the  Admiral  Coligny,  while  the  latter  was  detained  prisoner 
of  war. 

Notwithstanding  the  dread  of  the  Inquisition,  the  first  Prot- 
estant Church  was  organized  at  Paris,  in  1555,  after  the  model 
of  the  Geneva  Churches,  and  others  followed  in  different  cities. 
On  May  26,  1559,  the  first  National  Synod  of  the  Eeformed 
Church  assembled  secretly  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain,  and 
adopted  a  Calvinistic  Confession  of  Faith  and  Presbyterian 
form  of  Discipline.*  Strange  to  say,  they  recognized  the  prin- 
ciple that  "  God  had  placed  the  sword  in  the  hand  of  the  mag- 
istrate to  repress  the  sins  committed  not  only  against  the  second 
table  of  God's  commandments,  but  against  the  first."  The 
treaty  of  Cateau-Cambr&is,  so  disastrous  for  France,  as  asserted 
by  our  author  and  most  historians,!  was  made  to  terminate 

•  Professor  Baird  quotes,  for  the  best  account  of  the  Synods,  Aymou,  "Tous  les 
fjnodes  nationaux  des  ^lises  r^form^  de  France."    (La  Haje,  1710.) 
f  Guizot  takes  a  different  yiew :  "  History  of  France,"  Eng.  ed.,  iii,  268. 


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114  Methodist  QuaHerly  Seview.  [January, 

the  war  which  Henry  had  been  waging,  partly  in  order  that  he 
might  have  opportunity  to  suppress  heresy  at  home.  His 
career  was,  however,  suddenly  cut  short  by  the  accidental 
thrust  of  a  lance  at  a  tournament,  January  30,  1559. 

With  the  brief  reign  of  Francis  II.,  who  came  to  the  throne 
at  sixteen  years  of  age,  began  the  prominent  activity  of  his 
mother,  Catherine  de  Medicis ;  an  activity  which  was  rather  tliat 
of  management  to  render  herself  and'  her  children  secure  in  the 
seat  of  power  than  any  course  of  bold  scheming  for  more  ex- 
travagant ends.  Yet  with  so  moderate  an  aim,  she  would  evi- 
dently not  be  deterred  by  moral  considerations  from  any  means 
necessary  to  secure  it.  Though  sufficiently  capable  of  unjust 
and  cruel  designs,  she  had  certainly  much  to  do  at  the  outset 
to  protect  herself  and  the  king.  A  woman  and  a  foreigner,  of 
less  than  noble  extraction,  she  needed  the  use  of  aU  her  facul- 
ties amid  the  rivalries  of  the  court.  She  had  to  draw  strength 
from  all  parties,  and  keep  her  course  between  them,  desiring 
neither  the  growth  nor  the  destruction  of  either.  There  is 
good  authority  to  believe  that  she  was  naturally  averse  to  strife, 
and  desired  peace  for  herself,  her  own,  and  the  kingdom.  Such 
is,  in  substance,  the  view  which  Professor  Baird  is  disposed  to 
take  of  the  stand-point  of  Catharine's  policy,  the  view  taken  by 
other  able  writers  in  later  years,  and  quite  clearly  presented  by 
the  judicious  German  historian,  Soldan.*  It  is  a  more  moder- 
ate and  favorable  conception  of  her  character  than  has  hereto- 
fore generally  prevailed  among  Protestants. 

The  Guises  were  now  supreme  at  court,  and  the  opposition 
to  this  predominance  of  a  foreign  house  centered  itself  in  two 
families,  the  Bourbons  (Antoine  of  Navarre  and  Louis,  Prince 
of  Cond6)  and  the  Chdtillons,  (the  Cardinal  Odet,  D'Andelot, 
and  Admiral  Coligny.)  These  were  all  more  or  less  attached 
to  the  Protestant  faith.  The  King  of  Navarre  was  the  natural 
head  of  the  party,  but,  though  a  good  soldier,  proved  himself 
in  religious  matters  ever  irresolute  and  worthless  as  a  leader. 

The  Protestants  had  grown  greatly  in  numbers  during  the 
last  reign.  There  was  a  general  popular  discontent  at  the  rule 
of  the  Guises  and  the  continued  persecutions.  An  open  revolt 
was  planned,  from  which  Calvin  earnestly  dissuaded  his  follow- 
ers, saying,  "  Let  but  a  drop  of  blood  be  shed,  and  streams  will 
*  **  Geschichte  des  Protestantismos  in  Frankreich/*  ii,  885,  887. 


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1881.]  Baird'8  ''Bise  of  the  HugumoUP  115 

flow  that  must  inundate  France."  Colignj  was  not  consulted, 
for  he  was  known  to  be  averse  to  violence.  Conde  stood,  how- 
ever, as  the  "  chef  muet^'^  La  Eenaudie  being  the  actual  leader. 
The  court,  in  alarm,  shut  itself  up  at  Amboise.  The  "  Edict  of 
Forgiveness"  was  issued  March,  1560,  though  its  provisions 
were  not  faithfully  kept.  It  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  French  Protestantism.  "  It  is  the  point  whence  begins  the 
transition  from  the  period  of  persecution  to  the  period  of  the 
chU  warsP  The  scheme  of  assault  was  again  set  on  foot,  but 
defeated :  the  leader  was  slain,  and  the  Duke  of  Guise  took 
terrible  vengeance  on  the  captured  conspirators.  Such  was  the 
"  Tumult  of  Amboise."  The  name  "  Huguenots  "  was  now  first 
applied  to  the  Protestants.  "  Not  a  week  had  passed  after  the 
conspiracy  of  Amboise  before  the  word  was  in  every  body's 
month.  Few  knew  or  cared  whence  it  arose."  Its  origin  is  a 
vexed  question.  Professor  Baird  prefers  to  attribute  the  name 
to  "*8ome  trivial  circumstance  that  has  completely  passed  into 
oblivion."* 

At  an  assembly  of  Notables,  August,  1560,  the  new  chancellor, 
Michel  de  I'Hospital,  who,  though  brought  into  power  by  the  Lor- 
raines,  proved  to  be  of  just  and  noble  character  and  a  wise  states- 
man, raiade  a  liberal  address.  He  had  before  said,  "What  need 
have  we  of  these  tortures  and  flames  ?  Let  our  virtues  and  order- 
ly life  defend  us  against  heresy."  The  Bishop  of  Valence  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Vienne  heartily  defended  the  Protestant 
petition  offered  by  Coligny,  and  denounced  the  abuses  in  the 
Church.  Calvin  now  urged  the  King  of  Naviarre  to  gather  a 
body  of  nobles  together  and  by  the  moral  force  of  the  demon- 
stration secure  from  the  coming  States-general  suitable  terms 
for  the  Protestants ;  but  he  was  incapable  of  any  bold  action. 
So  urgent,  on  the  other  hand,  did  the  Catholic  party  become  at  the 
court  that  a  general  crusade  against  the  Protestants  was  planned 
by  Francis  H. ;  but  he  suddenly  died,  December  5,  1560. 

Charles  IX.  succeeded  his  brother  at  ten  years  of  age.  Cath- 
arine easily  persuaded  Navarre  to  yield  her  the  regency.  On 
the  fifth  day  of  the  new  reign  the  States-general  was  con- 
vened at  Orleans,  its  first  session  since  1483.  The  address 
of  the  chancellor,  L'Hospital,  is  remarkable,  as  showing  how 
8tit)ng  a  hold  the  prejudice  of  the  age  could  have  even  upon 
•Baird,  i,  897.    See  especially  an  Appendix  in  Soldan,  i,  608-620. 


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116  Methodist  Qiuirterly  Review.  [January, 

a  mind  so  liberal  Religious  opinions  must,  in  his  view,  find 
some  common  expression  in  order  to  peace.  "  It  is  folly,"  he 
said,  "  to  hope  for  peace,  rest,  and  friendship  between  persons 
of  opposite  creeds.  A  Frenchman  and  an  Englishman,  hold- 
ing a  common  faith,  will  entertain  stronger  aJ9fection  for  each 
other  than  two  citizens  of  the  same  city  who  disagree  about 
their  theological  tenets."  A  universal  council  is  the  panacea. 
The  assembly  was  prorogued  till  a  later  date.  These  were 
days  of  prosperity  for  the  Huguenots.  The  curiosity  to  hear 
the  preachers  grew.  "  The  records  of  the  chapters  of  cathedrals 
during  this  period  of  universal  spiritual  agitation  are  little  else, 
we  are  told,  than  a  list  of  cases  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  insti- 
tuted against  chaplains,  canons,  and  even  higher  dignitaries  for 
having  attended  the  Huguenot  service."  A  further  tolerant 
edict  from  the  king,  in  April,  gave  great  impulse  to  the  move- 
ment, so  that  Calvin  wrote  to  Bullinger,  (May  24, 1561,)  "  The 
eagerness  with  which  pastors  are  sought  for  on  all  hands  from 
us  is  not  less  than  that  with  which  sacerdotal  offices  are  wont 
to  be  solicited  among  the  papists.  .  .  .  And  on  our  part  we 
desire  to  fulfill  these  earnest  prayers  to  the  extent  of  our  ability, 
but  we  are  thoroughly  exhausted."  Letters  from  different 
parts  of  France,  written  about  this  time  to  Calvin  and  other 
leaders,  recently  discovered  in  Paris  and  Geneva,  "  present  a 
vivid  picture  of  the  condition  of  whole  districts  and  prov- 
inces." But  the  hopes  of  the  Huguenots  were  again  struck 
down  by  the  "  Edict  of  July,"  which  forbade  "  attendance,  with 
or  without  arms,*  upon  conventicles  in  which  preaching  was  held 
or  the  holy  sacraments  administered." 

In  the  States-general,  again  assembled  at  Pontoise,  the  most 
radical  propositions  were  formally  urged  by  the  Tiers  Etat,  and 
a  national  council  to  settle  religious  difficulties  was  demanded. 
Catharine,  however,  who  herself  desired  peace,  had  projected  a 
conference  which  should  be  under  her  owti  control,  and  had 
assembled  at  Poissy  all  the  bishops  of  France  "  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  religious  reformation  which  the  time^  impera- 
tively demanded."  In  this  presence  all  Frenchmen,  "  who  had 
any  correction  of  religious  affairs  at  heart,"  were  invited  to  ap- 
pear with  perfect  safety.  This  was  the  celebrated  Colloquy  of 
Poissy,  the  only  national  assembly  convened  for  the  special  dis- 
cussion of  religious  affairs,  which  opened  September  9,  1561. 


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1881.]  BoA/rdh  ''Rise  of  the  Huguenots:'  117 

Catharine  had  addressed  a  remarkable  letter  to  the  pope,  urging 
the  necessity  of  ecclesiastical  reform.  Beza  had  been  specially 
invited  to  the  Colloquy,  and  arrived  at  Paris  three  weeks  after 
the  opening  of  the  session.  Without  the  privilege  of  seats,  the 
Protestant  ministers  were  obliged  to  address  the  assembly  from 
behind  a  bar.  When  Beza  entered  he  reverently  knelt  upon 
the  floor,  and  pronounced  a  portion  of  the  Genevan  liturgy. 
"  A  deep  solemnity  fell  upon  the  assembly.  According  to  one 
account  of  the  scene,  even  the  Roman  cardinals  stood  with  un- 
covered heads  while  the  Huguenot  minister  prayed."  Though 
the  conference  lasted  two  months,  the  result  was  a  nullity  in 
view. of  the  object  proposed.  Catharine  cast  the  whole  blame 
upon  "  the  conceit  of  the  Cardinal  Lorraine."  The  historian 
rather  attributes  the  failure  to  the  intrigues  of  the  papal  legate; 
The  "Edict  of  Restitution"  was  obtained  by  the  prelates,  (on 
promise  of  money  for  the  Spanish  war,)  which  required  the 
Huguenots  to  surrender  all  the  churches  hitherto  occupied  by 
them.  It  was  only  witji  great  difficulty,  as  might  be  sup- 
posed, that  the  Huguenots  were  persuaded  to  submit  to  the  en- 
forcement of  this  edict ;  for  they  had  in  those  times  occupied 
the  churches  "wherever  they  constituted  the  bulk  of  the 
population."  They  continued  rapidly  to  increase.  In  Paris 
their  assemblies  often  numbered  as  many  as  6,000  persons. 
Marriages  and  baptisms  took  place  at  the  court  "after  the  fash- 
ion of  Geneva."  Such  were  the  indications  that  the  king  him- 
self would  soon  become  Huguenot,  that  "  the  leading  Protest- 
ants at  court  could  not  hide  their  delight." 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  real  number  of  Protestants  in 
the  country  at  this  period.  Some  accounts,  whicll  pretended  to 
an  estimate,  put  them  as  high  aa  one  fourth  or  one  tliird  of  the 
population.  Professor  Baird  deems  that  one  tenth  is  a  figure 
nearer  the  sober  truth.  The  Protestants  were,  at  least,  specially 
strong  among  the  nobility.  They  had  the  artisan  class  in  the 
cities,  though  generally  not  so  prevalent  in  those  places  as  in 
the  rural  districts.  Protestantism  made  less  progress  in  the 
north  than  in  other  parts  of  France. 

A  promised  Assembly  of  Notables  took  place  at  St.  Ger- 
main, in  January,  1562,  and  on  ,the  seventeenth  of  the  month 
the  edict  known  as  the  "  Edict  of  Jcmua/ry  "  was  signed,  which, 
while  it  maintained  the  "  Edict  of  Restitution,"  repealed  the; 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXni.— 8 

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118  Methodist  Qawrterhj  Reoiew.  [January, 

"  Edict  of  July,"  and  allowed  unarmed  assemblies  for  worship 
by  day  outside  city  walls,  though  the  building  of  churches  any- 
where was  prohibited.  Other  clauses  insured  the  protection 
and  oversight  of  the  government.  "  From  the  moment  of  the 
publication  of  this  charter — imperfect  and  inadequate  as  it  man- 
ifestly was — the  Huguenots  ceased  to  be  outlaws.  .  .  Unhap- 
pily for  France,  this  solemn  recognition  of  Protestant  rights 
was  scarcely  conceded  by  representatives  of  the  entire  nation 
before  an  attempt  was  made  by  a  desperate  faction  to  annul  and 
overthrow  it  by  intrigue  and  violence.  .  .  The  contention 
thenceforth  was,  on  the  one  part,  for  the  overthrow  of  the  mod- 
erate rights  insured  by  the  Edict  of  January,  and,  on  th^  oth- 
er, for  their  defense." 

Antoine  of  Navarre  now  openly  gave  his  adhesion  to 
the  Komanists.  It  was  the  opinion  of  Beza  that  had  he  re- 
mained firm  the  civil  war  might  have  been  averted.  Ilis 
queen,  the  high-minded  Jeanne  d' Albret,  one  of  the  most  illus- 
trious characters  among  the  Huguenots,  would  not  be  per- 
suaded. "  Sooner  than  go  to  the  mass,"  she  said,  "  had  I  my 
kingdom  and  my  son  in  my  hand,  I  would  cast  them  both  into 
the  depth  of  the  sea." 

Throckmorton's  letter  to  Queen  Elizabeth  exhibits  in  a  vivid 
way  the  attitude  of  different  parties  in  the  court  at  St.  Germain 
in  this  crisis.  Catharine,  careful  for  her  own  power,  and  not 
interested  for  either  religion,  through  jealousy  of  the  Constable 
Montmorency,  removes  him  from  court ;  whereupon  the  King 
of  Navarre,  attributing  this  step  to  the  influence  of  the  Chdtil- 
lons,  insists  that  they  shall  remove  also.  Catharine  then  sends 
for  the  Princfe  of  Conde,  who  is  sick  in  Paris,  and  quite  favors 
the  continuance  of  the  Reformed  preaching  in  St.  Germain. 
So  ready  was  she  to  turn  to  either  party.  The  Guises  were  at 
Savem,  seeking  the  favor  of  the  German  Protestant  princes, 
but  did  not  deceive  them.  The  Duke  of  Guise,  on  his  return, 
passed  through  Vassy ;  and  the  great  struggle  which  was  to 
arouse  and  desolate  the  whole  country  was  now  invoked  by  a 
wanton  attack  of  the  duke,  or  at  least  of  his  followers,  upon  a 
congregation  of  Huguenots  quietly  worshiping  in  that  town. 
The  duke  pleaded  in  justification  that  the  attack  was  not  pre- 
meditated, but  that  he  was  provoked  to  it.  Notwithstanding 
^Catharine's  prohibition,  he  entered  Paris  at  the  head  of  2,000 


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1881.1  Bai/rd'8  ''Rise  of  Uie  Hugv^moUP  119 

horse,  and  there  met,  by  chance,  the  Prince  of  Cond6,  riding 
with  a  company  of  noblemen,  students,  and  citizens  to  a  preach- 
ing place.  There  was  no  collision.  Cond6  subsequently  re- 
tired with  his  small  force  to  Meaux.  Catharine  was  in  great  per- 
plexity from  which  side  to  seek  protection  for  herself  and  the 
king.  Sonbise  and  L'Hospital  pressed  her  with  arguments  on 
the  Protestant  side.  "  Sometimes,"  says  a  recently  discovered 
contemporary  account,  "they  believed  that  they  had  gained 
every  thing,  and  she  was  ready  to  set  off  for  Condi's  camp." 
Her  letters  to  Oond6  appeal  to  him  for  aid.  But  the  latter  did 
not  feel  sufficiently  strong  to  move.  Guise,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  a  considerable  force,  proceeded  to  St.  Germain  and 
brought  the  king  and  his  mother  to  Paris.  "Weeping  and 
sad,  Charles  is  said  to  have  repeatedly  exclaimed  against  being 
led  away  contrary  to  his  will."  Thus  it  would  seem  that,  by  a 
mere  turn  of  events,  which  a  little  stronger  force  with  Cond6 
at  the  moment  would  have  prevented,  the  Catholic  party,  in- 
stead of  the  Huguenot,  stood,  at  the  outset,  as  protectors  of 
the  king.  Catharine  had  no  love  for  the  Guises.  Conde  sum- 
moned Coligny  to  his  side  at  Meaux.  D' Andelot  was  also  with 
him,  and,  at  the  head  of  1,500  horse,  "  the  flower  of  the  French 
nobility,"  though  "  better  armed  with  courage  than  with  corse- 
lets," he  moved  upon  Orleans,  and  was  welcomed  to  the  city, 
whence  he  issued  to  the  world  his  justification  for  taking  up 
arms. 

We  cannot  here  follow  the  course  of  events  during  the  civil 
wars,  but  have  rather  sought  to  trace  as  clearly  as  brevity  would 
permit  the  growth  and  circumstances  of  the  Huguenot  party, 
until  the  hour  when  it  began  to  stand  in  armor  for  its  rights. 
The  Catholic  party  were,  at  the  outset,  amazed  at  the  strength 
developed  by  their  opponents.  Of  the  marked  incidents  during 
the  campaigns  we  only  note  that,  on  the  one  side,  the  Duke  of 
Guise  was  assassinated  in  his  camp  before  Orleans,  {1563,)  by  a 
fanatical  Spaniard,  Poltrot,  who  accused  Coligny  and  Beza  of 
complicity  in  the  deed.  Both  issued  a  full  refutation  of  tlie 
charge.  On  the  other  side,  the  Prince  of  Cond6  was  treacher. 
ously  killed  in  cold  blood,  after  the  battle  of  Jarnac,  (1569.) 
I  The  same  year  D' Andelot,  a  valiant  soldier,  died  of  fever. 
The  romor  of  poisoning  in  this  case  is  discredited.  The 
young  Henry  of  Navarre  was  now  the  nominal  head  of  the 


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120  Methodist  Qtca/rterly  Review.  lJ*uiuary, 

Hugnenots,  but  the  responsibility  rested  on  Coligny.  "With  in- 
domitable spirit  he  rose  from  the  dejection  that  followed  the 
battle  of  Moneontour,  and  made  his  memorable  march  from  the 
south  toward  Paris,  more  boldly  conceived,  because  more  haz- 
ardous, than  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea.  He  arrived,  superior 
to  all  opposition,  at  his  own  castle  of  Chatillon.  Catharine  "  re- 
turned to  the  conviction  she  had  expressed  in  former  years,  that 
the  attempt  to  exterminate  the  Huguenots  by  force  of  arms  was 
hopeless."  The  peace  of  St.  Germain,  the  most  favorable  the 
Huguenots  had  yet  attained,  and,  in  our  author's  view,  a  sin- 
cere compact,  was  signed  October  8,  1570,  which  closed  the 
third  war. 

Now  followed  a  brief  period  of  quiet  and  hope  for  the 
Huguenots,  yet  big  with  a  terrible  fate  which  party  jealousy 
and  personal  animosity,  kindling  the  flames  of  religious  fanati- 
cism, wel^  about  to  evoke.  There  was  nmch  talk  of  the  mar- 
riage of  Henry  of  Anjou,  the  king's  brother,  with  Elizabeth  of 
England.  "  Charles  IX.  and  Catherine  de  Medicis  both  gave, 
just  now,  abundant  evidence  of  their  disposition  to  draw  closer 
to  England  and  the  Huguenots  of  France  and  the  Gueux  of 
Holland,  while  suflEering  the  breach  between  France  and  Spain 
to  become  more  marked."  Coligny  was  summoned  to  court  to  • 
prepare  an  enterprise  in  aid  of  the  Netherlands,  and  warmly 
welcomed  both  by  Catharine  and  the  king.  The  Guises  and 
the  Spanish  ambassador  retired  in  disgust.  While  Alva  was 
besieging  Mons,  (May,  1572,)  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  ready 
to  cross  the  Rhine  to  its  relief  with  25,000  troops,  Catharine 
inclined  to  favor  the  admiral's  cherished  designs  in  behalf  of  the 
Netherlands ;  but,  on  the  defeat  of  GenUs.  who  was  sent  with 
a  small  Huguenot  force  to  relieve  Mons  in  June,  she  decided 
for  the  Spanish  party.  "  The  fate  of  the  Huguenots  had  been 
quivering  in  the  balance,"  and  fell  now  against  them. 

Such  was  the  fickleness  of  Catharine ;  the  most  prominent 
trait  in  her  character.  Our  author  particularly  urges  this  view. 
He  quotes  the  Italian  Barboro :  "  Her  irresolution  is  extreme. 
She  conceives  new  plans  from  hour  to  hour ;  within  the  com- 
pass of  a  single  day,  between  morning  and  evening,  she  will 
change  her  mind  three  times."  Professor  Baird  remarks  that 
Catharine  has  been  an  enigma,  "  whose  secret  has  escaped  so 
many  simply  because  they  looked  for  something  deep  and  re* 


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1881.]  Bwird'8  ''Rise  of  the  HuguenoW  121 

condite,  where  the  solution  lay  ahnost  upon  the  surface,^^  The 
Duke  of  Alva,  however,  at  the  Bayonne  Conference,  admired 
her  "  circumspection,"  which  he  declared  "  he  had  never  seen 
equaled."  Professor  Fisher,  in  like  manner,  concludes :  "  She 
was  fully  capable  of  weaving  two  schemes  simultaneously,  and 
of  acconmiodating  herself  to  either,  as  circumstances  might  dic- 
tate." As  to  her  duplicity,  Martin,  who  is  sober  in  his  judg- 
ments, and  Michelet,  use  the  strongest  expressions  for  it.  The 
same  view,  Professor  Baird  finds,  as  can  be  easily  understood, 
not  inconsistent  with  what  he  elsewhere  says.  "  Her  Machi- 
avelian  training,  the  enforced  hypocrisy  of  her  married  life,  the 
trimming  policy  she  had  thought  herself  compelled  to  pursue 
during  the  minority  of  the  kings,  her  two  sons,  had  eaten  from 
her  soul,  even  to  its  roots,  truthfulness — ^that  pure  plant  of 
heaven's  sowing." 

Coligny  now  more  actively  urged  on  the  war  in  behalf  of 
the  Netherlands.  He  displayed  before  the  king  an  undertaking 
**  fitted  to  call  forth  the  nobler  faculties  of  his  soul ; "  recalled 
to  his  mind  the  glory  of  former  reigns ;  promised  a  large  addi- 
tion to  the  realm  in  the  Low  Countries,  an  expanded  navy  and 
marine,  France  influential  in  Europe,  with  religious  peace  at 
home.  In  his  enthusiasm  he  went  so  far  as  to  urge  that  the 
king  should  shake  off  the  influence  of  his  mother,  as  being 
prejudicial  to  the  true  interests  of  France,  and  find  some  occu- 
pation abroad  for  his  brother,  Henry  of  Anjou.  Catharine, 
learning  this,  entreats  her  son  with  tears,  and  both  are  decided 
against  the  admiral's  scheme  by  the  false  report  that  Elizabeth 
was  about  to  withdraw  her  troops  from  Flanders.  But  Coligny 
again  gains  the  ear  of  the  king ;  and  Catharine,  fearing  that 
even  if  France  should  prove  victorious  in  the  proposed  war, 
"  her  own  influence  would  fall  into  hopeless  eclipse,"  now  re- 
solves to  forestall  such  a  result,  and,  for  the  purpose,  "  falls 
back  upon  a  scheme  which  had  been  long  floating  dimly  in  her 
mind" — the  destruction  of  the  Huguenot  leaders.  The  idea 
that  any  treacherous  and  bloody  plot  was  definitely  formed  be- 
fore this  late  day  is  discredited  by  Professor  Baird.  He  argues 
that  no  such  plan  was  concocted  at  the  Bayonne  Conference  in 
June,  1565,  whatever  political  league  may  have  been  there 
formed  in  the  interest  of  Catholicism.*  Most  judicious  histori 
*  See  the  full  discussion  in  Baird,  ii,  167-176. 


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123  Methodiat  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

ans  of  the  present  day,  as  Martin,  Soldan,  and  Banm,  take  the 
same  view,  and  they  are  supported  by  recently  discovered  doc- 
uments. Martin  concludes  from  Catharine's  insistance  that  the 
proposed  marriage  of  Henry  of  Navarre  with  Margaret,  the 
king's  sister,  should  take  place  in  Paris,  that  there  was  in  her 
mind,  "  if  not  a  project,  at  least  a  sinister  haK-thought,"  {arri^re 
pens^e,)  Guizot  reasons  that  a  massacre  of  the  Huguenot  lead- 
ers had  been  long  premeditated,  but  at  the  time  and  in  the  form 
in  wliich  it  took  place  it  was  a  sudden  event,  and  a  surprise 
even  to  the  conspirators.*  Professor  Baird  says :  "  It  is  impos- 
sible that  Catharine  distinctly  premeditated  a  treacherous  blow 
at  the  Huguenots,  simply  because  she  rarely  premeditated  any 
thing  very  long.  I  am  aware  that  this  estimate  of  the  queen  is 
at  variance  with  the  views  which  have  obtained  the  widest  cur- 
rency ;  but  it  is  the  estimate  which  history,  carefully  read,  seems 
to  require  us  to  adopt."  f 

The  above-mentioned  marriage,  which  drew  the  Huguenot 
leaders  to  Paris,  had  been  talked  of  from  the  childhood  of  the 
parties,  was  long  favored  by  the  king  and  opposed  by  the  pope, 
being  bitterly  denounced  by  the  Catholic  clergy,  and  was  not, 
in  itself,  designed  as  a  trap  for  the  Huguenots.  The  latter  had 
acquired  confidence,  or  sought  to  cultivate  it,  on  either  side. 
They  gave  up  four  cities  to  the  king ;  among  them  La  Kochelle. 
Coligny  declared  that  continued  suspicion  was  folly.  He  read- 
ily agreed  to  the  introduction  of  troops  into  Paris.  Indeed,  he 
longed  for  permanent  peace,  and  was  willing  to  run  any  risk  to 
secure  it.  He  fully  trusted  the  king,  even  after  the  first  at- 
tempt at  assassination.  The  brave  course  he  took,  notwith- 
standing its  fatal  issue,  doubtless  rendered,  in  the  juncture  of 
affairs  abroad,  a  high  service  to  the  general  cause  of  Protestant- 
ism in  Europe.:|:  The  wedding  took  place  on  the  18th  of  Au- 
gust, the  festivities  continuing  three  days.  The  king  had  lately 
heard  of  Alva's  cruelty  to  French  prisoners,  and  his  attempt  to 
extract  testimony  from  them  by  torture,  which  put  him  in  a 
rage  against  the  Spaniards.  It  was  then  that  "  Catharine  and 
her  favorite  son,  Henry  of  Anjou,  (afterward  Henry  III.,)  came 
to  the  definite  deteriliination  to  put  the  great  Huguenot  out  of 
the  way."      We  have,  in  the  confession  of  Anjou  himself, 

•  "  History  of  France,"  Eng.  ed.,  Hi,  876.  f  Baird,  ii,  288. 

J  See  an  interesting  passage  in  Michelet,  "  Hist,  de  France,"  ix,  404-406. 


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1881.i  BcArd'%  ''Rise  of  the  Huguenots:' 

a  partial  history  of  the  formation  of  the  plot*  The  gen- 
uineness of  this  document  is  accepted  by  our  author ;  so  like- 
wise by  Martin,  though  it  is  doubted  by  Ranke.  According  to 
this  account,  Anjou's  fears  were  awakened  by  the  angry  air  of 
the  king  after  his  interviews  with  Coligny,  and  he  and  his 
mother  then  consulted  with  the  Duchess  of  Nemours,  widow  of 
the  murdered  Duke  of  Guise,  who  bitterly  hated  Coligny,  being 
persuaded  of  his  complicity  in  the  crime.  She,  enlisting  her 
son,  Henry  of  Guise,  and  the  Duke  d'Aumale,  "  herself  ar- 
ranged the  details  of  the  plan^  f  ^®  can,  perhaps,  know 
nothing  more  certainly  than  this  of  its  origination.  Tavannes 
has  charged  it  upon  Catharine,  X  and  that  has  been  the  common 
view.  We  know  that  Anjou  was  active  in  the  scenes  of  the 
24th,  and  see  what  reason  he  had  for  hating  Coligny.  The 
motives  of  the  Duchess  and  the  young  Duke  of  Guise  to  a  deed 
of  blood  are  apparent.  Personal  hate  was  evidently  the  spark 
that  kindled  this  destructive  fire,  and  went  far  to  feed  the  flame. 
That  Catharine  should  at  least  have  been  predominantly  active 
in  these  pressing  moments,  we  can  well  believe  from  that  pecul- 
iarity of  her  character  so  aptly  expressed  by  Miehelet.  Being 
dexterously  ready  to  join  her  talents  to  any  cause  which  seemed 
about  to  prevail,  "  she  thus,  although  at  the  last,  exercised  an 
immense  influence,"  (ainsi  quoique  4  la  suite  elle  influence  in- 
liniment.)  §  Salviati,  the  papal  nuncio,  whose  report  is  ci'edited 
by  Professor  Baird,  wrote  that  "  Madame,  the  regent,  .  .  .  hav- 
ing decided  upon  the  step  a  few  days  before,  caused  the  admiral 
to  be  fired  upon,"  but  that  this  was  "  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  king." 

Upon  the  incidents  of  the  massacre  we  do  not  dwell.  The 
treacherous  shot  at  the  admiral,  Friday  morning,  missed  its 
purpose,  and  left  him  only  wounded.  Here  was  a  frightful 
situation  for  the  conspirators.  Their  plot  would  be  revealed, 
and  all  would  be  over  with  them.  The  king  was  enraged  and 
threatened  vengeance.     Catharine  must,  perforce,  go  with  tlie 

•  "Discoure  du  Roy  Henry  HI."    It  may  be  found  appended  to  the  M^oircs  d 
VUleroy,  in  the  Petitot  "  Ck>llection  de  M^oires,^  S^^r.  1,  vol  xliv. 

f  Baird,  ii,  435. 

\  The  discussion  of  the  question  as  to  who  is  chiefly  chargeable  with  blame  ij; 
the  case  has  been  naturally  much  affected  by  the  national  prejudices  of  the  Frencl 
and  Italian  chroniclers  and  historians. . 

i  "Hist,  de  France,"  ix,  868. 


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124  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  iJ  inuary, 

court  to  visit  the  bedside  of  Coligny.  She  there  thought  her- 
self to  have  received  new  provocation.  She  took  council  again 
with  those  who  had  been  already  participants  in  crime,  meeting 
them  in  the  garden  of  the  Tuilleries.  Now  it  was,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  reliable  authorities  which  we  have  already  quoted,  that 
the  plan  of  a  general  slaughter  was  first  or  definitely  developed. 
It  is  true  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  both  in  the  city 
and  the  provinces  the  train  had  been  already  laid  in  view  of 
such  an  occurrence ;  *  but  it  has  been  more  recently  argued 
that  Catharine,  for  her  part,  would  never  have  fixed  upon  or 
consented  to  so  bold  an  undertaking  until  driven  to  it  by  sucli 
an  overmastering  influence  as  the  anxiety  and  terror  of  this  un- 
expected hour.  All  the  witnesses,  of  different  nationalities  and 
parties,  testify  to  the  natural  timidity  and  irresoluteness  of  Cath- 
arine. Excessive  fear  now  impelled  her  to  a  course  of  utterly 
unreasonable,  unrestricted  cruelty.  She  imagined  there  was  no 
hope  of  escape  from  the  existing  peril  but  in  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  at  least  the  leaders  of  the  opposite  party.  The  conspir- 
ators were  of  common  mind  from  the  same  or  other  consid- 
erations. 

But  the  king  must  be  won  over ;  and  the  plotters  hastened  to 
fill  his  mind  with  the  falsehoods  they  had  forged.  They  said 
they  had  intelligence  that  the  Huguenots  were  rising;  that  they 
had  already  sent  to  the  German  princes  for  levies  of  troops ; 
that  their  alliances  were  such  as  to  make  their  military  strength 
far  superior  to  the  king's;  the  Catholic  party  were  determined, 
unless  the  king  acted  with  them,  to  elect  a  captain-general,  who 
would  take  the  king's  place.  All  that  was  needed  now,  they 
said,  was  an  order  for  the  death  of  Coligny.  After  some  par- 
leying, suddenly  a  change  came  over  the  king,  and  he  went  to 
the  very  extreme  of  violence,  doubtless  carried  away  by  a  sud- 
den and  terrible  passion,  through  the  working  of  his  imagina- 
tion upon  the  idea  of  the  dangers  which  the  conspirators  said 
surrounded  him.  He  eagerly  asked  if  there  was  no  other  way 
of  escape.  By  one  account,  his  mother,  as  her  last  argument, 
whispered  in  his  ear  :^  "  Perhaps,  sire,  you  are  afraid."  He 
rose  quickly  from  his  chair,  enjoining  silence,  and  "  told  us," 
says  Anjou,  "  in  anger  and  in  fury,  swearing  by  God's  death, 
that  since  we  thought  it  good  that  the  admiral  should  be  killed, 
*  There  is  no  pretense  to  a  full  treatment  of  the  question  in  this  article. 


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1881.]  Ba/i/rd'8  ''Rise  of  the  HuguenotaP  125 

he  would  have  it  so ;  but  that  with  him  all  the  Huguenots  of 
France  must  be  killed,  in  order  that  not  one  might  remain  to 
reproach  him  hereafter."  Thus  the  furies,  brought  by  evil 
counselors,  took  possession  of  thq  poor  young  king ; — he  was  but 
twenty-two  years  of  age.  That  the  fatal  order  was  given  by 
Charles  in  a  violent  storm  of  passion,  in  which  he  hardly  knew 
what  he  did,  (even  notwithstanding  his  persistence  in  the  same 
determination,)  seems  also  in  some  degree  probable  from 
the  account  in  Sully's  "Memoirs,'^  of  his  words  to  the  physician 
Ambrose  Par6,  who  was  at  his  side  during  all  the  hours  of  the 
massacre :  "  I  do  not  know,"  he  said,  "  what  ails  me ;  for  these 
two  or  three  days  past  both  body  and  mind  have  been  quite  up- 
set. I  bum  with  fever ;  all  around  me  grin  pale,  blood-stained 
faces.  Ah,  Ambrose  I  if  they  had  but  spared  the  weak  and  the 
innocent."  Of  Charles  it  has  been  said :  "  His  virtues  were 
his  own  ;  his  vices  the  faults  of  his  training."  One  of  his  tu- 
tors taught  him  to  blaspheme.  His  admirers  praised  him  for 
his  skill  in  deception.*  He  was  capable  of  devoted  affection. 
His  natural  eloquence  and  love  of  music  and  verse  would  re- 
mind one  of  Francis  I.  and  Margaret ;  but  he  had  a  strange 
pafision  for  wild  sports  and  dealing  blows  upon  beasts  in  the 
chase  which  alarmed  people.  Then  a  fit  of  somber  melancholy 
would  take  him,  and  he  shut  himself  up,  or  exhausted  himself 
with  exercise  in  a  forest  until  overcome  by  a  fever.  A  portrait 
of  him  at  sixteen  years  of  age  shows  an  eye  somewhat  wild, 
with  an  oblique  glance,  but  not  devoid  of  intelligence.  His 
character,  according  to  all  accounts,  evinced  a  marked  change 
for  the  worse  after  the  massacre — an  increased  impatience  and 
violence ;  his  features  lost  their  gentleness,  and  remorseful  vis- 
ions, such  as  troubled  him  in  the  fatal  hours  of  the  crime, 
haunted  his  death-bed  two  years  later. 

Concerning  this  dark  and  terrible  event,  the  remembrance 
of  which  cannot  be  absent  from  an  account  of  the  "  Eise  of  the 
Huguenots ; "  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the  treacherous 
scheme  was  carried  out,  Including  the  slaughter  of  Coligny  on 
Saturday  night ;  the  general  bloodshed  on  the  24th ;  the  mas- 
sacre in  the  provinces ;  the  satisfaction  expressed  by  the  perpe- 
trators; the   decided  approval  pronounced  by  the  pope  at 

*  So  Claude  Haton :  "  Fut  une  gdU^  de  Dieu  comment  le  roi  But  si  bien  dia- 
simtder." 


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126  Methodist  Quarterly  B&oiew,  [JaDuaiy, 

Rome,  (after  the  deed,*)  which  cannot  be  explained  away  nor 
excused,!  we  can  have  no  further  words.  We  have  only  sought 
in  this  connection,  by  following  the  thread  given  us  in  Profes- 
sor Baird's  work,  and  the  judgment  of  other  late  historians,  to 
indicate  the  way  to  a  somewhat  clear  understanding  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  event  originated,  believing  that  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  those  engaged  in  bringing  it 
about  would  also  aid  to  a  more  just  conception  of  the  crime. 
The  customs  of  the  times,  it  may  be  remembered,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  earlier  persecutions,  go  far,  though  we  cannot  say 
to  palliate  the  deed,  to  soften  our  estimate  of  the  extreme 
guilt  of  the  perpetrators.  They  are  conspicuous  in  their  acts, 
and  yet,  if  charity  can  reach  the  most  dreadful  offenses,  should 
be  somewhat  screened  from  the  glare  of  our  condemnation  in 
the  shadow  of  their  surroundings.  "Massacre,"  says  Guizot, 
"  was  an  idea,  a  habit,  we  might  almost  say  a  practice,  familiar 
to  this  age.  .  .  .  We  have  cited  fifteen  or  twenty  cases  of  mas- 
sacre which,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  IX.,  from  1562  to  1572, 
grievously  troubled  and  steeped  in  blood  various  parts  of 
France  without  leaving  any  lasting  traces  in  history."  X 

The  king,  in  a  circular  letter  to  the  several  courts  on  Sun- 
day, charged  the  affair  upon  the  Guises,  as  though  it  were  but 
an  emeute  between  two  factions ;  but  the  Guises  compelled  him 
to  assimie  the  responsibility,  which  he  did  before  Parliament 
on  the  26th,  charging  Coligny  with  the  guilt  of  conspiracy,  for 
the  support  of  which  accusation  not  the  slightest  evidence  has 
ever-appeared.  "  Kot  a  scrap  of  a  letter  could  be  found  incul- 
pating Coligny — not  the  slightest  approach  to  a  hint  that  it 
would  be  well  to  make  way  with  the  king  or  any  of  the  royal 
family.  The  most  private  manuscripts  of  the  admiral,  unlike 
those  of  many  courtiers  even  in  our  own  day,  contained  not  a 
disrespectful  expression,  nothing  that  could  be  twisted  into  a 
mark  of  disaffection  or  treason."  The  Admiral  Coligny  is  the 
one  supreme  figure  which  stands  in  tlie  memory  as  we  retrace 
this  history,  and  the  eye  is  fixed  with  unsurpassed  admiration 
upon  his  sublime  sacrifice  of  himself  at  the  last.     We  have  no 

*  Professor  Baird  acquits  Gregory  XIIL  of  any  previous  "  knowledge  of  the  dig- 
aster  impending  over  the  admiral  and  the  Huguenots,"  ii,  574. 

f  Notwithstanding  Bishop  Spaulding's  attempt  in  the  "  Nation"  of  Feb.  6, 1880. 
t"  History  of  France,"  Eng.  ed.,  iii,  876. 


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1881.1  Bai/rd'8  ''Rise  of  the  Huguenots:'  127 

space  here  to  depict  that  truly  virtuous,  grave,  self-reliant, 
frank  and  trustful  nature,  great  in  thought  and  great  in  heart, 
as  set  forth  so  worthily  in  the  work  before  us.  Montesquieu 
says  of  him  that  he  carried  only  the  glory  of  France  in  his 
heart ;  and  Bossuet  ascribes  to  him  a  lofty  courage  and  patri- 
otic purpose.  Pressens6  has  lately  said  :  "  Coligny  shows  us 
what  depth  and  earnestness  the  brilliant  French  nature  might 
acquire  after  receiving  the  stamp  of  the  Protestant  faith.  He 
is  the  ideal  Frenchman."  *  The  new  "  Life  of  Coligny,"  by 
Count  Jules  Delabord,  is  a  most  welcome  contribution  to  the 
history  of  French  Protestantism  and  to  the  universal  store  of 
Christian  biography. 

It  remains  to  indicate  two  or  three  lines  of  special  study  in 
connection  with  the  work  under  review,  for  which  its  own 
pages  furnish  much  interesting  material.  We  refer  to  the 
character  exhibited  in  its  diflEerent  phases  and  under  different 
circumstances  by  the  Huguebots ;  to  the  different  causes  and 
circumstances  promotive  of  their  progress ;  to  the  rapidity  and 
manner  of  their  growth  at  different  periods,  and  to  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  origin  and  development  of  French  Prot- 
estantism in  the  sixteenth  century  may  be  put  in  comparison 
with  its  development  and  prospects  to-day.  The  claims  of  the 
narrative  have  filled  the  allotted  space  in  this  article. 

The  spirit  of  the  Huguenots  was  not  crushed  by  the  mas- 
sacre. A  fourth  and  fifth  civil  war  followed  that  event  before 
the  painful  death  of  Charles  IX.,  May  30,  15Y4.  At  a  bold 
petition  which  the  Huguenots  presented  from  their  two  mili- 
tary kingdoms  of  Nismes  and  Montaubon,  Catharine  exclaimed, 
"  Why,  if  yonr  Cond6  himself  were  alive,  and  in  the  heart  of 
the  kingdom  with  20,000  horse  and  50,000  foot,  and  held  the 
chief  cities  in  his  power,  he  would  not  make  half  so  great  de- 
mands 1 "  At  the  end  of  the  period  our  author  concludes  with 
these  words:  "A  full  half -century  from  the  first  promulgation 
of  the  reformed  doctrines  of  Lef 6vre  d'Etaples  found  the  friends 
of  the  purer  faith  more  resolute  than  ever  in  its  assertion,  despite 
fire,  massacre,  and  open  warfare.  No  candid  beholder  could 
deny  that  the  system  of  persecution  had  thus  far  proved  an 
utter  failure."  Again  we  commend  to  the  reader  this  admi- 
rable work  of  Professor  Baird,  the  fruit  of  so  much  conscien. 

•  **  Etudes  contemporaines.*' 


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128  Methodist  QaoHierly  Beview.  fJanaaiy, 

tions  and  painstaking  study,  and  so  rich  in  the  results  of  recent 
historical  discoveries. 

Note. — ^In  view  of  some  criticism  from  other  quarters,  we  ought,  perhaps,  to  ob- 
serve that  Professor  Baird  is  not  to  be  understood  as  "  apologizing/*  in  his  ex- 
tended notice  of  the  subject,  for  Queen  Margaret*s  Decameron, 

In  reference  to  the  remark  on  page  106,  about  the  means  and  methods  of  prop- 
agating the  Reformed  faith  in  France,  we  would  call  attention  to  the  interesting 
passages  in  the  work  under  review,  voL  i,  pp.  400-408. 


Abt.  vn.— phases  of  the  conflict  between 

FAITH  AND  INFIDELITY  IN  GERMANY. 

Thbee  hundred  years  ago  Germany  was  convulsed  by  the  great 
conflict  of  the  Eeformation.  It  was  at  that  time,  more  than 
any  other  country,  the  battle-ground  of  the  opposing  forces. 
For  centuries  Rome  had  enslaved  the  mind  of  man.  Gennany 
did  more  than  any  other  country  to  break  those  iron  fetters, 
and  to  liberate  not  only  the  mind  but  also  the  conscience  of 
man.  Again  Germany  is  engaged  in  a  great  conflict;  it  is 
grappling  with  a  terrible  foe,  a  foe  entirely  different  from  the 
one  with  which  it  was  engaged  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation, 
(although  we  must  confess  that  the  question  with  regard  to 
Rome  is  also  not  yet  settled.)  Not  across  the  Alps  nor  across 
the  Rhine  have  we  to  look  for  this  great  enemy,  for  it  has  its 
stronghold  in  the  very  heart  of  Germany — ^it  is  a  foe  in  their 
own  land.  We  are  referring  to  the  great  conflict  between  faith 
and  infidelity,  between  the  religion  of  the  Bible  and  rational- 
ism, pantheism,  and  materialism,  with  all  their  consequences. 
This  conflict,  we  think,  is  fiercer  and  of  greater  importance 
than  any  that  Germany  has  ever  had  with  Rome  or  France. 

Germany  is,  more  than  any  other,  the  land  of  philosophical 
thinking,  of  scientific  and  historic  research,  and  of  the  most 
radical  and  bold  criticism ;  and  the  conflict  with  regard  to  re- 
ligion, in  which  Germany  is  at  present  engaged,  is,  therefore, 
in  an  eminent  sense  of  the  word,  a  conflict  of  mind  with  mind. 
Taking  all  this  into  consideration,  an&  also  the  present  religious 
condition  of  Germany,  we  say  not  too  much  in  asserting,  that 
Germany  is,  to-day,  more  than  any  other  country,  the  battle- 
ground of  the  Christian  faith,  for  nowhere  else  is  the  conflict 


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1881.]  FmiK  versus  Infidelity  m  Gefrmcmy,  129 

BO  bitter  and  so  fierce.  It  is,  therefore,  with  a  deep  interest 
that  Christians  of  America  and  England  are  watching  the 
reh'gious,  social,  and  philosophic  movements  in  Germany; 
for  the  whole  Protestant  world  seems  to  feel  that  the  conflict 
between  faith  and  infidelity  must  there  come  to  a  decision. 
Dr.  Cremer,  in  the  late  assembly  of  the  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance, held  at  Basel,  made  the  remark :  "  On  alt  sides  the  con- 
flict is  raging.  It  is  true,  the  contest  with  Christianity  is  as 
wide  as  the  world,  (Weltkampf,)  in  which  every- where  human- 
ity stands  before  the  question,  What  think  ye  of  Christ  %  But 
in  the  German  Evangelical  Church  this  conflict  is  more  violent 
than  anywhere  else.  The  turning  away  from  God,  the  more 
than  Julian  hatred  of  the  Church  and  Christianity,  has  no- 
where found  such  a  strong  expression  as  in  Germany." 

Let  us  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  religious  condition  of 
Germany  and  some  of  its  causes  and  consequences. 

Thirtynsix  per  cent  of  the  population  of  Germany  are  Eoman 
Catholic,  meaning  by  Germany  those  States  that  form  the  so- 
called  German  Empire,  of  which  Prussia  is  the  head,  which 
excludes  the  German  provinces  in  Austria,  which  are  almost 
entirely  Koman  Catholic.  It  is  Protestant  Germany  with 
which  we  have  mostly  to  do  in  speaking  of  the  great  conflict, 
for  there  it  is  most  intense. 

From  a  Christian  point  of  view  the  religious  condition  of 
Germany  looks  deplorable  enough.  There  is  unquestionably  a 
great  "  chasm "  between  religion,  or  the  Church,  and  what  is 
generally  called  c^ture.  In  Berlin  and  other  great  cities  thou- 
sands never  see  the  inside  of  a  church,  excepting  at  certain 
times ;  for  instance,  when  a  noted  preacher  is  expected  to  occu- 
py the  pulpit,  or  at  marriages,  confirmation  of  the  children, 
funerals,  etc. 

Dr.  Christlieb  says :  "  A  glance  into  the  churches  shows  us 
at  once  the  rupture  between  the  majority  of  the  educated  and 
the  Christian  faith.  Education  is  concentrated  within  our  great 
cities,  and  it  is  here  where  we  find  the  emptiest  churches,  if  we 
find  such  anywhere,  for  with  rapid  increase  of  the  population 
the  multiplication  of  the  churches  has  not  in  the  least  kept  pace. 
In  former  times  one  could  say  with  Taust :  *  The  message  do  I 
hear ;  alas,  I  lack  the  faith  I '  but  now  very  often  not  even  the 
message  is  heard.     In  several  parishes  in  Berlin  and  Hamburg 


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130  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Bemew.  [January, 

only  one  to  two  per  cent,  of  the  population  are  regular  church- 
goers." *  It  is  several  years  ago  since  this  was  written,  but 
it  is  still  true,  for,  if  any  thing,  things  have  become  worse  in 
this  respect. 

How  deep  into  worldliness  and  infidelity  a  great  part  of  the 
population  has  fallen  the  following  extracts,  from  men  who 
are  competent  to  judge,  will  show.  Professor  Cremer,  speak- 
ing of  the  religious  condition  of  Germany,  in  the  late  as- 
sembly of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  held  at  Basle,  says :  "  A 
gloomy  aspect  presents  the  mammonism  of  our  people,  the  de- 
generation of  the  German  youth,  the  pool  of  vileness  and  god- 
lessness  into  which  the  social  question  has  sunk."  A  German 
statesman  writes :  "  Our  commonalty  has,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, lost  its  entire  religious  base,  upon  which  its  ideas  of  duty 
and  morality  rest.  Upon  a  foundation  that  is  so  thoroughly 
destroyed,  as  the  Christian  convictions  of  our  middle  and  work- 
ing classes,  it  is  impossible  to  bnild  up  anew.  These  people  un- 
derstand no  appeal  to  their  religious  convictions."  f 

In  the  first  month  of  the  year  1878  the  Socialists  demanded 
of  the  people  a  general  coming  out  from  the  State  Cliurch, 
{MaaamcmsiHU)  "This  demand,"  says  a  German  writer, 
"  was  followed  by  a  mass  meeting  on  the  evening  of  the  23d  of 
January,  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Handmerkerverein.  The 
papers  generally  agreed  to  the  fact  that  since  1872,  that  is,  since 
the  great  strike  of  the  machine  builders  and  colossal  mass  meet- 
ing, Berlin  never  has  seen  such  a  mass  of  people  gathered  to- 
gether in  one  place  as  at  this  time."  But  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake  if  we  were  to  apply  to  the  whole  of  Germany  what  we 
find  in  her  capital  in  this  respect.  The  church-going  people 
number  in  the  great  cities,  on  an  average,  about  eight  to  ten  per 
cent,  of  the  population,  and  in  the  smaller  towns  and  villages  a 
great  deal  more,  while  there  are  many  districts  where  almost 
every  one  goes  to  churcli. 

What  may  astonish  the  American  or  Englishman  most,  when 
he  visits  Germany,  is  the  observance,  or  rather  the  non-observ- 
ance, of  the  Sabbath.  By  law  work  is  prohibited,  especially 
such  work  as  is  annoying  to  others ;  but  this  law,  like  so  many 
others,  is  in  most  places  a  dead  letter.    In  some  places  there  is 

*  **  Modeme  Zweifel  am  Christlichen  Glauben/'  p.  84. 
f  "  Deutscher  Volkafreund,"  vol.  ix,  p.  816. 


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1881.]  Faith  versvs  Infidelity  m  Oermcmy.  131 

more  business  done  on  Sundays  than  on  any  other  days  of  the 
week.  "  After  the  attack  upon  the  life  of  the  Emperor,  tlie 
police  regulations  were  made  more  strict,  and  during  the  prin- 
cipal services  of  the  day,  from  nine  to  eleven  A.  M.,  and  from 
two  to  three  P.  M.,  all  shops  every-where  were  ordered  to  be 
shut ;  but  there  are  only  a  few  States  and  towns  where  the 
shops  are  not  allowed  to  be  open  at  aU.  The  postal  service  is 
limited  to  shorter  hours ;  letters  and  parcels  are  not  delivered  so 
often  as  on  other  days,  and  there  are  similar  restrictions  on  the^^ 
telegraph  service.  On  the  other  hand,  the  railway  traffic  is  left 
quite  free,  and  not  only  do  the  trains  run  as  on  other  days,  but 
by  almost  every  line  there  are  also  extra  trains  for  the  conveni- 
ence of  the  holiday-makers.  For  example,  the  Rhine  railway 
runs  every  Sunday  and  holiday,  from  the  15th  of  May  to  Octo- 
ber, three  extra  trains  in  the  afternoon,  and  other  lines  do  the 
same."   (Fr.  von  Schulte.) 

One  of  the  darkest  appearances  in  Germany  is  the  so-called 
Socialism^  the  party  of  the  Social-Democrats.  This  party  forms 
the  extremest  infidelity,  and  is  filled  with  more  than  a  pagan 
hatred  toward  every  thing  that  pertains  to  Christianity  or  the 
Church.  Its  watch-word,  as  Lange  says,  is :  "  Dominion  of  the 
masses  over  the  educated  classes  of  the  nation ;  dominion  of  the 
fist  over  the  head ;  dominion  of  the  sensual  enjoyments  over 
the  inner  man  ;  a  new  world,  in  which  force  takes  the  place  of 
right,  robbery  the  place  of  property,  and  free-love  the  place  of 
marriage."  The  leaders  of  the  French  Revolution  and  of  the 
Commune  are  extolled  as  heroes  and  martyrs  of  the  people.  The 
spirit  that  animated  many  of  the  leaders  of  Socialism  can  be 
seen  in  the  fact  that  the  "  Volksstaat,"  one  of  their  organs,  in 
full  earnestness,  asked  the  question  a  short  time  ago  :  "  Was  it 
possible  for  Socialism  to  go  to  work  with  more  prudence,  mod- 
eration, and  timidity  than  it  did  in  Paris  in  the  spring  of 
1871  ? "  *  That  this  party  has  gained  considerable  influence  in 
the  country,  no  one  that  is  acquainted  with  the  social  and  po- 
litical condition  of  that  country  will  deny.  The  government 
is  doing  its  best  to  suppress  it ;  but  whether  such  a  movement 
can  be  entirely  overcome  by  laws  and  police  forces  we  very 
much  doubt.  It  can  now  be  kept  down,  but  if  it  keeps 
on  increasing  it  will  finally  break  forth  more  furious  than  a 
*  "  Der  Socialismus,^'  by  Heinrich  Geffcken,  p.  8. 


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132  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jaiinaiy, 

stream  that  has  broken  the  dam  that  held  back  its  floods.  The 
general  hard  times  and  the  poverty  of  the  working-classes  help 
to  strengthen  this  movement. 

It  is  especially  in  the  press  that  the  great  conflict  between  in- 
fidelity and  Christianity  is  fought,  and  a  glance  at  the  periodic- 
als shows  us  at  once  how  intense  this  contest  has  become.  The 
secular  press,  which  is,  especially  in  Berlin,  almost  exclusively 
in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,*  breathes  a  very  bitter  spirit  toward 
every  thing  that  pertains  to  the  Church.  An  English  corre- 
spondent of  one  of  the  American  papers  wrote  from  Germany 
that  his  language  had  no  word  so  malicious  as  that  with  which 
the  German  papers  love  to  designate  Christians,  the  word 
Mucker.  Dr.  Mlihlhausser  says :  \  "  Not  only  a  secular  press 
has  grown  up,  but  an  unreligious  press  has  grown  over  our 
heads,  and  in  it  a  deadly  contest  against  Christianity  is  already 
beginning.  The  press  is,  above  all  other  things,  the  means 
through  which  the  attempt  is  made,  and  not  without  success,  to 
draw  our  German  people  away  from  the  Church  and  Christian- 
ity, and  to  offer  a  compensation  in  our  modem  culture.  If  our 
development  goes  on  in  this  way  much  longer,  the  rent  (riss) 
between  Christians  and  non-Christians  must  become  a  yawniug 
wound,  through  which  our  nation,  in  spite  of  its  newly-gained 
political  power  and  unity,  wiU  bleed  itself  to  death." 

In  looking  at  these  deplorable  religious  and  social  conditions 
of  Germany,  two  questions  present  themselves  to  the  mind : 
"What  is  and  has  been  the  cause  of  all  this  ?  and,  What  wiU  be 
the  consequences  of  such  a  state  of  things  ?  Interesting  as  the 
consideration  of  these  questions  might  be,  we  have  space  for  a 
very  brief  and  incomplete  answer  only..  Not  a  little  of  the 
blame  for  these  deplorable  conditions  falls  upon  the  Church  it- 
self. She,  in  a  certain  sense,  reaps  what  she  has  been  sowing 
for  many  years.  It  never  would  have  come  to  this  if  she  had 
always  done  her  duty ;  but  "  if  the  salt  have  lost  his  savor, 
wherewith  shall  it  be  salted  1 "  The  dead  orthodoxy  of  the  last 
century  prepared  the  way  for  rationalism,  and  this  again,  com- 
bined  with  the  pantheism  of  German  philosophy,  more  or  less 
for  the  materifiJism  of  our  time.     Whereto  should  the  poor 

*  Berlin  alone  numbers  more  than  forty-five  thoosand  Jews,  more  than  the  whole 
of  England  or  France. 

f  ''  Cbristenthim  und  Presse/*  p.  4. 


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1881.].         Faith  versus  Infidelity  in  Germcmy,  133 

people  go,  when  it  found  in  the  Church  nothing  but  the  dry 
religion  of  reason  instead  of  the  bread  of  life.  Thousands  re- 
mained nominal  Christians,  but  knew  not  what  religion  was, 
and  cared  little,  if  any  thing,  for  the  Church ;  and  thousands 
despaired  of  all  religion,  and  fell  into  the  open  arms  of  infidel- 
ity. "  Pantheism  tried  to  dethrone  God  the  Father,  rational- 
ism tried  to  dethrone  God  the  Son,  and  now  materialism  is  try- 
ing to  take  the  crown  oflE  from  the  head  of  man." 

And  also  for  the  evil  of  Sabbath-breaking  the  Church  is  more 
or  less  at  fault ;  and  also  to  a  great  degree  the  reformers  and 
theologians  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  continental  theolo- 
gians never  laid  stress  upon  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
as  they  should  have  done.  In  Luther's  Catechism  the  third  * 
commandment  reads  :  "  Thou  shalt  keep  the  holiday ^^^  (Du  sollst 
den  Feiertag  heiligen,)  instead :  "  Remember  the  Sabbath  day^ 
to  keep  it  holy."  Now,  although  Luther  undoubtedly  meant 
the  Sabbath  by  Feiertagy  yet  it  seems  that  the  majority  of  the 
Germans  does  not  so  understand  it.  Therefore,  we  find  that 
most  German  Christians  attach  greater  importance  to  the  keep- 
ing of  the  Feiertage,  as  Christmas  and  Good  Friday,  than  upon 
the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath.  German  churches  are  generally 
crowded  on  holidays,  for  thousands  go  to  church  then  that  do 
not  see  the  inside  of  a  church  the  whole  year  around. 

Calvin  taught  that  to  rest  from  labor  on  Sunday  was  no 
general  duty.  ("  Inst.,"  ii,  8,  28-32.)  And  still  further  went 
tlie  theologians,  those  of  the  Lutheran  as  well  as  the  Reformed 
Church.  They  did  not  only  admit — wherein  they  were  right 
— that  the  fourth  commandment  does  not  bind  us  to  the  ob- 
servance of  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  that  is,  Saturday,  as 
Sabbath,  but — ^and  herein  they  were  wrong— they  claimed  that 
it  does  not  even  bind  us  to  the  every  seventh  day ;  that  is,  if 
the  Church  had  thought  it  best  to  change  the  length  of  the 
week  from  seven  to  ten  days,  observing  every  tenth  day  as 
Sabbath,  she  might  have  done  so  without  violating  the  fourth 
command.  So  taught  all  the  theologians  of  the  continent ;  the 
English  theologians  making  an  honorable  exception.f    Now, 

*  In  Lather's  Catechism  the  first  and  second  commandments  are  counted  as 
one,  which  brings  the  fourth  to  be  the  third.  To  fill  the  number  ten  the  hist  is 
divided  into  two. 

t  Compare  "Ebrard*8  Dogmatik,"  vol.  i,  p.  648;  also  his  "Kirchen  und  Dogmen. 
Geschichte,"  vol.  iv,  p.  92;  also  "Staat  v.  Sontag,"  by  Rieger,  p.  24. 

FouBTH  Seetbs,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 9 


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134  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [Jannary, 

if  this  was  the  teaching  of  the  theologians,  what  can  we  expect 
of  the  people  ?  But  the  German  theologians  do  not  now  thns 
nullify  the  Christian  Sabbath.  Their  eyes  are  being  opened 
on  this  question ;  and  it  is  high  time.  We  must,  however, 
not  be  astonished  that  so  many  Germans  in  this  country  find 
our  Sabbath  laws  such  a  burden  to  them. 

But  we  will  consider  the  other  question,  What  will  be  the 
harvest  that  will  grow  up  from  this  seed  ?  What  have  we  to 
expect  if  the  people  become  more  and  more  estranged  from 
God  ?  Certainly  nothing  good.  What  the  results  of  infidelity 
and  godlessness  are  France  has  shown  us  plainly  enough. 
Think  of  the  horrors  of  the  French  Kevolution  and  of  the  ter- 
rors of  the  Commune  1  Even  philosophers  are  alarmed  to  see 
the  masses  of  the  people  philosophical  and  make  practical  use 
of  their  godless  theories.  The  threatenings  of  Socialists,  the 
repeated  attacks  upon  the  life  of  the  German  Emperor,  and 
upon  other  crowned  heads  of  Europe,  speak  plainly  enough. 
If  the  Churches  are  becoming  empty,  the  prisons  are  the  more 
filled.  Facts  are  stubborn  things,  and  to  them  we  appeal.  "Be- 
side the  empty  churches,"  said  Mr.  Sarasin,  at  Basel,  "you  can 
see  the  overfilled  State  prisons  and  reform  institutions.  In 
1878  Berlin  held  60,642  prisoners  for  examination,  (Unter- 
suchungsgefangene,)  while  the  number  was  only  31,882  in 
1875."  This  gives  an  increase  of  almost  a  hundred  per  cent, 
in  three  years ! 

A  writer  in  the  "Daheim"*  says:  "That  the  crimes  had 
increased  in  the  last  decennium  at  a  fearful  rate  we  knew  well 
enough ;  but  now  we  are  in  a  situation  to  prove  it  by  figures. 
Mr.  Stursberg,  of  Dusseldorf,  the  agent  of  the  Rhenish  West- 
phalia Prison  Association,  has  given  us,  in  an  interesting  little 
pamphlet,  '  Die  Zunahme  der  Vergehen  und  Verbrechen  und 
ihre  Ursachen,'  more  than  abundant  material  as  regards  this 
matter."  From  his  figures  we  obtain  the  following  results : 
"  In  the  seven  years  from  1871  to  1877  the  number  of  crimes 
in  the  Prussian  State  has  increased  100  per  cent.,  while 
the  population  has  increased  only  4.4  per  cent,  from  1871  to 
1875.  But  in  the  different  categories  of  the  crimes  the  increase 
was  very  unequal ;  for  example,  the  crimes  of  immorality  in- 
creased in  the  above-named  space  of  time  294  per  cent.,  murder, 

•  Vol.  XV,  p.  28. 


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1881.]         Faiih  versvs  InfideUty  m  Oermom/.  186 

138 ;  fraud,  290 ;  perjury,  77 ;  arson,  77 ;  infanticide,  76.  In 
Wurtemberg  and  Baden  the  crimes  of  immorality  experienced 
a  fearful  increase ;  the  same  may  be  said  of  Saxony.  The  lan- 
guage of  these  figures  can  be  understood  only  too  plainly ;  and 
it  becomes  more  impressive  still  when  we  hear  that  not  only 
the  crimes  have  had  such  an  increase,  but  also  the  number  of 
criminals;  and  among  those  again  the  criminals  under  eighteen 
years  have  had  a  larger  increase  than  the  x)lder  ones."  To  this 
it  has  come.  "Whosoever  will  not  hear  must  feel."  This 
proverb  can  also  be  applied  to  Germany ;  and  still  more  can 
we  apply  the  words  of  Scripture :  "  They  have  sown  the  wind, 
and  they  shall  reap  the  whirlwind."  (Hos.  viii,  7.) 

But  not  only  do  these  criminals  come  from  the  lower  classes 
of  the  people,  but  the  so-called  cultured  classes  yield  a  consid- 
erable number  of  them.  Nobeling,  the  would-be  murderer  of 
the  German  Emperor,  was  an  educated  man.  We  see  that  cult- 
ure, that  is,  knowledge — for  that  is  generally  understood  by 
culture  in  our  day— does  not  make  it  alone.  The  heart  needs 
education  (Bildung)  as  well  as  the  head. 

But  not  only  crimes  increase  at  a  fearful  rate,  but  also  sui- 
cides. In  Switzerland  there  falls  one  suicide  to  every  4,450  of 
the  inhabitants.  Now  what  can  be  the  cause  of  this  ?  Noth- 
ing else  but  the  despair  of  infidelity,  the  so-called  peaavmism. 
Pessimism  is  the  last  consequence  of  materialism  and  atheism, 
the  darkest  and  most  gloomy  form  of  infidelity.  Materialism 
teaches  that  there  is  no  heaven  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave — 
heaven  is  here.  The  philosophers  of  pessimism,  Arthur  Schop- 
enhauer and  Eduard  von  Hartmann,  arise  before  the  people, 
point  to  the  unbounded  misery  and  wretchedness  of  life,  to 
sickness,  death,  and  the  grave,  and  say,  with  a  clear,  plain 
voice:  The  doctrine  that  heaven  is  on  earth  is  an  infernal 
lie ;  earth  is  no  heaven  but  a  hell,  and  not  only  a  hell,  but  a 
hell  without  an  end  or  an  outlet.  Pessimism  is  the  philosophy 
of  despair  and  of  death.  It  shows  us  where  man.  loses  all  faith 
in  a  living  God  and  a  divine  providence,  he  despairs  of  life 
and  of  every  thing  else.  While  infidelity  plunges  the  masses 
of  the  people  into  sensuality,  it  leads  the  more  cultivated  to 
despair:  and  it  is  true  what  Count  de  Maistre  says:  '"The 
most  cultivated  and  talented  men  feel,  when  they  are  given  to 
infidelity,  the  misery  of  being  more  than  any  otiier.    In  vain 


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186  MethocUst  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

do  they  seek  help  in  science  and  art ;  all  their  work  is  only 
toil  without  an  end  and  without  true  satisfaction ;  their  weari- 
ness of  life  increases  with  their  age."  It  is  well  known  how 
weary  Alexander  von  Humboldt  was  of  life ;  he.  thought  it  a 
great  misfortune  for  any  man  to  have  a  brilliant  mind ;  the 
greatest  blessing  was  to  be  bom  a  blockhead. 

Whereto  pessimism  leads  a  person,  the  following  pessimistic 
confessions  of  several  infidels  will  show.    The  poet  Lenan  says : 

"  Loveless'and  without  Gfod  I  the  way  is  dreary, 
The  wind  upon  the  streets  is  cold :  and  you  ? 
The  entire  world  is  in  despair  and  weary.  ^' 

David  Friedrich  Strauss  confessed  :  "  The  giving  up  of  the 
faith  in  a  divine  providence  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  sensi- 
tive losses  that  can  befall  man.  You  see  yourself  placed  with- 
in the  awful  machine  of  the  world,  with  its  iron-teethed  wheels, 
revolving  with  terrible  rapidity,  its  heavy  hammers  falling 
stunningly  to  the  ground — ^in  this  awful  machinery  man  sees 
himself  placed  helpless  and  alone,  not  a  moment  safe,  but  that 
he  may  be  crushed  or  torp  to  pieces  within  these  roaring  wheels 
and  falling  hammers  with  which  he  sees  himself  continually  sur- 
rounded.    This  feeling  of  being  abandoned  is  indeed  terrible." 

Prince  Herman  Puckler-Muskau  wrote  to  Ludmilla  Assing : 
**  Do  you  know  Schopenhauer  and  his  philosophy,  who  could 
have  used  for  his  motto  Dante's  words  written  over  the  gates 
of  hell  ?  This  is  my  man  now !  "  And  in  another  place  he 
writes :  "  It  is  really  not  so  absurd  that  Indian  philosophers, 
and  now  also  the  German  philosopher  Schopenhauer,  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  true  happiness  exists  only  in  absolute 
nothingness  and  extinction — only  with  the  despair  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  be  attained."  Another  writer  complains:  "It 
brings  a  disconsolate  emptiness  into  life  to  know  nothing  else 
than  to  be  eaten  up  by  worms  after  you  die."  f  Schopenhauer 
himself  led  a  very  unhappy  life. 

This  pessimism  is  moving  like  a  dark  cloud  over  the  firma- 
ment of  German  thought.  "  At  first  it  was  but  a  speck  in  the 
far-off  horizon,  scarcely  visible  in  the  brilliant  day  of  the  abso- 
lute philosophy.  It  has  been  gradually  rising  and  increasing. 
It  is  overshadowing  the  popular  mind.    It  threatens  to  descend 

*  Some  of  the  foregoing  extracts  are  taken  from  the  excellent  little  work :  "Die 
modeme  Welsansohanoiig  nnd  ihre  Gonsequenzen,**  by  Heinnch  Guth. 


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1881.]  Faak  vermM  Infidelity  in  Oerma/ny.  137 

and  envelop  a  part  of  the  national  thought  in  its  dark  em- 
brace.''* 

The  conseqnences  of  such  a  view  of  life  and  its  surroundings 
cannot  be  otherwise 'than  deplorable.  It  seems  to  us  the  Ger- 
man mind  is  too  deep  to  be  satisfied  with  a  superficial  or  shal- 
low materialism ;  it  will  either  turn  back  to  a  better  philosophy 
and  true  religion,  or  it  will  follow  it  out  to  its  last  consequences 
and  land  in  pessimism  and  despair.  That  such  doctrines  as 
those  of  Schopenhauer  and  Von  Hartmann  have  found  such  ac- 
ceptance with  a  large  part  of  the  German  people,  is,  to  say  the 
least,  a  deplorable  sign  of  our  times  in  Germany.  We  will, 
therefore,  notice  another  line  of  facts  that  are  of  a  more  delight- 
ful character,  but  nevertheless  as  true  as  the  foregoing,  and 
which  must  also  weigh  heavy  iii  considering  Germany's  future. 

What  is  the  relation,  to-day,  of  German  Protestantism  and 
theology,  of  German  science  and  philosophy  to  infidelity,  social- 
ism, materialism,  and  pessimism?  While  the  forces  of  infidel- 
ity are  standing  in  battle  array,  what  are  the  opposing  forces  do- 
ing i  This  question  has  so  many  sides,  embraces  so  much,  is  so 
extensive  and  far-reaching,  that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  give  a 
complete  answer  without  transgressing  by  far  the  bounds  that 
we  have  allotted  to  this  paper.  Our  answer,  therefore,  cannot 
but  be  incomplete. 

As  concerns  German  philosophy  and  science,  it  is  not  all, 
as  some  would  make  us  believe,  given  over  to  materialism.  It 
is  more  theistic  fo-day  than  several  years  ago,  and  with  the 
prospect  of  becoming  still  more  so ;  and  from  time  to  time 
heavy  blows  are  struck  at  materialism,  and  not  only  by  theolo- 
gians, but  by  Germany^s  best  philosophers,  men  of  deep 
thought  and  vast  learning,  and  of  whom  it  cannot  be  said  that 
they  are  biased  by  the  Church.  Materialism  is  not  taught  to- 
day in  any  of  the  philosophical  chairs  of  the  twenty  German 
universities,!  and  this  is  saying  a  great  deal.  For  universities 
exert  an  influence  in  Germany  greater  than  in  any  other  coun- 
try. In  the  universities,  more  than  anywhere  else,  the  best 
thought  of  the  nation  is  molded,  and  '^  it  may  also  be  said  that, 

*  See  ''Prinoeton  Review/*  187S,  March  number,  p.  494. 

f  In  Germany  the  name  univereity  is  given  only  to  such  institutions  as  hare  at 
least  four  faculties :  a  faculty  jurisprudence,  medicine,  theology,  and  philosophy. 
GoTemment  officials  of  all  ranks  must  complete  their  stadies  there. 


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138  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [January, 

with  comparatively  few  exceptions,  almost  all  the  scientific 
works  that  are  written  owe  their  authorship  to  professors  in 
these  institutions."  In  general  materialism  has  not  so  much 
influence  in  Germany  upon  the  most  highly  educated  classes  as 
upon  those  classes  of  the  half  or  would-be  educated,  of  which 
class  Germany,  as  every  other  civilized  country,  has  many  thou- 
sands. These  are  generally  the  persons  that  talk  as  if  they 
knew  every  thing,  had  solved  every  riddle,  had  walked  up  and 
down  through  this  wide  nniverse  of  ours,  and  have  found  no 
God. 

Even  Darwinism,  although  not  necessarily  atheistic,  for  many 
theists  believe  in  it,  seems  to  loose  its  hold  more  and  more  on 
German  scientists.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  sign  of  a  new 
departure  when  Professor  Rudolf  Virchow  promulgated  the 
view  in  his  address,  "  The  Freedom  of  Science  in  the  State," 
(Die  Freiheit  der  Wissenschaft  im  Modernen  Staate,)  held  be- 
fore the  association  of  German  naturalists  and  physicians  at 
Miinchen,  September  22,  1877,  that  Darwinism  should  not  be 
taught  in  the  schools,  because  as  yet  it  is  but  an  unproved 
hypothesis.  The  only  eminent  naturalist  of  Germany  that 
is  an  outspoken  materialist  and  Darwinist  is  Professor  Hack- 
el,  of  Jena.  But  it  seems  he  has  more  influence  upon  the 
English  scientists  than  upon  the  German,  wherefore  he  thinks 
the  English  are  intellectually  a  brighter  people  than  the  Ger- 
man ;  but  he  attributes  this  not  so  much  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  better  minds  naturally  than  the  Germans,  but  to  the  fact 
that  they  eat  more  beefsteaks  than  the  Germans.  Whosoever, 
according  to  Hackel,  eats  great  quantities  of  beefsteaks  will  be- 
come wise,  and  will  then  be  able  to  see  the  truths  and  beauties 
of  Darwinism.  Well,  this  is  no  new  doctrine,  for  we  have 
heard  long  before  this,  "Was  der  mensch  isst,  das  is  ter," 
(What  a  man  eats,  that  he  is.) 

That  Darwinism  has  lost  much  of  its  influence  upon  German 
scientists  the  bearing  of  the  last  assembly  of  the  Association  of 
German  naturalists  and  physicians,  held  at  Baden-Baden  but  a 
few  months  ago,  has  plainly  shown.  A  professor  from  Leipsic 
attacked  the  works  of  Darwin,  and  no  one  arose  to  defend  the 
English  sa/ownt.  And  of  still  more  importance  is  the  follow- 
ing incident :  "  Professor  Jager,  dissenting  from  his  material- 
istic colleagues,  who  deny  the  existence  of  the  soul  altogether, 


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1881.]  Faith  versus  InfidMy  m  Germany.  139 

claims  to  have  discovered  the  same  to  be  something  material, 
and  not  only  to  have  seetij  but  also  to  have  smelted  it,  tried  to 
make  his  new  discovery  plausible  before  the  assembled  natu- 
ralists. But  he  was  not  allowed  to  finish  the  nonsense  that  he 
was  displaying.  He  was  just  doing  his  best  in  trying  to  iden- 
tify the  different  states  of  mind  and  the  various  emotions  of 
the  soul  with  certain  evaporations  and  odors,  when  energetic 
calls  from  all  parts  of  the  room  compelled  him  to  leave  the 
platform."  *  A  few  years  ago  these  assemblies  of  German  nat- 
uraKsts  and  physicians  were  the  places  where  materialism  and 
Darwinism  held  their  feasts ;  but  things  have  changed  some- 
what. German  science  is  coming  more  and  more  to  its  senses, 
and  it  is  high  time,  too,  for  it  has  led  the  masses  of  the  people 
too  far  away  from  the  living  Grod  already.  The  doctrines  of 
materialism,  that  there  is  no  God  and  no  hereafter,  that  man 
has  no  soul,  is  not  responsible  for  his  acts,  and  that  conscience 
is  a  delusion,  have  helped  more  than  any  thing  else  to  under- 
mine the  morals  of  the  nation,  and  we  fear  that  these  evils  will 
still  work  on  even  when  science  has  seen  its  mistakes  and  has 
turned  back.  For  a  people  are  easier  led  astray  in  this  respect 
than  back  again.  The  faith  and  morals  of  a  nation  are  more 
readily  broken  down  than  built  up. 

We  would  add,  that  of  late  such  men  as  Professors  "Wigand, 
Ebrard,  and  others,t  have  given  Darwinism  such  terrible  blows, 
and  have  proved  its  untenableness  scientifically  so  clearly,  that 
it  can  be  considered  as  overcome  by  German  scientific  research. 
We  think,  therefore,  that  it  is  unnecessary  that  theologians 
trouble  themselves  trying  to  bring  the  Bible  into  harmony  with 
it.  There  is  time  enough  for  this  work  when  Darwinism  has 
been  proven  to  be  a  fact.  So  far  the  most  sober  science  has 
not  gone  beyond  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 

But  also  in  the  German  Churches  new  life  is  making  its  ap- 
pearance. She  at  least  begins  to  open  her  eyes  and  sees  the 
danger  that  is  threatening  her  eidstence ;  and  this  we  cannot 

•  Dp.  Grundemann,  in  "  Deutscher  Volksfreund,"  toI.  x,  p.  28. 

f  Wigand :  "  Der  Darwinismus  und  die  Naturferschung  Newtens  und  Cnoiere." 
"  Der  Darwinismus  ein  2^ichen  der  Zeit."  Ebrard :  "  Die  Darwin'sche  Deszendenz- 
theorie,*'  in  the  first  volume  of  his  "  Apologetik."  Pfaif :  *'  Das  Alter  und  der 
Ureprung  des  MenschengeschlechtB."  Hertling :  "  Der  Darwinismus  als  gcistige 
Epidemie.'* 


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140  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  TJanuary, 

but  regard  as  a  good  sign,  for,  first  the  danger  must  be  seen 
before  something  can  or  will  be  done  to  avert  it.  Kationalism, 
which  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  had  almost  supreme 
control  over  the  German  Churches,  is  almost  overcome  in  the- 
ology. It  is  driven  out  of  almost  every  theological  chair  of 
the  German  universities,  and  in  the  first  General  Synod  of  the 
Prussian  State  Church,  held  Oct.,  1879,  it  had  comparatively 
but  a  few  representatives. 

It  is  true,  many  of  the  greatest  apologists  of  the  Christian 
faith,  men  of  deep  piety  and  profound  scholarship,  have 
in  the  last  few  years  stepped  oflf  from  the  platform  of  life. 
Among  others  we  will  mention  only  Thomasius,  Landerer, 
V.  Hofmann,  Tholuck,  J.  MueUer,  and  Beck.  "So  one 
after  the  other  sink  into  the  grave  the  German  teachers  of 
theology.  Will  the  young  generation  supply  them?  Just 
now,  if  ever,  the  German  Church  needs  minds  of  the  first  class 
as  teachers  of  theology."  Some  of  these  men,  as  young  pro- 
fessors, dared  to  stand  alone  against  the  heavy  assaults  of  Ra- 
tionalism and  infidelity ;  but  they  were  well  armed.  They 
stood  in  the  contest  where  it  was  raging  most  fiercely ;  they 
were  faithful  unto  the  end.  They  are  no  more,  these  giants 
upon  the  battle-ground  of  faith;  but -they  have  opened  for  us 
the  hidden  treasures  of  God's  word ;  they  have  led  us  into  the 
mysteries  of  revelation,  and  they  have  created  an  apologetical 
literature  in  which  every  argument  against  the  Christian  relig- 
ion is  fully  answered.  They  are  no  more ;  their  tongues  and 
pens  are  resting,  but  their  works  are  still  living,  and  will  live 
for  many  years  to  come.  When  we  look  upon  the  graves  of 
these  fallen  heroes  we  cannot  but  ask  the  question.  Who  will 
step  into  the  ranks  and  fill  their  places  ?  But  we  will  not  ]>e 
discouraged.  "  God  buries  his  workmen,  but  he  carries  on  his 
work."  We  cannot  quite  join  in  the  lamentation  that  there  will 
soon  be  a  great  scarcity  of  theologians  in  Germany.  Mighty 
minds  are  still  standing  at  the  head  of  German  theological  sci- 
ence. Berlin  has  its  Domer,  Leipsic  its  Delitzsch  and  Luthardt, 
Bonn  its  Lange  and  Christlieb,  Griefswald  its  Zockler,  and 
Erlangen  its  Ebrard — men  that  have  grown  up  in  the  midst  of 
strife  and  conflict,  and  that  are  in  every  respect  well  prepared 
and  qualified  to  meet  infidelity  upon  any  field  of  thought  or  ar- 
gument.    The  last-named  of  these  men.  Dr.  Ebrard,  one  of  the 


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1881.]         FcMh  versvs  InfdeUty  m  Oerm/my.  141 

greatest  of  Kving  scholars,  is  not  only  a  theologian  of  marked 
ability,  but  can  also  be  quoted  as  an  authority  in  many  branches 
of  natural  science. 

The  original  minds  in  theological  science  may  be  somewhat 
rarer  now  than  they  were  fifty  years  ago ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  find  that  the  more  retired  science  of  former  times  has 
stepped  out  of  its  seclusion  into  the  midst  of  the  people ;  and 
the  theologians  of  to-day  surpass  by  far  the  former  in  practical 
tact,  readiness  of  word,  and  in  the  ability  of  comprehending 
the  real  needs  of  the  Church  and  the  people.  It  is  true,  that 
not  so  many  young  men  are  studying  theology  in  Germany 
to-day  as  in  former  years,  and  that  a  scarcity  of  pastors  may  be 
felt  in  the  near  future,  the  sense  of  which  can  be  found  more 
or  less  in  the  present  unsettled  condition  of  the  relation  of  the 
Church  to  the  State.  But  it  is  our  conviction,  that  those  who 
are  studying  theology  at  preseut  have  more  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ  within  them  than  the  tlieological  students  of  forty  or 
fifty  years  ago,  and  in  this  respect  we  prefer  the  quality  to  the 
quantity.  Ten  truly  evangelical  pastors  will  surely  do  more 
good  than  one  hundred  that  are  rationalistic. 

Dr.  Hurst,  who  visited  Germany  not  long  ago,  said,  in 
an  address  which  he  delivered  in  New  York  city,  that  he 
was  astonished  at  the  thorough  change  that  he  noticed  every- 
where in  Germany  since  his  last  visit  to  that  country  a  few 
years  ago.  He  said  that  he  had  visited  eight  universities,  and 
had  found  that  the  negation  which  finds  only  fault  with  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  without  giving  something  new  or 
better,  has  entirely  fallen  into  disfavor.  In  Heidelberg,  the 
only  university  in  which  rationalistic  professors  are  teaching 
theology,  four  and  a  half  theological  students  are  counted  to 
one  professor,  while  those  universities  in  which  evangelical 
professors  are  teaching  are  crowded.  Several  publishers  told 
him  that  they  could  not  sell  a  rationalistic  book.  Dr.  Hurst 
thinks  when  the  present  theological  students  will  occupy  the 
pulpits  it  will  bring  new  life  into  the  German  churches. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  questions  for  the  German 
Church  is  that  concerning  its  relation  to  the  State.  The  Ger- 
man Church,  as  is  well  known,  is  a  State  Church.  The  King 
or  ruler  of  the  land  is  at  the  same  time  head  of  the  Church,  so 
to  say,  its  supreme  Bishop.    Now  for  some  time  the  bonds  that 


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142  Methodist  Qua/rterly  JRemew.  [January, 

bind  the  Church  to  the  State  are  beginning  to  loosen  more  and 
more,  and  it  seems  to  be  only  a  question  of  time  to  liberate 
the  Church  entirely  from  the  State. 

As  of  great  importance  for  the  Prussian  State  Church,  and 
in  fact  for  the  Protestant  Church  of  all  Grermany,  can  be  re- 
garded the  meeting  of  the  first  regular  General  Synod  of  that 
Church,  which  took  place  October  9,  1879.  For  a  number  of 
years  such  synods  have  been  held  in  most  of  the  smaller  States 
of  Germany,  but  in  Prussia  this  movement  found  considerable 
opposition.  A  preparatory  General  Synod  was  held  at  Berlin 
in  1873,  and  there  the  way  was  prepared  for  a  periodical  Gen- 
eral Synod,  of  which  the  one  held  October  9,  1879,  was  the 
first.  "  It  was  composed  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-four  mem- 
bers, of  whom  one  hundred  and  forty-nine  had  been  elected  by 
the  Provincial  Synods,  thirty  had  been  appointed  by  the  King, 
nine  were  superintendents-genei-al,  and  six  representatives  of 
the  theological  faculties  of  the  universities.  ...  In  1873  the 
majority  of  the  Extraordinary  Synod  belonged  to  the  so-called 
Vermittlung&parteiy  or  party  of  mediation,  which  prevailed  at 
the  Prussian  universities,  and,  as  its  name  indicates,  tried  to 
find  a  middle  ground  between  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Churches 
of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  rationalistic  schools  of  the 
present  age.  At  present  this  party  is  in  a  minority,  and  the 
two  parties  representing  the  theology  of  the  sixteenth  century 
are  in  a  decisive  majority.  These  two  parties  are :  1.  That  of 
the  Konfesaiondlen^  or  the  strict  Lutherans ;  2.  That  of  the 
^  Friends  of  the  Positive  Union.' "  *  When  we  remember  that 
the  Prussian  State  Church  numbers  over  twelve  millions  of 
Church  members,  being  the  second  largest  Protestant  State 
Church  in  the  world,  we  can  see  the  importance  that  is  attached 
to  the  holding  of  this  first  General  Synod.  And  although  this 
synod  has  not  the  power  to  make  laws,  still  it  is  a  great  step 
forward  in  the  organization  and  consolidation  of  the  Church, 
and  in  its  liberation  from  the  State.  Some  of  the  measures 
that  were  taken  there  are  very  important,  especially  those  con- 
cerning Church  discipline.  They  will  tend  to  cleanse  the 
Church  from  infidel  elements,  and  to  strengthen  it  in  its  war- 
fare against  infidelity. 

The  cause  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath — which  was  also 
♦  Compare  this  "  Quarterly,"  January  number,  1880,  p.  176 


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1881J  FoAth  vermis  Infidelity  m  O&nrumy.  143 

deliberated  upon  in  the  General  Synod — ^is  also  attracting  the 
attention  of  the  leading  men  in  the  German  Churches  more 
and  more.  Organizations  to  help  on  this  cause  are  formed, 
and  it  seems  to  have  met  with  considerable  success  so  far,  Dr. 
Cremer  made  the  remark,  at  the  assembly  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance:  "Delightful  is  the  fact  that  the  Sabbath  is  being 
regained."  So  is  also  the  cause  of  temperance  attracting  the 
attention  of  the  government,  (and  of  the  Churches,)  and  in  the 
way  of  restrictive  laws  steps  are  being  taken  to  arrest  the  fear- 
ful spread  of  drunkenness.  These  are  encouraging  signs,  and, 
together  with  other  movements,  as  the  cause  of  home  missions 
— which  is  in  a  prosperous  condition  in  many  places — ^plainly 
prove  that  the  Protestant  Churches  of  Germany  are  not  alto- 
gether given  over  into  rationalism  and  infidelity,  as  some  seem 
to  think,  but  that  there  is  still  considerable  life  and  power 
manifested,  with  many  signs  of  improvement  as  concerns  the 
Church. 

Whereunto  point  the  "  signs  of  the  times  "  as  concerns  Ger- 
many's future  %  This  question  is  hard  to  be  answered.  One 
thing  is  certain,  rest  and  peace,  concerning  the  social  and  re- 
ligious questions  that  are  agitating  the  Gennan  people,  are  not 
to  be  expected  in  the  near  future,  for  the  oppositions  are  too 
marked  and  bitter  to  allow  any  prospect  of  a  near  adjustment 
of  these  questions.  Not  peace  and  rest,  therefore,  but  war  and 
work,  is  written  over  the  portals  of  Germany's  future.  Dr. 
Cremer,  whom  we  have  already  quoted,  made  the  remark: 
"  It  is  no  bright  and  peaceful  future  that  is  awaiting  us ;  we 
can  expect  nothing  but  still  more  conflict,  and,  it  may  be,  per- 
secution and  suffering."  Will  German  Christianity  be  faithful 
in  the  conflict  and  trial  %    May  God  help  her  1 


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144  Methodist  QuaHerly  JReview.  [Janiiarj, 


abt.  vm.— synopsis  op  the  quarterlies  and  others  op 

THE  higher  periodicals. 
Afnericcm  Reviews. 

AiffRiOAiv  Catholic  Quarterly  Riviiw,  October,  1880.  (Philadelphia.)—!.  Free 
Thought  in  Englaud ;  by  Arthur  F.  Marshall.  2.  Our  Great  Goddess  and  her 
Coining  Idol ;  by  John  Gilmary  Shea,  LL.D.  8.  How  to  Find  the  Truth ;  by 
Dr.  Daniel  Gans.  4.  Notes  on  Spain  ;  by  St  Geo.  Mivart,  F.R.S.,  etc.  5.  Amer- 
ican Influence  on  the  Democratic  Movement  in   Europe;    by  John  M'Carty. 

6.  Catholicity    in    Kentucky  —  The   Elder    Family;    by   Benedict   J.    Webb. 

7.  Bishop  Stevens  on  Auricular  Confession  and  Private  Absolution ;  by  Very 
Rev.  J.  A.  Corcoran,  D.D.  8.  English  Fiction ;  by  John  Gray.  9.  Influence  of 
the  Sun  on  Terrestrial  Magnetism ;  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Degni,  S.J.  10.  Beza  as  a 
Translator  and  Perverter  of  God*s  Word;   by  J.  A.  C.    11.  Dante. 

Baptist  Review,  October,  November,  December,  1880.  (Cincinnati.)— 1.  The 
Religious  "  Light  of  Asia."  "  Sangha ; "  or.  The  Buddhist  Priesthood ;  by  Rev. 
P.  H.  Eveleth.  2.  Destruction  of  American  Forests  and  the  Consequences ;  by 
David  D.  Thomson.  8.  Exegesis  of  1  John  iii,  9 ;  by  Rev.  H.  M.  Hopkinson. 
4.  The  Rational  Grounds  of  Theism ;  by  Rev.  George  B.  Stevens.  6.  The  Will 
in  Theology;  by  Augustus  H.  Strong,  D.D.  6.  The  Denominational  Work  of 
President  Manning ;  by  Reuben  A,  Guild,  LL.D.  7.  The  Dispensation  of  the 
Fullness  of  Times.     Exegesis  of  Ephesians  i,  9,  10 ;   by  Rev.  G.  W.  Folwell. 

8.  Shall  we  have  a  Sabbath,  and  How  ?  by  G.  W.  Gardner,  D.D.  9.  The  Ke- 
noflis,  or  Humiliation  of  Christ ;  by  Henry  C.  Vedder. 

BiBLiOTHECA  Sacra,  Octobcr,  1880.  (Andover.)— 1.  History  and  the  Concept  of  God ; 
by  Rev.  George  T.  Ladd.  2.  The  New  Testament  Vocabulary :  Native  Words 
not  Found  in  Classical  Authors ;  by  Prof.  Lemuel  S.  Potwin.  8.  The  Sabbath :  The 
Change  of  Observance  from  the  Seventh  to  the  Lord's  Day :  Testimony  of  the 
Fathers;  by  Rev.  William  De  Loss  Love,  D.D.  4.  Christian  Doctrine  of  God; 
by  President  E.  V.  Gerhart.  6.  History  of  Research  Concerning  the  Structure 
of  the  Old  Testament  Historical  Books  ;  by  Prof.  Archibald  Duff,  M.  A.  6.  Re- 
lations  of  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  Languages ;   by  Rev.  J.  F.  M'Curdy,  Ph.D. 

Cumberland  Presbyterian  Quarterly,  October,  1880.  (Lebanon,  Tenn.) — 
1.  Anastasis;  by  Rev.  W.  H  Black.  2.  Causes  of  Atheism;  by  Rev.  Erskine 
Brantley.  8.  The  American  Lawyer ;  by  Hon.  R.  C.  Ewing.  4.  Sanctification 
vs.  Soul  Puritv ;  by  J.  W.  Poindexter,  D.D.  6.  Language  and  Evolution ;  by 
Prof.  W.  D.  M'Loughlin.    6.  The  First  Sabbath ;  by  Rev.  J.  L.  Goodknight. 

Lutheran  Quarterly,  October,  1880.  (Gettysburgh.) — 1.  Martin  Luther's  Table 
Talk;  by  John  G.  Morris,  D.D.,  LL.D.  2.  God's  Sovereignty;  by  Rev.  L.  A. 
Fox,  A.M.  8.  Catechisation ;  by  Rev.  Prof.  E  F.  Bartholomew,  A.M.  4.  The 
Lutheran  Jubilee;  by  Rev.  J.  D.  Severinghaus,  A.M.  5.  Life  With  a  Purpose; 
by  M.  Valentine,  D.D.  6.  Bittle  Memorial  Address;  by  Prof.  S.  C.  Wells,  Ph.D. 
7.  Credibility  of  the  Scriptures. 

New  Englander,  November,  1880.  (New  Haven.)^l.  The  Light  of  Asia ;  by 
Rev.  L  N.  Tarbox,  D.D.  2.  Anderson ville ;  by  Prof.  Rufus  B.  Richardson, 
Ph.D.  8.  Western  Colleges ;  Their  Claims  and  Necessities ;  by  Rev.  M.  M.  G. 
Dana.  4.  The  Last  Representation  of  the  Ober-Ammergau  Play — in  the  Sum- 
mer of  1880;   by  a  Lady.     6.  Horace  Bushnell ;  by  Rev.  H.  M.  Goodwin. 

New  England  Hlstorical  and  Genealogical  Register,  October,  1880.  (Boston.) 
— 1.  Memoir  of  Gen.  Henry  Knozj  by  Francis  S.  Drake,  E8(|.  2.  Records  of 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Danforth  of  Roxbury ;  by  William  B.  Trask,  Esq.  3.  Memoir 
of  Col.  Seth  Warner;  by  Hon.  Walter  Harriman.  4.  Taxes  under  Gov.  An- 
dres ;  by  Walter  Lloyd  Jeffries,  A.B.  6.  Capt.  Cogan's  Expedition  to  Pig- 
wacket;  by  Horace  Mann,  Esq.     6.  Letters  of  Sir  William  Pepperrell,  Bart. ; 


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1881.]  Syruypais  of  the  Quarterlies.  145 

by  N.  J.  Herrick,  Esq.  7.  Fisher's  Account  of  the  First  Settlers  of  Bluehill, 
Me. ;  by  Hon.  Joseph  Williamson.  8.  The  Bell  Family  Record ;  by  J.  Gardner 
White,  A.M.  9.  Longmeadow  Families;  by  Willard  S.  Allen,  A.M.  10.  Num- 
ber of  Births  in  Xewbury,  Mass.,  1689  to  1715.  11.  The  Slocum  Genealogy;  by 
Charles  E.  Slocum,  M.D.,  Ph.D.  12.  Dedham  and  Stoughton;  by  Jeremiah  Col- 
bum,  A.M.  IS.  Diaries  of  Samuel  Thompj*ou,  Esq.,  of  Woburn,  Mass.;  by 
William  R.  Cutter,  Esq.  14.  The  Youngman  Family;  by  David  Youugman, 
M.D.  16.  Census  of  Bristol,  1689  ;  by  George  T.  Paine,  Esq.  16.  Recoi-ds  of 
Dartmouth,  Mass ;  by  the  late  James  B.  Cougdon. 

UsiTERaALisT  QuARTERLT,  October,  1880.  (Boston.)  1.  Universalist  Conventions 
and  Creeds ;  by  Rev.  Richard  Eddy.  2.  Evolution  and  Materialism ;  by  Rev.  O. 
A-  Rounds.  8.  Historic  Theism ;  by  I^ev.  T.  S.  Lathrop.  4.  Forgiveness  of  Sin : 
its  Philosophy,  Incidents,  and  Application ;  by  Rev.  R.  0.  Williams.  6.  Tni- 
versalism  and  the  Heart;  by  Rev.  A.  J.  Patterson,  D.D.  6.  The  Relation  of 
Myths  to  Science  and  Religion ;  by  Prof.  B.  F.  Tweed.  7.  New  Problems  in  our 
Church  Work ;  by  Rev.  J.  Coleman  Adams.  8.  "  On  the  True  Site  of  Nineveh ; " 
by  Rev.  0.  D.  Miller.     9.  The  Commandments  of  God ;  by  Rev.  B.  F.  Bowles. 

We  are  indebted  to  the  "  Universalist  Quarterly  "  for  the  fol- 
lowing summary  of  recently-developed  facts  in  regard  to  the 
genuineness  of  the  Book  of  Daniel : 

The  first  attack  upon  the  authorship  and  historical  integrity 
of  Daniel  was  made  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  by  the 
celebrated  Porphyry,  a  pagan  philosopher,  who  wrote  fifteen 
books  against  the  Christians,  the  twelfth  of  which  he  devoted 
entirely  to  the  Book  of  Daniel.  He  maintained  that  the  author 
was  a  Jew  of  Palestine  in  the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes;  that 
it  was  originally  written  in  Greek,  and  that  the  object  was  to 
give  the  form  of  previous  prophecy  to  the  events  of  his  own 
time.  Several  replies  by  different  writers  were  sent  out,  among 
others  one  by  Eusebius  of  Caesarea. 

The  arguments  of  Porphyry  have  been  repeated  in  modern 
times  by  Spinoza  and  the  English  Deists,  the  foremost  of  whom, 
perhaps,  was  Collins,  and  by  some  of  the  German  schools  of  crit- 
icism. Of  late  these  attacks  have  been  renewed,  and,  beginning 
with  the  rejection  of  the  first  six  chapters  as  the  work  of  Danie^ 
they  have  ended  with  pronouncing  the  entire  book  the  work  of 
an  impostor  who  must  have  wntten  in  the  time  of  Antiochus. 
Hitzig  and  Ltlcke  fix  the  date  in  the  period  between  B.  C.  170-1(54, 
which  opinion  is  generally  indorsed  by  German  critics.  Heng- 
Btenberg,  Havernack,  Delitzsch,  Keil,  Stuart,  and  others  maiutam 
the  authenticity  of  the  book.  And  this  position  is  growing  into 
strength,  and  finding  acceptance  among  those  who  have  hesi- 
tated, but  who,  having  no  prejudices  nor  theories  to  maintain, 
have  fairly  weighed  the  new  evidence  brought  in  by  recent  dis- 
coveries amon^  the  tablets  and  monuments  from  the  sites  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh. 

It  would  not  be  an  easy  thing  for  a  Jew  of  the  time  of  Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes  to  write  history  involving  Babylonian  customs, 
traditions,  dates,  punishments,  and  superstitions  in  the  time  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  or  Darius,  without  tailing  into  errors  which 
would  betray  his  ignorance.     But  in  Daniel  allusions  to  these 


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146  Methodist  Qiianrierly  Hevieio,  [Januarr, 

matters,  which  skeptical  critics  have  called  in  question,  have  been 
proved  to  he  in  accord  with  time  and  facts  as  revealed  by  monu- 
mental inscriptions  recently  brought  to  light.  Take,  for  example, 
the  punishments  inflicted  on  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abedueg<» 
by  casting  them  alive  into  a  fiery  furnace,  and  Daniel  and  his 
accusers  into  a  den  of  lions.  George  Smith's  recovery  of  the  cyl- 
inders of  Assurhanipal,  the  grandson  of  Sennacherib,  has  let  in  a 
clear  light  upon  these  horrible  practices  of  the  Assyrian  kings,  so 
that  we  have  now  contemporary  evidence  in  proof  of  the  accuracy 
of  Daniel's  record,  showing  that  both  these  punishments  were  in 
use  at  Babylon  a  few  years  before  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 

Saulmugina,  brother  of  Assurhanipal,  king  of  Assyria,  was  made 
by  his  relative  king  of  Babylon,  where  he  reigned  prosperously 
for  several  years.  Afterward,  for  some  unknown  reason,  he  un- 
gratefully rebelled  against  his  eldest  brother,  but  after  a  severe 
contest  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner.  The  Assyrian  mon- 
archs  appear  to  have  been  always  animated  with  an  implacable 
spirit  of  reveijge.  Hence  we  are  not  surprised  at  finding  among  the 
inscriptions  containing  the  annals  of  Assurhanipal  the  following: 
"  Saulmugina,  my  rebellious  brother,  who  made  war  with  me,  in 
the  fierce,  burning  fire  they  ^that  is,  his  generals,  by  his  command) 
threw  him,  and  destroyed  his  life.  And  the  people  who  to  Saul- 
mugina, my  rebellious  brother,  he  had  caused  to  join,  and  these 
evil  things  did,  who  death  deserved. . . .  One  sinner  did  not  escape 
from  my  hands,  my  hand  held  them.  .  .  .  Their  tongues  I  pulled 
out,  their  overthrow  I  accomplished.  The  rest  of  the  people 
alive  among  the  stone  (?)  lions  and  bulls,  which  Sennacherib  my 
grandfather  in  the  midst  had  thrown;  again  I  into  that  pit  those 
men  into  the  midst  I  threw."  * 

This  passage  illustrates  the  correctness  of  Daniel's  mention  of 
customs  and  punishments  in  the  lime  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
shows  the  strong  probability  of  its  dating  in  his  reign,  (B.C. 
604-560,)  which  began  but  a  short  time  after  that  of  Assurhanipal 
ended.  We  may  add  in  passing  that  the  reign  of  this  Assurhan- 
ipal has  received  a  new  and  interesting  illustration  from  the 
recent  discoveries  in  Cyprus  by  Cesnola,  whose  rich  collections 
of  antiquities  adorn  the  New  York  Art  Museum:  "An  inscription 
on  the  gold  armlets  found  at  Kurion,  in  Cyprus,  reveals  the  name 
of  Ithyander,  king  of  the  island,  who  rendered  homage  to  Assur- 
hanipal B.C.  620,  during  his  march  against  E^ypt,  and  only  a  few 
years  before  the  termination  of  the  war  in  which  the  pious  Josiah, 
king  of  Judah,  lost  his  life,  as  the  Book  of  Kings  relates  it:  'In 
his  days  Pharaoh-necho,  king  of  Egypt,  went  up  against  the  king 
of  Assyria  to  the  river  Euphrates,  and  King  Josiah  went  against 
him,  and  he  slew  him  at  Megiddo  when  he  had  seen  him.'  We 
have  also  some  Babylonian  cylinders  inscribed  with  cuneiform 
characters  in  the  Accadian  tongue,  though  the  proper  names 
are  all  Semitic;  some  of  these  are  supposed  to  be  of  the  time  of 

♦  '*A:*?yrinn  Discoveries,"  by  George  Smith,  pp.  842,  848, 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies,  147 

Esarhaddon's  reip^n,  the  eighth  eentnry  B.C.,  while  others  helonc: 
to  the  reign  of  Naram  Sin,  king  of  Babylon,  son  and  snccessor  of 
Sargon  L,  who  flourished  before  the  sixteenth  century  B.C."* 

But  we  must  return  more  directly  to  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and 
the  confirmation  it  derives  from  some  of  these  discoveries,  and 
the  closer  study  it-  has  received  in  connection  with  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  antiquities.  It  is  found  after  all  that  Belshazzar  is  a 
historical  personage  and  not  a  myth,  or  the  creation  of  an  apoc- 
ryphal writer.  Nabonidus  is  called  by  Berosus  the  last  king  of 
Babylon,  in  whose  reign  Cyrus  captured  the  city,  thus  leaving 
no  place  for  Belshazzar,  say  the  skeptical  critics.  But  the  cylin- 
ders which  Rawlinson  dug  out  of  the  ruins  of  Um-Qeer  (the 
Chaldsean  Ur)  show  that  the  eldest  son  of  Nabonidus  bore  the 
name  of  Bel-snaz-ezar,  and  was  associated  with  his  father  as  co- 
regent  in  the  government;  much  as  the  heirs  or  designated  suc- 
cessors of  the  Roman  emperors  were  sometimes  taken  by  them 
into  the  administration  of  the  political  and  military  affairs  of  the 
empire.  Belshazzar,  it  seems,  had  been  appointed  royal  governor 
of  Babylon  by  Nabonidus,  who,  while  marching  to  the  assistance 
of  bis  son,  was  attacked  and  defeated  by  Cyrus,  and  shut  up  in 
Borsippus,  until  after  the  capture  of  the  city.  Thus  what,  until 
lately,  seemed  to  tell  strongly  against  the  historical  accuracy  of 
Daniel,  turns  out  to  be  a  remaAable  proof  of  his  exactness  of 
statement — only  it  has  happened  that  this  proof  has  been  buried 
out  of  reach  for  some  2,500  years, 

K  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  had  not  been  contemporary 
with  the  events  he  could  not  have  described  them  so  accurately. 
If  the  book  had  been  written  in  the  Maccabean  age  by  a  forger, 
he  would  not  have  mentioned  Belshazzar,  for  the  inscriptions 
proving  his  existence  had  then  been  hidden  in  the  ruins  for  ages, 
and  have  continued  hidden  there  down  to  our  ovrn  times. 

Other  coincidences  of  time  and  customs  indicate  the  early  date 
and  historical  integrity  of  the  book.  Daniel  makes  no  mention, 
for  example,  of  prostration  before  the  king  when  entering  his 
presence,  or  speaking  to  him.  According  to  Arrian,  Cyrus,  the 
Persian  conqueror,  was  the  first  king  honored  in  this  way.  Now 
in  the  Maccabean  age  this  custom  of  prostration  before  kings  was 
an  establishefd  custom.  Is  it  likely  that  a  writer  of  that  age 
would  have  had  such  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  matter,  and 
made  no  allusion  to  what  was  so  common  in  his  own  day  !  There 
is  another  very  remarkable  omission,  if  the  book  was  written  in 
the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  which  Dr.  Harman  points  out  in  his 
"Introduction  to  the  Scriptures,"  namely,  "its  freedom  from 

♦  The  "  London  Record,"  from  which  we  quote  the  above,  says  of  one  of  these  in- 
scriptions :  **  It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  1,000  years  before  this  was  enforced, 
when  we  are  brought  back  to  the  time  of  Moses,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Isle  of 
Cyprus  are  represented  on  the  famous  historical  tomb  at  Thebes  as  pajring  homage 
and  tribute  to  Thothraes  III.,  the  builder  of  our  recent  arrival  on  the  Thames  em- 
bankment, which,  two  centuries  ago,  was  known  at  Alexandria  as  ^Pharaoh^s  Obe« 
lisk,*  but  which  latterly  has  borne  the  misleading  title  of  '  Cleopatra's  Needle.'  '* 


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148  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [January, 

prayers  in  the  midst  of  narratives:"  "Tobit,  1  Maccabees,  Ju- 
dith, and  indeed  all  the  apocryphal  books,  abound  with  prayers 
and  ejaculations.  The  Book  of  Esther  contains  no  prayers  in 
the  Hebrew,  but  there  is  no  want  of  them  in  the  Greek  version, 
(266-136,  the  latter  portion  being  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,) 
In  Daniel  not  a  word  of  prayer  is  mentioned  as  having  been 
uttered  by  the  Hebrew  children  in  the  fiery  furnace.  In  the 
Greek  version,  however,  prayers  are  put  into  their  mouths.  No 
prayers  are  ascribed  to  Daniel  in  the  lion's  den.*  Had  Daniel 
Deen  written  in  the  age  of  the  apocryphal  writers,  it  would  in  all 
probability  have  abounded  in  prayers  and  pious  ejaculations.  It 
IS  difficult  to  explain  how  the  book  could  have  arisen  in  the  age 
of  such  writers,  at  the  time  the  Greek  version  was  made,  and  yet 
be  wanting  in  the  very  additions  characteristic  of  the  times.  In 
several  places,  in  chapter  ix,  Daniel  uses  the  name  Jehovah  ;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  already,  before  the  age  of  the  Macca- 
bees, the  Jews  had  ceased  to  use  that  name,  through  a  super- 
stitious reverence."  f 

Within  a  few  years  past  the  attention  of  European  scholars 
has  been  specially  attracted  to  the  Book  of  Daniel  by  the  recent 
Assyrian  and  Chaldean  discoveries,  and  the  consequent  more 
careful  study  of  the  customs,  superstitions,  and  general  history 
of  these  peoples.  The  result  is  that  there  has  been  a  slowly- 
growing  change  of  opinion  among  radical  biblical  critics  regard- 
ing the  date  and  authorship  of  the  work.  In  some  cases  the 
change  has  been  very  marked.  The  "  Independent "  stated  some 
time  ago  that  "  One  of  the  most  erudite  and  competent  French 
students  of  those  inscriptions  has  lately  published  his  own  con- 
clusions on  the  subject.  He  does  not  discuss  Daniel's  visions 
included  in  the  last  part  of  the  book,  which  he  believes  can  be 
equally  justified,  but,  after  examining  with  the  greatest  care  the 
first  BIX  chapters,  which  are  full  of  local  allusions,  he  declares 
that  they  could  have  been  written  only  while  the  memory  of  the 
time  with  which  they  have  to  do  was  yet  very  fresh.  He  says 
that  for  a  long  time  the  views  of  these  literary  critics  seemed  to 
him  unrefutei  He  accepted  them,  and  published  them;  but  has 
lately  been  compelled,  for  reasons  simply  and  exclusively  scien- 
tific, to  revise  his  opinion,  and  recur  to  the  old  Talmud  ic  view, 
which  referred  the  composition  of  Daniel  to  the  time  of  Ezra  and 
the  Great  Sj^nagogue.  Comparing  Daniel  with  the  Book  of  Ju- 
dith, which  is  of  the  date  wnich  critics  have  tried  to  assign  to 
Daniel,  the  contrast  is  remarkable.  Every  historical  or  social 
allusion  in  Daniel  is  borne  out  by  the  facts  discovered.  In  Ji- 
dith,  however,  we  have  a  king  of  Assyria  who  never  existed  ue- 
f eated  on  the  territory  of  an  unknown  king  of  the  Elamites  when 
Elam  had  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation,  in  a  plain  which  is  at  the 

*  The  prayer  in  chapter  ix  is  an  exception  to  thia  statement, 
f  Harraan*B  Introduction,  *'  Daniel/*  p.  888.    Tlie  entire  chapter  on  this  book  is 
worth  a  careful  reading. 


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1881.]  &ynop8i8  of  the  Qtiarterliea.  149 

same  time  near  the  Euphrates  and  the  Indian  Hydaspes.  The 
Median  king  then  sends  on  an  expedition  his  general,  Holopher- 
nes,  with  a  Persian  name,  who  crosses  and  conquers  Syria,  in  a 
journey  of  fantastic  geography,  and  comes  to  Palestine,  which  is 
under  a  king  whose  name  is  not  given,  whom  he  besieges  in  the 
mythical  city  of  Bethulia.  What  a  difference  between  this  accu- 
mulation of  impossibilities  and  the  absolutely  true  picturing  of 
Babylon  given  in  Daniel,  f  Of  course,  archaeology  cannot  be 
asked  to  confirm  the  supernatural  of  miracles  or  prophecies.  All 
we  ask  of  it  is  whether  the  books  which  contain  the  supernatural 
could  have  been  written  at  the  time  they  claim  to  have  been 
written.  The  monuments  buried  for  thousands  of  years  in  the 
soil  of  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia  answer  Yes,  to  the  confusion  of 
the  critics  who  said  No.  The  monuments  cannot  affirm  every 
thing.  They  cannot  fairly  be  asked  for  every  detail  of  personal 
life.  They  cannot  record  the  revelations  of  God  to  his  prophets. 
They  do  not  tell  us  how  accurately  the  Sacred  Books  have  been 
brought  down  to  us,  nor  when  or  how  they  have  been  re-written 
or  revised  by  Ezra  or  a  later  Synagogue.  But  they  do  tell  us 
that  the  accordance,  not  of  Genesis  and  Exodus  and  Daniel  alone, 
but  of  the  Kings,  and  Chronicles,  and  the  prophets,  and  Ezra,  and 
Esther,  with  the  data  given  by  the  monuments,  is  such  that  it  is 
impossible  that  they  should  not  have  been  written  at  or  near  the 
time  which  has  been  claimed  for  them  from  the  beginning." 

Since  the  preceding  was  written,  an  article  from  the  pen  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Sayce,  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  Eng.,  has  appeared 
in  "The  Oriental  Journal,"  which,  if  it  correctly  interprets  the 
cuneiform  text,  puts  a  new  face  on  the  capture  of  Babylon  by 
Cyrus,  and  compels  a  re-writing  of  this  chapter  of  ancient  history. 
It  seems  that  two  important  discoveries  have  recently  been  made 
in  Babylonia,  one  a  clay  cylinder  which  contains  a  proclamation 
of  Cyrus  describmg  his  conquest  of  Babylonia,  and  the  other  a 
large  clay  tablet  giving  year  by  year  the  history  of  the  reign  of 
Nabonidus,  father  of  Belshazzar,  of  the  conquest  of  the  JVledes 
and  Babylonians  by  Cyrus,  and  of  the  first  year  of  his  rule  over 
Babylon.  We  give  as  much  of  the  article  as  our  limits  will  per- 
mit. According  to  the  annals  of  the  historical  tablets,  "The 
Persians  first  appear  upon  the  scene  in  the  sixth  year  of  Nabo- 
nidus, when  we  hnd  Cyrus  engaged  in  fighting  against  Istungu, 
the  classical  Astyages,  king  of  Ekbata,  whose  army  revolted 
against  him,  and  sent  him  m  chains  to  Cyrus,  B.C.  549.  Mean- 
while Nabonidus,  instead  of  coming  to  the  help  of  the  Medians, 
remained  inactive  in  the  town  of  Tera,  which  was  probably  a 
suburb  of  Babylon,  contenting  himself  with  stationing  his  army, 

f  So  in  the  first  book  of  Maccabees  there  are  similar  gross  historical  errors.  In 
chap,  i  a  false  statement  is  made  respecting  the  death  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and 
the  division  of  his  kingdom.  In  chap,  viii  the  author  says  that  the  Romans  capt- 
nred  Antiochus  alive ;  but  the  fact  is  they  never  captured  him  at  all.  Again,  in 
this  same  chapter,  he  says  that  the  Romans  deprived  him  of  India,  which  he  never 
possessed. 

FouETH  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 10 


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150  Methodic  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

nnder  the  command  of  hia  eldest  son,  in  Accad,  or  Northern 
Babylonia,  so  as  to  check  the  advance  of  Cyrns  in  that  direction. 
Three  years  after  Cyrus  completed  his  conquest  of  the  Medes  by 
crossing  the  Tigris  near  Arbela,  in  order  to  proceed  against  the 
last  cities  in  that  part  of  the  former  empire  of  Media  which  still 
held  out  against  him.  He  then  attempted  to  enter  Babylonia 
from  the  north,  but  the  Babylonian  army  was  apparently  too 
strong  for  him,  and  it  was  not  till  the  seventeenth  year  of  Na- 
bonidus  (B.C.  538)  that  the  conquest  of  Babylonia  was  effected. 
Cyrus  had  first  tampered  with  the  subjects  of  the  Chaldean  king, 
and  when  every  thing  was  ready  marched  against  Nabonidus 
from  the  south-east,  where  the  Babylonians  who  lived  on  the 
coasts  of  the  Persian  Gulf  had  already  revolted  in  favor  of  the 
invader. 

"  Nabonidus  now  endeavored  to  propitiate  the  neglected  gods, 
but  to  no  purpose.  A  battle  was  fought  in  the  month  Tammuz, 
or  June,  at  Rubum,  in  the  south  of  Babylonia,  resulting  in  the 
defeat  of  Nabonidus,  and  the  revolt  of  the  people  of  Accad  from 
him.  Sippara  was  taken  by  the  Persians,  without  fighting,  on 
the  14th  of  Tanmiuz.  Nabonidus  fled,  but  was  captured  by  the 
Persian  general,  Gobryas,  on  the  16th  of  Tammuz,  and  Bahylon 
was  entered  toithout  any  resistance  nnd  with(yut  a  siege^  by  Go- 
l)ryaa,  almost  immediately  afterward.  The  only  resistance  ex- 
perienced was  at  the  end  of  the  month,  when  some  *  rebels  of  the 
land  of  Gutuim,'  or  Kurdiston,  shut  themselves  up  in  the  Temple 
•of  Belus,  at  Babylon;  but  as  they  had  no  weapons  they  could  do 
nothing.  It  was  not  until  the  3d  of  Marchesvan,  or  October,  that 
Cyrus  entered  Babylon,  apparently  during  the  night,  *  the  roads 
being  dark  before  him,'  and  appointed  Gobryas  and  other  officers 
to  govern  the  city.  On  the  11th  of  the  same  month  Nabonidus 
died,  which  disposes  of  the  story  of  his  appointment  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  Caramsyiia. 

"  Cyrus  now  commenced  his  policy  of  conciliation.  The  Baby- 
lonian gods  were  restored  to  their  shrines  with  every  mark  of 
reverence,  and  on  the  4th  of  Nisan,  the  first  month  of  the  new 
year,  (B.C.  537,)  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  took  part  in  the 
religious  ceremonies  performed  in  honor  of  the  various  deities. 
As  this  is  the  last  event  recorded,  the  tablet  must  have  been 
-drawn  up  soon  afterward,  and  deposited  in  the.  public  library, 
where  it  could  be  read  by  all. 

"It  is  not  necessary  to  refer  to  the  important  beanng  these 
two  documents  have  upon  biblical  and  profane  history,  and  more 
especially  upon  the  Book  of  Daniel.  One  more  argument  has 
been  added  to  the  case  against  Xenophon's  *  Cyropaedia,'  which 
competent  judges  have  long  pronounced  to  be  a  romance;  and 
the  siege  of  Babylon,  described  by  Herodotus,  turns  out  never 
to  have  taken  place.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  Herodotus  has 
confounded  Babylon  with  Sippara,  where  the  relics  of  the  army 
of  Nabonidus  took  refuge." — ^rp.  498-604, 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  151 

The  following  candid  notice  of  Dr.  De  Hass'  Bible  Lands, 
and  rebuke  of  the  slashing  notice  of  the  "  Independent,"  does 
credit  to  the  "  TTniversalist  Quarterly : " — 

This  ample  title-page  sufficiently  notifies  the  reader  of  the  aim 
and  character  of  this  beautiful  volume  ;  and  the  Preface  states 
that  the  author  has  compiled  the  facts  brought  out  by  recent  ex- 
plorations in  this  concise  form  for  the  benefit  of  the  general 
reader,  to  whom  they  would  not  otherwise  be  accessible.  He 
states  that  he  does  not  claim  to  have  made  these  discoveries,  but 
that,  having  visited  and  carefully  examined  the  excavations  made 
by  Mariette  Bey,  in  Egypt,  Dr.  Schliemann,  at  Troy,  Dr.  Wood, 
in  Asia  Minor,  and  General  Cesnola,  in  Cyprus,  and  having  been 
with  Warren,  Wilson,  Drake,  Ganueau,  Conder,  and  others,  in 
and  around  Jerusalem — also  having  traveled  with  Dr.  Strong's 
party  through  Moab,  and  followed  Dr.  Porter  through  the  Hau- 
ran — ^he  writes  from  observations  personally  made,  though  rely- 
ing in  some  instances  for  the  correctness  of  his  statements  on  the 
surveys  and  investigations  of  the  eminent  archaeologists  named. 

After  such  a  frank  acknowledgment  of  his  indebtedness,  and 
of  the  probable  source  of  some  of  the  errors  and  over-statements 
of  the  Dook,  we  think  the  criticisms  of  the  "  Independent "  un- 
necessarily severe  and  personal.  The  author  does  not  profess  to 
be  fresh  or  original — his  work  is  a  "  compilation ; "  and  he  makes 
no  pretense  of  having  verified  all  the  statements  which  he  copies, 
or  of  having  seen  e^^n  all  the  places  which  he  describes.  He 
has  certainly  overlooked  some  of  the  most  recent  results  in  Egyp- 
tian and  Assyrian  discoveries,  and  the  consequent  corrections  of 
former  interpretations  and  too  hasty  conclusions;  and  he  may 
have  too  much  confidence  in  the  superiatives  and  hyperboles  of 
some  of  his  authorities,  whose  errors  have  been  long  ago  exposed ; 
and  thig  is  confessedlv  a  dj-awback  on  a  book  just  from  the  press. 
But  after  all  the  work  is  a  valuable  one,  replete  with  useful  and 
exceedingly  interesting  information  concerning  Bible  Lands,  and 
one  every  way  calculated  to  illustrate  the  language  of  the  sacred 
records,  and  strengthen  faith  in  their  authenticity  and  accuracy. 
It  ought  to  find  a  place  in  our  family  and  Sunday-school  libra- 
ries. There  are  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  illustrations,  all  help- 
ing to  interpret  the  text. — P.  510. 

Thi  Contkmforabt  Riniw,  July,  1880.  (New  York.)  1.  A  Few  Weeks  upon 
the  Continent;  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  2.  The  Indian  Dilemma;  by  Major  H. 
Grey,  C.  S.  I.  8.  On  the  Sources  of  Germmi  Discontent;  by  Dr.  Karl  Hille- 
brand.  4.  The  Postulates  of  English  Political  Economy ;  by  Walter  Bagehot. 
5.  The  Public  Letters  of  John  Ruskin,  D.C.L. ;  by  An  Oxford  Pupil  6.  How 
the  Income  Tax  can  be  Abolished;  by  Lonsdale  Bradley.  7.  The  Bleusinian 
Mysteries ;  by  FnuiQois  Lenormant  8.  Postal  Notes*  Money  Orders,  and  Bank 
Checks ;  by  Prof.  W.  Stanley  Jevons.    9.  From  Faust  to  Mr.  Pickwick ;  by 

I     Matthew  Browne. 

The  July  number  of  the  "  Contemporary  Eeview  "  contains  an 
article  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll,,  entitled ::  "A  Few  Weeks  upon 


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152  MetTiodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

the  Continent."  It  narrates  a  tour  into  the  South  of  Europe, 
made  with  a  view,  not  to  science  or  art,  but  to  nature.  The  en- 
tire article  suggests  sad  tlioughts  of  the  narrowness  of  our 
American  "  statesmen  "  in  comparison  with  the  broadly  cult- 
ured Argyll  and  Gladstone. 

At  Verona,  Italy,  Argyll  discerns  that  the  pavement  stones 
are  made  up  of  the  ancient  Ammonite,  represented  by  the  mod- 
ern Nautilus.  The  ancient  forms  were  splendid  and  massive, 
and  were  fossilized  in  the  Oolite  and  Lias.  This  suggests  a  ref- 
utation of  the  Darwinian  claim  that  geology  would  show  a  com- 
plete series  of  evolutionary  forms,  were  not  the  succession  im- 
mensely broken  and  shattered.  But  we  have  here  an  instance 
where 

The  Geological  Record  is  JJnbroken. 

A  complete  and  perfect  series  of  certain  of  these  forms  may  very 
easily  be  preserved  in  the  deposits  of  any  given  age.  The  im- 
perishable nature  of  shells  generally,  and  especially  of  shells  so 
solid  as  the  Ammonites,  together  with  the  fact  that  all  that  lived 
in  any  given  area  of  sea  must  have  been  preserved  in  its  deposits, 
as  we  actually  find  them  to  have  been — are  circumstances  which 
give  us  every  reason  to  believe  that  we  have  a  very  complete  rec- 
ord of  the  succession  of  these  forms,  and  this,  too,  for  periods  of 
time  so  long  that  during  them  many  new  species  did  actually  ap- 
pear. In  the  deposits  of  the  Lias,  for  example,  we  have  in  the 
bouth  of  England,  and  elsewhere,  an  immense  series  of  deposits 
which  appear  to  have  been  continuous  and  undisturbed  during  the 
time  of  their  deposition,  and  are  continuous  and  undisturbed  still. 
They  are  crowded  with  millions  of  Ammonites  of  all  forms  and 
patterns,  of  all  ages  and  sizes,  and  yet  the  method  or  the  process 
Dy  which  new  species  have  been  introduced  is  as  mysterious  in  re- 
spect to  them  as  in  respect  to  other  forms  of  life  in  which  no  such 
perfect  series  anywhere  exists.  No  less  than  two  hundred  species 
are  known  in  this  one  geological  formation,  of  which  one  hundred 
and  six  are  confined  to  a  particular  division  of  it.  All  these  ap- 
peared quite  suddenly,  and  in  the  next  division  of  the  same  de- 
posit their  places  were  taken  by  forms  which  are  wholly  new. 
Whence  did  these  come,  and  how  did  they  arise  V  No  man  can 
tell.  The  facts  do  not  suggest  gradual  passages  and  insensible 
gradations.  One  particular  8j>ecie8,  for  example,  appears  suddenly 
in  one  particular  bed  or  stratum  only  a  few  inches  tiiick — appears 
in  this  bed  Alone,  and  is  absolutely  wanting  in  every  other,  wheth- 
er above  or  below  it.  True  it  is  that  the  differences  of  pattern 
which  distinguish  these  species  from  each  other  are  often  small. 
But  whether  they  be  large  or  small  they  are  always  constant. 
They  appear  suddenly,  and  as  suddenly  their  place  is  supplied  by 
some  new  variety  wMch  during  another  period  remains  as  fixed 


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1881J  Synopde  of  the  Quarterlies,  153 

and  constant  as  all  the  rest.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  quite  certain, 
from  this  history  of  the  Genesis  of  Ammonites,  that  the  origin  of 
their  specific  distinctions  has  not  been  an  origin  due  to  minute 
and  accidental  variations,  but  an  origin  due  to  sudden  changes  ef- 
fected under  a  law  of  birth  or  of  evolution  of  which  we  know 
nothing,  and  to  which  nothing  analogous  has  been  ever  seen  since 
Man  appeared,  or  at  least  since  Man  observed.  The  doctrine  that 
Nature  does  nothing  "  per  saltum  "  is  a  doctrine  which,  in  so  far 
as  it  is  true  at  all,  has  been  wonderfully  misunderstood.  The  con- 
tinuity of  Nature  is  a  continuity  of  causation,  not  a  mere  conti- 
nuity of  effects.  New  things  may  appear  very  suddenly  in  perfect 
consistency  with  being  the  result  of  long  and  gradual  preparation. 
Leaps  the  most  tremendous — transitions  the  most  violent — may  be 
the  outcome  of  a  perfect  continuity.  If  all  creatures  have  been 
bom  from  pre-existing  forms,  the  geological  evidence  is  that  they 
have  been  bom  suddenly — with  deviations  from  the  parent  stock, 
which  have  been  reached  at  once — and  which  have  remained  fixed 
and  definite  until  a  new  variation  has  arisen. — Page  4. 

Evolutionists  have  made  great  use  of  the  fact  of  the  preser- 
vation of  species  by  natural  concealment.  The  following  pass- 
age describes  a  remarkable  case  of 

Special  Pkovisions  foe  Safety  by  Concealment. 

As  regards  the  Lophius,  or  fishing-frog,  although  in  one  aspect 
it  is  among  the  most  hideous  and  horrible  objects  in  Nature,  in 
another  aspect  it  is  one  of  the  most  "  beautiful ; "  for  nowhere  is 
there  a  more  conspicuous  example  of  that  kind  of  beauty  which 
consists  in  a  wonderful  combination  of  curious  and  various  adap- 
tations. When  Been  cast  up  upon  the  shore,  as  it  often  is,  its  ap- 
pearance is  simply  that  of  a  great  flattened  bag,  with  a  mouth 
stretching  from  one  side  to  the  other,  and  with  those  wide  jaws 
armed  with  double  rows  of  hideously  sharp-pointed  teeth.  But 
when  freshly  taken  from  the  water,  and  carefully  examined,  it  is 
one  of  the  marvels  of  creation.  It  is  adapted  for  concealment  at 
the  bottom  of  the  sea — for  lying  perfectly  flat  on  the  sand  or 
among  the  weeds — with  its  cavernous  jaws  ready  for  a  snap.  For 
more  perfect  concealment,  every  bit  of  the  creature  is  imitative 
both  m  form  and  coloring.  The  whole  upper  surface  is  mottled 
and  tinted  in  such  close  resemblance  to  stones  and  gravels  and 
seaweeds,  that  it  becomes  quite  undistinguishable  among  them.  In 
order  to  complete  the  method  of  concealment,  the  whole  margins 
of  the  fish,  and  the  very  edges  of  the  lips  and  jaws,  have  loose 
tags  and  fringes  which  wave  and  sway  about  amid  the  currents 
of  water  so  as  to  look  exactly  like  the  smaller  algae  which  move 
around  them  and  along  with  them.  Even  the  very  ventral  fins  of 
this  Devouring  Deception,  which  are  thick,  strong,  and  fleshy,  al- 
most like  hands,  and  which  evidently  help  in  a  sudden  leap,  are 
made  like  great  clam  shells,  while  the  iris  of  the  eyes  is  so  colored 
in  lines  ra^ating  from  the  pupil,  as  to  look  precisely  like  some 


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154  Methodist  Quarterly  Eeview.  [Janiia-y, 

species  of  Paiella  or  Limpet.  But  this  is  not  all ;  not  only  is  con- 
cealment perfectly  in  order  to  enable  the  Lophius  to  catch  the  un- 
wary, but  there  is  a  bait  provided  to  attract  the  hungry  and  the 
inexperienced.  From  the  top  of  the  head  proceeds  a  pair,  or  two 
paif,  of  slender  elastic  rods,  like  the  slender  tops  of  a  fishing-rod, 
ending  in  a  little  membrane  or  web,  which  glistens  in  the  water 
and  is  attractive  to  other  fish.  When  they  come  to  bite,  or  even 
to  look,  they  are  suddenly  engulfed,  for  portals  open  with  a  rush 
and  close  again — portals  over  which  the  inscription  may  well  bo 
written  :  "  Lasoiate  ogni  speranza  voi  ch'entrate." 

It  is  impossible  to  look  at  a  machinery  so  special,  so  elaborate, 
and  so  ingenious  as  this,  and  to  be  satisfied  with  the  stereotyped 
mechanical  explanation  of  the  Evolutionists.  I  do  not  mean  to 
doubt  that  such  creatures  have  been  "  developed,"  any  more  than 
to  deny  that  they  have  been  generated  and  have  been  bom  ;  all 
I  mean  is  that  the  development,  whatever  may  have  been  the  stages 
through  which  it  may  have  passed,  has  been  guided  bv  a  "  Law" 
which  is  cognizable  and  intelligible  only  as  a  Law  of  ilind.  The 
end  has  been  seen  from  the  beginning,  and  organs  have  been 
shaped  toward  that  end  long  before  they  could  be  of  actual  use  in 
gaining  it.  Not  by  the  mere  killing  off  of  accidental  variations, 
but  by  the  shaping  of  them  to  a  foreseen  conclusion,  can  particu- 
lar variations  such  as  these  have  been  attained.  Just  as  there  are 
unmistakable  marks  which  separate  the  conceptions  of  the  imag- 
ination from  narratives  of  fact,  so  are  there  marks,  equally  unmis- 
takable, which  separate  the  work  of  Mind  from  any  of  the  re- 
sults of  blind  physical  causation:  and  although  all  nature  is  full  of 
this  distinction,  there  are  occasional  examples  of  it  which,  from 
their  novelty,  their  complication,  and  their  conspicuousness,  bring 
it  home  to  our  recognition  more  vividly  tlian  others.  Such  an 
example  is  the  Lophius. — Page  8. 

CJoNTEMPORABT  Retikw,  November,  1880.  (New  York.)— 1.  The  Unity  of  Nature ; 
by  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  2.  Uow  to  Nationalize  the  Land  ;  by  Alfred  R.  Wallace. 
3.  The  Relation  of  Chrintian  Belief  to  National  Life;  by  Rev.  J.  Baldwin 
Brown.  4.  Party  Politics  in  the  United  States ;  by  an  American  Statesman. 
6.  The  Procedure  of  Deliberative  Bodies ;  by  Alexander  Bain,  LL.D.  6,  Home 
Rule  in  Ireland  ;  by  Alfred  Frisby.  7.  The  Prospects  of  Land-Owners ;  by  Prof. 
W.  Steadman  Aldis.  8.  The  Future  of  the  Canadian  Dominion ;  by  William 
Clarke.     9.  Old  and  New  Japan;   by  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock,  K.C.B. 

The  November  Contemporary  Review  has  an  article  by  J.  Bald- 
win Brown,  on  "  The  Relation  of  Christian  Belief  to  i^ational 
Life."    We  give  the  following  extract  on  the  professedly  pious 

Atheism  of  the  Day. 

There  is  an  Atheism  abroad  which  has  in  it  a  tincture  of  al- 
most pious  devotion  to  the  ideas  and  aims  which  Christianity 
has  taught  us  as  a  nation  to  cherish  and  pursue.  We  need  not 
Jrouble  ourselves  much  to  confute  it;  it  will  confute  itself,  and 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qtuxrterlies.  155 

soon;  It  is  the  fancy  for  the  time  of  our  over-cultured  men  and 
women — that  is,  men  and  women  who  are  mastered  by  their 
culture  instead  of  mastering  it — that  the  world  can  be  very 
blessedly  Christian  without  Christianity.  We  may  leave  them 
calmly  to  spread  their  plaster  over  the  sacred  name  which  fal- 
lows every  stone  of  the  temple  of  Christian  society,  and  to  in- 
scribe on  the  bare  surface  any  name  they  please,  or  none.  The 
plaster  will  soon  be  dropping  from  their  Fharos,  and  the  name 
of  the  founder  will  shine  out  fresher  and  brighter  than  at  first. 
But  we  do  not  •  affect  to  underrate  the  gravity  of  the  danger 
which  threatens  us.  We  cannot  hope  to  emerge,  except  through 
long  strain  and  bitter  sorrow,  from  the  unbelief  and  indifference 
which  have  been  largely  bequeathed  to  us  by  a  too  selfish,  self- 
satisfied,  self-infolded,  and  dogmatic  Church. 

Sometimes  one  has  a  vision  of  what  might  befall  if  the  creed 
or  the  no-creed  of  the  Atheist  were  triumphant,  and  were  ac- 
cepted as  the  truth  in  all  cultivated  society.  Were  it  established 
as  the  orthodox  creed  of  the  intellectual  rulers;  were  men 
trained  from  childhood  to  limit  their  interests,  activities,  and 
hopes  to  the  bare  and  narrow  world  which  alone  it  regards  as 
real;  were  all  the  light  which  plays  over  life  from  the  spiritual 
sphere  extinguished,  and  all  the  comfort  which  men  gather  from 
the  thought  of  the  infinite  wisdom  and  tenderness  dead;  were 
they  doomed  to  toil  and  suffer  through  their  weary  days  with  no 
inspiration  from  perennial  fountains,  and  with  no  hope  beyond 
the  darkling  tomb;  did  they  believe  that  the  death  which  each 
moment  dogs  their  steps  would  be  utterly  an  end  of  them,  and 
that  the  experience  of  their  own  sad  lives  was  the  only  legacy 
which  they  would  leave  to  their  heirs,  then  how  fiercely  men 
would  learn  to  hate  this  Atheism  :  with  what  bitter  ridicule 
would  they  unmask  its  pretensions;  with  what  scathing  scorn 
would  they  dissect  its  arguments;  and  with  what  prophetic  fury 
would  they  denounce  the  ruin  which  it  must  work  in  the  nature, 
the  endowment,  and  the  destiny  of  our  race.  It  would  be  worth 
enduring  some  deep  sadness  and  darkness  for  a  season  to  see 
humanity,  in  spiritual  might,  rise  on  a  rampant  Atheism,  tear  its 
flimsy  sophisms  to  tatters,  and  banish  it  as  a  hideous  nightmare 
from  the  earth. 

Some  such  experience  may  be  awaiting  our  Atheistic  schools. 
Intellect  has  grown  wanton  of  late.  A  dread  discipline  of  an- 
guish may  be  appointed  to  it,  in  that  bare  desert  of  Atheistic 
negations  into  which  it  has  led  itself  forth,  and  is  seeking  to 
lead  forth  the  world.  We  seem  to  see,  with  eyes  blinded  with 
tears,  the  dark  night  of  lonely  despair  in  which  our  proud  and 
contemptuous  culture  may  be  ordained  to  wander;  until  it  hun- 
gers again  for  the  Bread  which  cometh  down  from  heaven,  and 
seeks  joyfully  the  light  which,  to  a  spirit's  eye,  floods  over  the 
celestial  sphere.  But  what  shall  this  poor  man  do,  whose  only 
comfort  it  has  embittered,  whose  only  hope  it  has  blighted,  and 
whose  living  fountain  it  has  poisoned  in  the  spring  ?    The  poor 


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156  Methodist  Qxmrterly  Beview.  [January, 

have  tlie  Gospel  preached  unto  them  still,  and  many  a  cup  of  pure, 
bright  pleasure  aoes  it  lift  to  their  lips.  There  was  a  service  at 
a  little  conventicle  on  the  Surrey  hills,  a  few  Sundays  ago,  a 
sample  of  thousands  of  peasants'  services  which  are  held  each 
Sunday  in  our  land.  Poor  laborers  and  humble  tradesmen  filled 
the  place.  Very  hard  were  the  lives  of  many  of  them;  very 
long  and  weary  their  toil;  very  dull  and  sad  their  lot.  But 
there  they  were  for  a  time  in  another  world.  An  evangelist 
preached  to  them  sound,  stirring,  vital  doctrine  about  righteous- 
ness; and  they  were  made  to  feel  that  diligence,*  honesty,  thrift, 
cheerfulness  and  charity  were  all  within  its  pale.  A  peasant 
prayed  with  a  dignity  and  a  power  of  thought  and  expression 
which  would  have  touched  our  prophets  of  culture,  and  which 
nothing  but  the  Bible  could  have  taught  him,  and  he  prayed  for 
blessings  which  even  an  agnostic  would  recognize  as  good  both 
for  souls  and  States.  They  sang  hymns  which  seemed  for  the 
time  to  uplift  them,  and  they  saw  above  their  narrow  and 
squalid  lot  a  world  in  whose  joys  and  glories  they,  too,  had  part. 
And  then  they  went  home  to  their  poor  hovels,  their  cabbage, 
their  crust,  and  their  dull  monotonous  tasks,  feeling  that  life  was 
not  all  a  bare,  dry  desert;  that  toil  and  pain  and  sickness  are  not 
its  only  experiences;  that  it  has  passages  of  joy  that  might  glad- 
den an  angel,  and  hopes  which  lift  themselves  to  God  and 
heaven.  There  are  ten  thousand  of  such  churches,  let  us  thank 
God,  scattered  about  England.  None  but  God  knows  the  pre- 
cious contribution  which  they  offer  to  the  stability  and  the  fruit- 
fulness  of  our  industrial,  social,  and  political  life.  I  confess  I  am 
somewhat  hACptical  as  to  the  extent  of  the  so-called  alienation 
of  the  "masses"  from  the  Gospel.  Their  alienation  from  the 
Churches  is  all  too  manifest,  but  I  think  we  quite  underrate  the 
hold  which  the  truth  and  comfort  of  the  Gospel  have  upon  their 
hearts.  It  is  wonderful  how  in  times  of  great  calamity,  in  col- 
liery accidents  and  the  like,  abundant  signs,  not  of  a  religion 
put  on  for  the  moment,  but  of  a  very  noble  Christian  faith  and 
patience,  appear. 

Let  highly  cultured  men  and  women  strip  life,  if  they  will,  of 
all  that  makes  it  worth  the  living,  and  of  the  higher  fellowships 
which  lend  to  it  dignity  and  grace;  let  them  contemn,  if  they 
will,  the  hopes  and  the  experiences  which  are  the  springs  of  its 
purest  and  most  lasting  joys;  let  them  destroy  for  themselves, 
with  the  cruel  weapons  of  ttieir  sophistry,  the  beliefs  and  the  aspira- 
tions which  in  all  ages  have  seemed  to  man  to  differentiate  his 
life  from  the  brutes;  be  it  ours  to  guard  for  ourselves  and  these 
poor  ones  that  vision  of  God,  and  that  faith  in  the  revelations 
and  promises  of  his  word,  which  has  led  the  progress  of  Christ- 
endom hitherto,  which  is  the  stimulus  and  the  strength  of  the 
noblest  activity  in  men  and  in  communities,  and  which,  under 
the  cares,  burdens,  and  toils  of  our  present  experience,  gladdens 
the  heart  unspeakably,  fills  the  imagination,  and  beautifies  and 
exalts  the  life. — P.  21. 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  tiie  QuoHerUes.  157 

North  American  Rbvikw,  December,  1880.  (New  York.) — 1.  The  Future  of  the 
Republican  Party;  by  George  S.  BoutwelL  2.  Discoveries  at  Olympia;  by  Prof. 
Ernst  Curtiuf.  3.  Rational  Sunday  Observance ;  by  Rev.  Dr.  James  Freeman 
Clarke.  4.  Southern  Statesmen  and  their  Policy ;  by  John  Jay.  6.  The  Ruins 
of  Central  America—Part  IV;  by  Desir4  Charnay.  6.  The  Distribution  of  Time; 
by  Dr.  Leonard  Waldo.  7.  The  Public-School  Failure ;  by  Richard  Grant  White. 
The  Validity  of  the  Emancipation  Edict ;  by  Aaron  A.  Ferris. 

Ex-Secretary  Boutwell,  in  the  first  article,  proposes  what  he 
considers  an  effective  correction  of  the  violation  of  the  rights 
of  "  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  connt "  in  the  Southern  States. 
We  give  his  method  in  the  following  paragraphs  : 

By  section  4  of  Article  IV  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  provided  that 
"  the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  m  this  Union 
a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each  of  them 
from  invasion." 

This  guarantee  to  the  States  of  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment is  coupled  with  the  highest  pledge  that  can  be  made  by  one 
body-politic  to  another — protection  against  invasion.  The  two 
pledges  considered  together  are  a  guarantee  of  the  existence  of 
the  State  and  of  its  existence  as  a  republic. 

The  Supreme  Court  has  given  an  opinion  that  the  guarantee  is 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  respective  States,  and  not  to  the  govern- 
ments of  the  States.  In  considering  the  varying  meanings  of  the 
word  **  State"  in  our  Constitution,  the  Court  says:  "There  are  in- 
stances in  which  the  principal  sense  of  the  word  seems  to  be  that 
primary  one  to  which  we  have  adverted,  of  a  people  or  political 
community,  as  distinguished  from  a  government.  In  this  latter 
sense  the  word  seems  to  be  used  in  the  clause  which  provides 
that  the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  the 
Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each  of 
them  against  invasion.  In  this  clause  a  plain  distinction  is  made 
between  a  State  and  the  government  of  a  State."  (Texas  vs. 
White,  7  WaUace,  721.) 

When  we  consider  the  nature  of  this  obligation,  its  place  in 
the  Constitution,  and  its  necessity  as  a  means  of  protecting  the 
Union  itself  from  undermining  and  destroying  processes,  we  can 
entertain  only  contempt  for  the  doctrine  that  when  the  syst^em 
in  a  State  is  republican  there  can  be  no  further  inquiry  by  the 
United  States,  and  that  the  National  Government  must  ever  re- 
main a  silent  spectator  of  the  total  subvei-sion  of  that  system  in 
practice.  If  this  be  so,  it  is  then  only  necessary  for  a  body  of 
usurpers  in  a  State  to  retain  a  republican  form  of  government, 
and  then  proceed  to  rob  the  people  of  every  right  appertaining 
to  a  republican  system.     And  further,  if  this  be  so,  then  the 

fuarantee  is  to  the  authorities  of  the  State,  and  not  to  the  people, 
'he  guarantee  of  a  republican  form  or  system  of  government  is 
nothing  to  the  people  living  under  the  system  unless  the  admin- 
istration of  it  is  republican  also.  Indeed,  the  guarantee  of  a 
republican  form  of  government^  when  that  government  has  been 


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168  Ifdhodist  QuoHerVy  Heview.  [January, 

seized  by  usurpers,  and  the  people  are  deprived  alike  of  the 
rights  and  of  the  protection  which  a  republican  government  is 
designed  to  secure,  makes  the  guarantee  itself  the  shield  of  the 
oppressor  and  the  menace  of  the  down-trodden. 

The  guarantee  is,  then,  not  of  the  form  onlv,  but  of  the  sub- 
stajice,  the  thing  itself,  as  well.  The  republican  government 
guaranteed  is  a  government  existing  and  operating  in  harmony 
with  the  American  idea  as  set  forth  in  our  Constitutions,  both 
State  and  national,  or  accepted  universally  and  by  many  success- 
ive generations. 

Some  of  the  essential  features  of  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment are  these  :  1.  Alljust  powers  are  derived  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed.  2.  Tne  exercise  of  those  powers  is  by  repre- 
sentative men  selected  by  the  people,  either  directly  by  election 
or  indirectly  by  appointment.  3.  The  recognition  in  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  existence  of  a  body  of  men  entitled  to  the  elective 
franchise.  4.  Efficient  means  for  the  general  and  equal  enjoy- 
ment of  the  right  by  all  of  the  class  so  recognized.  5.  Obedience 
to  the  will  of  the  majoritjr  when,  agreeably  to  the  Constitution, 
that  will  has  been  ascertained. 

The  Congress,  including  the  President,  is  the  United  States, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  good  the  guarantee  contained  in  the 
Constitution  ;  and  when  in  any  State  the  essential  qualities  of  a 
republican  government  are  wanting,  or  the  people  are,  generally 
and  systematically,  deprived  of  those  rights  and  privileges  whicn 
are  elemental  in  our  republican  system,  and  when  all  milder 
means  have  failed  to  remedy  the  evils,  it  then  becomes  a  duty  to 
assert  the  power  of  the  United  States  under  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  quoted,  and,  by  such  means  as  may  be  adequate, 
secure  to  the  people  a  republican  government  as  a  practical,  ex- 
isting fact. 

Although  many  years  have  passed  since  the  outrages  in  the 
South  assumed  national  importance,  there  is  still  ground  for  hope 
that  order  may  be  re-established,  and  the  equal  rights  of  citizens 
every -where  recognized  ;  but  it  is  well  in  this  exigency  to  assert 
the  existence  and  unfold  the  nature  of  a  power  adequate  to  the 
evil  we  now  confront. 

The  Republican  party  bears  no  hostility  to  the  South  as  a 
section.  If  we  are  a  sectional  party— and  in  one  sense  we  are 
a  sectional  party — the  circumstance  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  in 
the  South,  the  Republican  forces  are  in  a  state  of  duress,  and 
their  voice  is  nowhere  heard,  nor  is  their  power  anywhere  felt. 

When,  however,  there  shall  be  freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press, 
and  of  the  ballot,  the  Republican  party  will  exert  every  constitu- 
tional power  for  the  renovation  of  the  waste  places  in  the  South. 
Whatever  can  be  done,  under  the  Constitution,  for  the  improve- 
ment of  its  rivers  and  its  harbors,  for  the  rebuilding  of  its  levees, 
for  the  development  of  its  agriculture,  for  the  extension  of  its 
manufactures,  for  the  enlargement  of  its  educational  facilities, 
will  be  done  by  the  Republican  party  without  delay  and  without 


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1881.]  SyTiopsis  of  the  QuoHerlies,  159 

grudging.  But  all  this  can  be  done,  and  will  be  done,  for  those 
communities  and  States  only  where  the  equality  of  all  men  before 
the  law  is  a  living,  practical  fact. — P.  481. 

In  the  concluding  paragraph  Mr.  Boutwell  expresses,  un- 
doubtedly, the  real  feeling  of  all  parties  at  the  North  in  behalf 
of  every  effort  tD  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  South.  Dem- 
agogues here  in  the  North,  as  well  as  in  the  South,  are  indeed 
maintaining,  as  their  fundamental  principle,  the  pretended 
axiom  that  "  the  North  hates  the  South,^^  Such  demagogues  are 
the  genuine  enemies  of  both  sections.  That  many  things  in 
the  South  are  reprehended  as  injurious  to  the  South,  and  un- 
just to  other  sections,  is  true.  But  those  things  are  the  real 
impediments  to  Southern  prosperity,  and  their  removal  would 
promote  the  highest  Southern  interests,  and  their  candid  spec- 
ification is  an  act  of  friendship.  But  Mr.  Boufrvvell's  pro- 
posal to  use  the  national  force  against  the  South,  as  not  pos- 
sessing "  a  republican  form  of  government,"  would  be  a  stretch 
both  of  interpretation  and  of  power  which  the  Republican 
party  will  never  adopt  and  the  people  of  the  North  would 
never  sustain.  All  the  States  are  in  possession  of  "  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government,"  and  the  whole  constitutional  duty 
of  Congress  is,  therefore,  fulfilled.  But  for  the  central  gov- 
ernment to  go  farther  and  assume  to  decide  whether  all  the  spe- 
cific acts,  executive,  legislative,  or  personal, under  that  "form" 
are  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  "  form,"  would  be  going 
beyond  the  record.  It  would  be  thereby  unconstitutional,  arbi- 
trary, and  leading  to  very  dangerous  complications.  There  are 
true  "  States'  rights,"  and  the  fact  that  those  "  rights "  have 
been  illegitimately  asserted  should  never  induce  us  to  consent 
to  their  obliteration.  That  the  wrongs  of  which  Mr.  Boutwell 
complains  exist  there  is  no  doubt.  But  there  are  other  reme- 
dies than  force,  which  will  bring  an  earlier,  safer,  and  more 
effective  correction  than  any  central  force  can  accomplish. 

Thi  Princkon  Retiew,  November,  1880.  (New  York.)  1.  The  Ultimate  Design 
of  Man ;  by  Prof.  Frederic  Godet^  D.  D.  2.  How  Congress  and  the  Public  Deal 
with  a  Great  Revenue  and  Industrial  Problem ;  by  Hon.  David  A.  Wells.  3.  The 
Sabbath  Question ;  by  President  Seelye.  4.  Agnosticism  in  Kant ;  by  Prof. 
Ormond.  6.  The  Antiquity  of  Man  and  the  Origin  of  Species;  by  Principal 
l)aw8on.  6.  The  Historical  Proofs  of  Christianity;  by  George  P.  Fisher. 
7.  Criteria  of  the  Various  Kinds  of  Truth  ;  by  President  M'Cosh. 

The  following  extract  from  Dr.  Dawson's  article,  furnishes 
a  notice  of  the  profound  researches  of  Barrande  of  Bohemia  in 


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160  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

earliest  paleontology.    It  will  be  seen  that  they  are  very  con- 
clusive against  any  theory  of  genetic  derivation  of  species : 

Barrande,  like  some  other  eminent  paleontologists,  has  the 
misfortune  to  be  an  unbeliever  in  the  modern  ffospel  of  evolu- 
tion, but  he  has  certainly  labored  to  overcome  his  doubts  with 
greater  assiduity  than  even  many  of  the  apostles  of  the  new  doc- 
trine; and  if  he  is  not  convinced,  the  stubbornness  of  the  facts 
he  has  had  to  deal  with  must  bear  the  blame.  In  connection 
with  his  great  and  classical  work  on  the  Silurian  fossils  of  Bohe- 
mia, it  has  been  necessary  for  him  to  study  the  similar  remains 
of  evei;y  other  country,  and  he  has  used  this  immense  mass  of 
material  in  preparing  statistics  of  the  population  of  the  Paleozoic 
world  more  perfect  than  any  other  naturalist  has  been  able  to 
produce.  In  previous  publications  he  has  applied  these  statis- 
tical results  to  the  elucidation  of  the  history  of  the  oldest  group 
of  crustaceans,  the  trilobites,  and  the  highest  group  of  the  mol- 
lusks,  the  cephalopods.  In  his  latest  memoir  of  this  kind  he 
takes  up  the  brachiopods,  or  lamp-shells,  a  group  of  bivalve  shell- 
fishes, very  ancient  and  very  abundantly  represented  in  all  the 
older  formations  of  every  part  of  the  world,  and  which  thus  af- 
fords the  most  ample  material  for  tracing  its  evolution,  with  the 
least  possible  difficulty  in  the  nature  of  "imperfection  of  the 
record." 

Barrande,  in  the  publication  before  us,  discusses  the  brachiopods 
with  reference,  first,  to  the  variations  observed  within  the  limits 
of  the  species,  eliminating  in  this  way  mere  synonyms  and  varie- 
ties mistaken  for  species.  lie  also  arrives  at  various  important 
conclusions  with  reference  to  the  origin  of  species  and  varietal 
forms,  which  apply  to  the  cephalopods  and  trilobites  as  well  as  to 
the  brachiopods,  and  some  of  which,  as  the  writer  has  elsewhere 
shown,  apply  very  generally  to  fossil  animals  and  plants.  One  of 
these  is  that  different  contemporaneous  species,  living  under  the 
same  conditions,  exhibit  very  different  degrees  of  vitality  and  va- 
riability. Another  is  the  sudden  appearance  at  certain  horizons 
of  a  great  number  of  species,  each  manifesting  its  complete  spe- 
cific characters.  With  very  rare  exceptions,  also,  varietal  forms 
are  contemporaneous  with  the  normal  form  of  their  specific  type, 
and  occur  in  the  same  localities.  Only  in  a  very  few  cases  do  they 
survive  it.  This  and  the  previous  results,  as  well  as  the  fact  that 
parallel  changes  go  on  in  groups  having  no  direct  reaction  on  each 
other,  prove  that  variation  is  not  a  progressive  influence,  and  that 
specific  distinctions  are  not  dependent  on  it,  but  on  the  "  sover- 
eign action  of  one  and  the  same  creative  cause,"  as  Barrande  ex- 
j)re.sses  it.  These  conclusions,  it  may  be  observed,  are  not  arrived 
at  by  that  slap-dash  method  of  mere  assertion  so  often  followed 
on  the  other  side  of  these  questions  ;  but  by  the  most  severe  and 
painstaking  induction,  and  with  careful  elaboration  of  a  few  ap- 
parent exceptions  and  doubtful  cases. 

His  second  heading  relates  to  the  distribution  in  time  of  the 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies,  161 

genera  and  species  of  brachiopods.  This  he  ilhistrates  with  a 
series  of  elaborate  tables,  accompanied  by  explanation.  He  then 
proceeds  to  consider  the  animal  population  of  each  formation,  in 
so  far  as  brachiopods,  cephalopods,  and  trilobites  are  concerned, 
with  reference  to  the  following  questions  :  1.  How  many  species 
are  continued  from  the  previous  formation  unchanged  ?  2.  How 
many  may  be  regarded  as  modifications  of  previous  species? 
8.  ELow  many  are  migrants  from  other  regions  where  they  have 
been  known  to  exist  previously  ?  4.  How  many  are  absolutely 
new  species  ?  These  questions  are  applied  to  each  of  14  successive 
formations  included  in  the  Silurian  of  Bohemia.  The  total  num- 
ber of  species  of  brachiopods  in  these  formations  is  640,  giving 
an  average  of  45.71  to  each,  and  the  results  of  accurate  study  of 
each  species  in  its  characters,  its  varieties,  its  geographical  and 
geological  range,  are  expressed  in  the  following  short  statement, 
which  should  somewhat  astonish  those  gentlemen  who  are  so 
fond  of  asserting  that  derivation  is  "  demonstrated  "  by  geolog- 
ical facts : 

1.  Species  continued  unchanged 28  per  cent. 

2.  Species  migrated  from  abroad 7        " 

S.  Species  continued  with  modification 0        " 

4.  New  species  without  known  ancestors. . .  65        ** 

100  per  cent 

He  shows  that  the  same  or  very  similar  proportions  hold  with 
respect  to  the  cephalopods  and  trilobites,  and  in  fact  that  the 
proportion  of  species  in  the  successive  Silurian  faunae^  which  can 
be  attHhuted  to  descent  with  modification  is  absolutely  ml  He 
may  well  remark  that  in  the  face  of  such  facts  the  origin  of  spe- 
cies is  not  explained  by  what  he  terms  "  les  ^lans  poetiques  de 
I'imagination." 

•  I  have  thought  it  well  to  direct  attention  to  these  memoirs  of 
Barrande,  because  they  form  a  specimen  of  conscientious  work 
with  the  view  of  ascertaining  if  there  is  any  basis  in  nature  for  the 
doctrine  of  spontaneous  evolution  of  species,  and,  I  am  sorry  to 
sav,  a  striking  contrast  to  the  mixture  of  fact  and  fancy  on  this 
Buljject  which  too  often  passes  current  for  science  in  England, 
America,  and  Germany.  Barrande's  studies  are  also  well  deserving 
the  attention  of  our  younger  men  of  science,  as  they  have  before 
them,  more  especially  in  the  widely  -spread  Paleozoic  formations 
of  America,  an  admirable  field  for  similar  work.  In  an  appendix 
to  his  first  chapter,  Barrande  mentions  that  the  three  men  who,  in 
their  respective  countries,  are  the  highest  authorities  on  Paleozoic 
brachiopods,  Hall,  Davidson,  and  De  Koninck,  agree  with  him  in 
the  main  in  his  conclusions,  and  he  refers  to  an  able  memoir  by 
D' Archaic,  in  the  same  sense,  on  the  cretaceous  brachiopods. — 
Pp.  390-398. 


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162  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 


English  Heviews. 

British  and  FonnaM  Eyangklicu.  Review,  October,  1880.  (London.) — 1.  Pro- 
fessor Robertson  Smith  and  the  Pentateuch.  2.  "Scotch  Sermons,  1880." 
8.  Ten  Days  in  Strassbourg.  4.  Christ's  Victory  over  Death.  6.  Missions  and 
Missionaries.  6.  Spinozism  and  Old  Testament  Criticism.  7.  On  the  Church 
Crisis  in  England.     8.  The  Faith  of  Islam.     9.  The  Moral  Basis  of  Faith. 

British  Quarterly  Review,  October,  1880.  (London.>— 1.  Tennyson's  Poems. 
2.  The  Lord's  Supper  Historically  Considered.  8.  The  Art  of  Singing,  Past 
and  Present  4.  A  Dutchman  on  South  Africa.  6.  Latham  on  Examinations. 
6.  Sir  James  Outram.  7.  Exploration  and  Mission  Work  in  Africa.  8.  The 
Practice  of  an  Architect.     9.  Lord  Northbrook  and  Lord  L3rttoiL 

Westminster  Review,  October,  1880.  (New  York.>— 1.  Paul  and  Seneca.  2.  The 
Parliamentary  Oath  Question  ;  Mr.  BradUugh's  Case.  8.  Caroline  Von  Linsin- 
gen  and  King  William  IV.  4.  Plato  and  his  Times.  6.  Chastity.  6.  "  The 
Religious  Instinct*^'  of  the  House  of  Commons.  7.  East  Indian  Currency  and 
Exchange.     8.  India  and  our  Colonial  Empire.     9.  The  Colonies. 

London  Quarterly  Review,  October,  1880.  (New  York.) — 1.  Recent  Travels 
in  Japan.  2.  Cicero.  8.  Art  Collections.  4.  Mr.  Morley's  Diderot.  5.  The 
Camisards.  6.  Oljrmpia.  7.  The  Newspaper  Press.  8.  The  Marshal  Duke  of 
Saldanha.    9.  Six  Months  of  Liberal  €k>vemment 

London  Quarterly  Review,  October.  (London.) — 1.  Herbert  on  the  Lord's  Supper. 
2.  Is  Islam  Progressive  ?  8.  Theological  Change  in  Scotland.  4.  Dr.  Rigg's  Dis- 
courses.   5.  Faust.    6.  Devotion  of  Nehemiah.    7.  The  Methodist  Conference. 

The  third  article  reviews  Dr.  Caird's  "Introduction  to  the  Phi- 
losophy of  Religion,"  a  volume  of  rather  free  Scotch  Sermons  by 
a  number  of  bold  young  speculators,  and  other  publications. 
The  following  opening  paragraph  describes  the  spread  of 

Thb  Scottish  Rationalistic  Movement. 

The  works  whose  titles  we  have  placed  at  the  head  of  this 
paper  are  among  the  "  signs  of  the  times."  Thej  add  to  the 
many  palpable  and  abounding  evidences  that  in  Scotland  the  re- 
treat from  Calvinism  has  become  a  stampede.  The  defection 
began  long  ago,  and  uttered  its  voice  in  many  a  moan  of  "  Mod- 
eratism;  "out  during  the  last  half  centurjr  the  spread  of  science, 
the  advance  of  wealth  and  culture,  the  disruption  of  Churches, 
the  agency  of  Methodism,  and  the  contact  of  Scotchmen  with, 
men  in  every  part  of  the  earth,  have  combined  to  weaken  the 
theological  system  which  once  seemed  so  firm.  Now  its  collapse 
seems  so  imminent  that  men  literally  overrun  each  other  in  their 
flight  to  other  places  of  shelter.  In  the  transition  we  fear  that 
precious  things  may  be  lost,  useful  landmarks  will  be  obliterated, 
and  positions  may  be  yielded  in  panic  which  could  be  easily  sus- 
tained. But  the  operation  which  is  progressing  is  full  of  instruc- 
tion to  men  of  all  Churches;  and  a  movement  so  fraught  with 
importance  to  the  most  tremendous  interests  of  belief  and  religion 
will  be  watched  with  intense  ooncem  by  the  eyes  of  all  Christen- 
dom.—P.  72. 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  163 

The  following  statement  of  Dr.  Caird's  denial  that  life  can 
be  explained  by  mechanism  is  excellent : 

As  we  have  already  intimated,  the  chief  end  of  Dr.  Caird's 
cogitations  is  to  reply  to  Materialism.  He  insists  that  this 
theory  is  totally  inadequate  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  mind. 
It  supposes  mind  to  be  a  function  of  matter,  yet  cannot  take  its 
first  step  without  employing  categories  of  thought.  The  em- 
piricist talks  of  Matter,  Law,  and  Force,  as  if  they  were  real 
entities,  on  the  level  of  sensuous  things.  Though  experience  is 
more  than  sensation,  yet  his  axiom,  "  All  knowledge  is  from  ex- 
perience," assumes  that  experience  and  sensation  are  identical. 
Experience  is  One,  and  Sensations  are  Many;  Sensation  is  diver- 
sified, but  reason  gives  it  Unity.  The  relation  and  co-ordina- 
tion are  from  the  self-conscious  Ego.  Mechanical  causes  can 
never  explain  the  operations  of  mind.  VitalJ  chemical,  and 
physical  relations  are  not  to  be  resolved  into  one  order.  The 
purely  chemical  has  never  yet  produced  life;  protoplasm  analyzed 
is  not  living  but  dead,  and  when  living  it  presents  new  phenom- 
ena which  involve  a  new  factor.  Though  matter  should  contain 
fotencies  of  life,  yet  life  contains  a  new  and  higher  conception, 
t  involves  "  a  richer  movement,"  (Hegelian  momentum^  con- 
taining at  least  three  ideas.  These  are— -First,  Systematic  Unity. 
A  stone  has  inorganic  unity — is  "a  concourse  of  atoms;"  but 
the  organized  being  has  order,  proportion,  diversity,  and  function 
applied  to  an  end.  Secondly,  While  the  inorganic  has  artificial 
unity,  the  organic  has  a  self-supporting  development  and  unity; 
the  parts  are  necessary  to  the  whole,  and  the  whole  to  the  parts. 
The  cause  lies,  indeed,  in  its  effects — is,  indeed,  its  own  cause.  .  . . 
The  third  element  in  the  conception  of  life  which  transcends  the 
category  of  force  is  found  in  self-consciousness.  Tindall  and 
Huxley  have  imagined  that  the  mechanical  equivalent  to  thought 
may  some  time  be  found.  Dr.  Caird  thinks  the  mystery  of  the  con- 
nection between  matter  and  mind  to  be  both  greater  and  less  than 
these  writers  suppose.  It  is  less  :  for  since  material  phenomena 
can  be  known  to  mind,  there  is  no  impassable  gulf  between  them; 
yet  it  is  greater,  for  physical  causation  cannot  explain  it.  He  as- 
serts that  the  indivisiole  unity  of  consciousness  transcends  all  dif- 
ferences. The  whole  consciousness  is  present  in  every  thought. 
The  analogy,  therefore,  between  material  forces  and  spiritual  mo- 
tives is  fallacious.  With  this,  of  course,  there  collapses  the  differ- 
entia of  Calvinism  as  elaborated  by  Jonathan  Edwards. — P.  78. 

Of  the  Scotch  Sermons  we  need  give  only  the  following 

specimen  by  Rev.  W.  M'Farlan : 

He  says:  ^'Many  religious  teachers  admit  that  the  dogmas  of 
scholastic  theology  must  be  abandoned  or  greatly  modified.  The 
sections  of  that  theology  which  treat  of  sin  and  salvation  they 
regard  as  specially  untenable.  These  sections  comprehend  the 
folio  wing  dogmas:  (1)  the  descent  of  man  from  the   Adam  of 


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164  MethocUst  Qaarterly  Review.  [Jannary, 

the  Book  of  Genesis;  (2)  the  fall  of  that  Adam  from  a  state  of 
original  righteousness  by  eating  the  forbidden  fruit;  the  imputa- 
tion of  Adam's  guilt  to  all  posterity;  (4)  the  consequent  death 
of  all  men  in  sin;  (5)  the  redemption  in  Christ  of  an  election  ac- 
cording to  grace;  (6)  the  quickening  in  the  elect  of  a  new  life 
ia)  at  their  baptism  Catholics  affirm,  [h)  at  their  conversion  most 
^rotestants  allege;  (7)  the  eternal  punishment  and  perdition  of 
those  who  remain  unregenerate.  These  sections  of  the  tradition- 
al theology  of  Christendom — originally  elaborated  by  Augustine, 
amended  and  developed  by  the  schoolmen  of  the  ^Middle  Ages, 
adopted  wholesale  by  the  Furitans — dominated  the  Christian  In- 
tellect for  centuries.  They  have  ceased  to  dominate  it." — P.  220. 
We  will  add  to  this  wnat  Dr.  Macintosh  says  on  the  Atone- 
ment and  on  Forgiveness:  "  By  his  death  on  the  cross  Christ 
may  be  said,  in  a  figurative  sense  indeed,  to  have  expiated  our 
sins,  or  to  have  purchased  their  remission ;  it  being  important  to 
observe  that  the  figures  vary.  But  what  he  did,  in  the  strict  and 
literal,  sense,  was  to  reveal  to  us  the  infinite  placability  of  the 
divine  Nature.  .  .  .  We  define  forgiveness  to  be  the  persistence 
of  divine  love  in  spite  of  our  sins." — Pp.  177,  181. 

We  need  no  further  witness  of  the  disintegration  and  dissolu- 
tion of  Calvinism.  That  it  was  among  **  the  things  which  should 
not  be  shaken,"  we  never  believed.  But,  unfortunately,  in  its 
dissolution,  the  Gospel  also  is  in  danger  of  being  lost.  These 
writers  seem  to  have  no  idea  of  an  evangelical  system  without 
the  forms  in  which  their  fathers  have  so  firmly  trusted.  These 
sermons  reveal  an  utter  weariness  with  mere  orthodoxy,  with 
the  bald  evangelicalism  which  despises  good  works,  with  the 
theory  of  human  nature  which  denies  that  a  saving  Spirit  is 
given  to  every  man.  They  insist  that  justifitration  is  nothing 
without  regeneration,  that  electiim  is  nothing  without  holiness, 
and  protest  in  the  name  of  morality  against  a  doctrine  of  "  sal- 
vation" which  gives  a  bad  man  the  hope  of  heaven  because 
he  is  "  elected,"  and  shuts  out  the  man  who  diligently  pursues 
the  path  of  moral  goodness.  But  these  protestations  are  made 
now  as  if  for  the  first  time;  as  if  no  one  had  been  qualified  to  de- 
nounce these  theological  absurdities  before  the  "  science  "  and 
"  biblical  criticism  "  of  the  latter  days  made  it  imperative.  We 
are  afraid  that  these  writers  have  never  read  the  works  of  John 
Fletcher,  which  no  less  an  authority  than  Dr.  Dollinger  declares 
to  be  "the  most  important  theological  productions  which  issued 
from  Protestantism  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century." 
They  do  not  recognize  the  fact  that  Methodism  is  escaping  the 
shock  of  modem  Kationalism,  to  a  very  large  extent,  because  it 
separated  from  Calvinism  a  century  since.  They  have  not  per- 
mitted themselves  to  be  sufficiently  unprejudiced  to  learn  from 
Wesley  and  his  followers  that  "  good  works "  are  an  essential 
part  of  the  Grospel  as  well  as  '^  faith; "  and  to  vindicate  the  one 
they  repudiate  tne  other. — ^Pp.  92,  98. 


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1881J  Synopsis  cf  th^e  Quarterlies.  166 


German  Reviews. 

Thxolooischx  Studun  uhd  Eritiksn.  (Theological  Essays  and  Reviews.)  1881. 
First  Number — Estayt:  1.  Dornir,  Hartmann's  Pessimistic  Philology.  2.  Er- 
HA&DT,  The  Views  of  the  Reformers  on  National  Economy,  (Second  Article.) 
TTwugkis  and  Remark*:  1.  WiJTZ,  Exegetical  Remarks  on  John  vii,  22-24. 
2.  Kawerau,  Five  Letters  Written  in  the  Days  of  Luther's  Death.  Bevieics  : 
1.  GoEBEL,  The  Parables  of  Jesus,  reviewed  by  Achklis.  2.  Herrlinoer,  Me- 
lanchthon*s  Theology,  reviewed  by  Tschakrrt.  8.  Ryssel,  Gregorius  Thaumatur- 
gus,  reviewed  by  Schultzb. 

In  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Domer,  the  modem  system  of  Pes- 
simism, which  has  of  late  spread  so  extensively,  has  gained  a 
special  claim  to  attentive  consideration  by  the  fact  that  it  does 
not  confine  itself  to  criticising  the  present  condition  of  onr 
civilization,  but  that  it  attempts  to  set  forth  a  complete  cos- 
mic view,  which,  though  inconsistent  in  many  respects,  may  be 
taken  as  an  indication  how  earnestly  a  large  portion  of  our 
contemporaries  have  embraced  it.  Dr.  Domer  was  induced  by 
this  consideration  to  examine  critically  the  scientific  character 
which  Pessimism  has  assumed  in  the  philosophy  of  Edward  von 
Ilartmann,  who,  he  says,  considerably  distances  all  the  pessim- 
istic writers  of  the  present  age  by  attempting  to  set  forth  a 
philosophical  system  embracing  all  parts  of  philosophy. 

The  name  of  Edward  von  Hartmann  has  repeatedly  been 
mentioned  in  the  former  volumes  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly 
Ileview.  He  holds  a  high  rank  among  the  first  writers  of 
philosophical  literature,  even  in  the  opinion  of  those  who,  like 
Dr.  Domer,  believe  that  his  system  is  radically  false  and  in- 
jurious to  the  best  interests  of  mankind.  It  may,  therefore, 
not  be  out  of  place  if  we  give  a  brief  account  of  his  life  and 
his  works  before  we  extract  a  few  passages  from  Dr.  Domer's 
very  interesting  article.  Edward  von  Hartmann  is  the  son  of 
the  Prassian  general  Kobert  von  Hartmann,  and  was  born  in 
1842.  He  received  the  excellent  scientific  education  which  is 
imparted  in  the  military  schools  of  Pmssia,  and  at  the  early 
age  of  eighteen  became  an  officer  of  the  Prussian  army.  A 
nervous  diseaee  of  the  knee,  which  began  in  1861  and  gradually 
grew  worse,  compelled  him,  in  1865,  to  ask  for  his  discharge 
from  the  standing  army.  Even  while  in  the  army  he  had 
earnestly  devoted  himself  to  philosophical  studies,  the  results 
of  which  he  published,  in  1869,  in  his  work,  Die  Philosophie 
des  Uribewussteny  (The  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious.)    The 

JFouBTH  Sebibs,  Vol.  XXXIU.— 11 


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166  Methodist  QuoHerVy  Heview.  [Jannary, 

publication  of  this  book  produced  a  sensation  in  the  philosoph- 
ical world.  It  gave  to  its  author,  at  the  age  of  only  twenty- 
seven,  a  world-wide  celebrity.  It  had  a  circulation  probably 
exceeding  that  of  any  previous  work  of  the  same  cliaracter. 
The  success  appeared  all  the  more  remarkable  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  author  h^  been  brought  up  for  the  military 
career,  and  not  for  that  of  philosopher.  The  first  edition  of 
the  work  was  published  in  1869,  the  seventh  in  1875.  The 
publication  of  this  work  was  rapidly  followed  by  a  large 
number  of  smaller  works  on  philosophy,  religion,  education, 
and  a  great  variety  of  other  subjects.  In  fact,  Hartmann  be- 
longs to  the  most  prolific  writers  of  the  present  age.  A  collec- 
tion of  his  essays  was  published  under  the  title,  Oe%ammeUe 
philoaophische  AhhamMungen  zur  PhUosophie  dee  Uribewuss- 
teriy  (Collection  of  Philosophical  Treatises  on  the  Philosophy 
of  the  Unconscious.  Berlin,  1872.)  A  little  work  on  "  The 
Decay  of  Christianity  and  the  Religion  of  the  Future,"  (1874,) 
attracted  considerable  attention,  and  called  forth  a  great  many 
replies.  The  second  great  work  of  Hartmann  was  published  in 
1879,  under  the  title  "  Phenomenology  of  the  Ethical  Con- 
sciousness," {PhaenoTnenologie  des  sittlichen  Bewustseina,) 
Hartmalin's  wife,  Agnes,  has  written,  under  her  maiden  name, 
A.  Taubert,  a  work  under  the  title,  "  Pessimism  and  its  Oppo- 
nents." (Berlin,  1873.)  Works  in  defense  of  the  new  philos- 
•ophy  have  also  been  written  by  Du  Prel,  Venetianer,  Main- 
l&nder,  and  others.  The  number  of  books  written  against 
Hartmann's  system  in  particular,  and  against  the  pessimistic 
philosophy  in  general,  is  very  extensive.  Dr.  Domer,  in  the 
.article  from  which  we  give  some  extracts,  quotes  the  follow- 
ing works  and  articles  :  Rehmke.  ''  Remarks  on  Hartmann's 
Pheuomenology,"  in  the  ZeitBchrift  fii/r  Philosophie  und 
phUosophische  Kritikj  (1879;)  Michelis,  (Old  Catholic,) 
"Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious;"  Ebrard,  (one  of  the  most 
prominent  theologians  of  the  German  Protestant  Church,) 
"  Hartmann's  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,"  (1876;)  Golther, 
(State  Minister  of  Wlirtemberg,)  "  Modem  Pessimism ; "  Pflei- 
derer,  "  Modem  Pessimism ; "  Weygoldt,  "  Critique  of  Modem 
Pessimism."  The  German  CyclopsBdias  mention,  moreover, 
-works  against  Hartmann  by  Tobias,  Haym,  Weis,  B.  Meyer, 
iinauer,  Volkelt,  and  J.  C.  Fisher.    A  full  account  of  ILut 


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1881J  Synopsis  of  the  QuoHerUes.  167 

mann's  Philosophy,  and  of  its  iDfluence  in  the  philosophical 
world,  may  be  found  in  Vaihinger,  "  Hartmann,  During,  and 
Lange,  Contributions  to  the  History  of  Gennan  Philosophy  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century,"  (1876 ;)  and  Oscar  Schmidt,  "  The 
Physical  Bases  of  the  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,"  (1876.) 
Hartmann's  autobiography  has  been  published  in  the  German 
periodical,  Die  OegervwaH^  1875. 

Hartmann  designated  his  stand-point  as  a  Monism,  concili- 
ating Hegel's  logical  idea  and  Schopenhauer's  blind  will  in  the 
unity  of  the  Unconscious,  which  in  his  system  occupies  the 
same  place  as  Spinoza's  substance,  Fichte's  absolute  I,  (Ego,) 
Schelling's  absolute  subject-object.  The  Unconscious,  accord- 
ing to  Hartmann,  is  both  will  and  idea,  both  real  and  ideal, 
both  unlogical  and  logical,  and  the  development  of  the  world 
is  nothing  but  the  continuous  conflict  of  these  two  elements 
which  ends  in  the  triumph  of  the  logical,  or  the  idea,  over  the 
unlogical,  6t  the  wilL  Since  the  unlogical,  or  will,  constitutes 
the  foundation  and  essence  of  the  world,  the  world  itself  is 
anti-rational  in  its  existence  and  essence;  and  it  is  the  task  of 
reason  to  reduce  the  anti-rational  will  to  non-will,  and  to  the 
painlessness  of  nothing,  (the  Nirvdna  of  Buddhism  and  of 
Schopenhauer,)  as  the  redemption  from  the  torment  of  exist- 
ence, not  of  individual  men,  (by  suicide,  etc.,)  but  of  mankind. 
Therefore  the  pessimistic  view  of  the  unhappiness  in  the  world 
does  not  lead  to  quietism,  to  cowardly  personal  resignation  and 
retirement,  to  a  denial  of  the  world,  (as  in  Schopenhauer's  sys- 
tem,) but  it  rather  produces  a  full  devotion  of  the  personality 
to  the  development  of  the  world  for  the  sake  of  its  aim — the 
universal  redemption  of  mankind — and  thus  it  leads  to  a  posi- 
tive aflBrmation  of  the  will  for  life,  to  a  reconciliation  with  life. 

Dr.  Domer's  article  on  Hartmann's  system  fills  106  pages 
in  the ''  Studien  und  Kritiken."  It  treats  of  it  in  the  following 
sections :  1.  His  Relation  to  Schopenhauer ;  2.  BUs  Theory  of 
Cognition,  (Erkenntnisstheorie ;)  3.  Metaphysics ;  4.  Physics ; 
5.  Teleology,  (ZweckbegriflE ;)  6.  Critique  of  his  Metaphysics ; 
7.  Presuppositions  of  Ethics ;  8.  Ethical  Principle ;  9.  Ethics, 
considered  in  their  different  aspects ;  10.  Eelation  to  Beligion ; 
11.  Conclusion. 

As  regards  Hartmann's  views  on  religion,  we  learn  from 
Dr.  Domer's  essay  that  Hartmann,  like  Schopenhauer,  respecta 


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168  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review,  [Jannarj, 

religion  in  general  as  the  people's  metaphysics.  "The  nnde 
bestiality  of  the  social  democracy,"  he  says,  "  as  exhibited  in 
its  cosmopolitan  exnltation  over  the  horrors  of  the  Paris  Com- 
mune, shows  to  what  degree  of  brutality  a  people  may  attain 
when  it  loses  with  religion  the  only  shape  in  which  idealism 
is  accessible  to  it.  Tea,  religion  contains  not  only  the  mere 
metaphysical  ideas  of  the  people,  but  also  the  means  to  give, 
upon  the  basis  of  these  metaphysics,  an  impulse  as  vigorous 
and  lasting  as  possible  to  the  religious  feelings,  namely,  religious 
worship  and  religious  ethics.  .  .  .  All  ideals  and  the  devotion  of 
the  mind  to  the  ideal  are  embodied,  according  to  the  people's 
view  in  religion.  It  is  only  religion-which  continually  admon- 
ishes him  that  there  is  something  higher  than  eating,  drinking, 
and  wedding ;  that  this  temporal  world  of  the  senses  is  not  for 
him  something  final,  but  only  the  appearance  of  the  eternal, 
supersensual  and  ideal,  the  shadows  of  which  we  see  here  as 
in  a  ijiist."  Therefore,  religion  must  always  remaiS  the  living 
source  for  the  emotional  element  in  religious  worship,  and  for 
the  ethical  emotion  of  the  will.  It  is  the  only  means  to  pre- 
serve the  people  from  the  terrible  excesses  of  subjectivism. 
Philosophy  may  rise  above  these  popular  metaphysics ;  it  also 
may  gradually  elevate  the  people  to  higher  stages  of  conscious- 
ness. While  thus  paying  some  kind  of  respect  to  religion  he 
denounces  theology  as  a  false  and  spurious  science,  and  charges 
it  with  doing  nothing  but  to  reduce  the  ideas  of  popular  imagin- 
ation to  a  scientific  form,  without,  in  fact,  rising  above  this  low 
stand-point.  He  assumes  an  impassable  gap  to  exist  between 
science  and  religion.  Therefore  he  thinks  that  it  cannot  be  the 
mission  of  the  men  of  science  to  transform  religion,  except  it 
be  by  producing  ideas  which  others  may  clothe  for  popular  use 
into  more  popular  forms.  It  is  ^  matter  of  course  that  in  his 
opinion  religion  and  philosophy  coincide  for  the  philosopher. 
The  development  of  religion  proceeds  from  Polytheism 
through  the  contrast  of  the  popular  mind  of  the  Aryans  and 
Semites.  Both  try,  in  different  ways,  to  overcome  Polytheism. 
The  former,  especially  the  Indians,  obtain  this  unity  of  an  im- 
personal deity,  but  are  unable  to  carry  it  through  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  people,  where  Polytheism  maintains  itself, 
even  among  the  Buddhists.  The  Semites,  on  the  other  hand, 
while  overcoming  Polytheism,  only  reach  an  anthropomorphised 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  169 

personal  God.  The  true  religion  would  lie  in  the  union  of  the 
Aryan  and  the  Semitic  ideas ;  the  Semites  must  furnish  the  Mon- 
otheistic, the  Indians  the  Pantheistic  element.  Christianity  is 
regarded  as  the  first  unsuccessful  attempt  to  effect  this  union. 
In  its  ideas  of  God,  Hartmann  says  it  knows  only  one  God,  and 
him  it  conceives  as  a  personal  God ;  besides,  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  a  relapse  into  Polytheism  is  not  avoided.  Hartmann 
especially  censures  the  theism  of  Christianity  as  requiring 
"  heteronomous "  ethics.  He  attempts  to  trace  the  "heteron- 
omous "  character  of  the  Christian  ethics  both  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  the  Protestant  systems.  His  views  on  Protest- 
antism, however,  have  cjgisiderably  changed.  While  in  the 
work  on  the  decay  of  Christianity  he  calls  Protestantism  "  the 
grave-digger  of  Chiistianity,"  he  makes  it  in  his  "  Phenome- 
nology "  the  "  preparatory  grade  in  the  school  of  humanity," 
without  the  passage  of  which  no  people  can  reach  an  ethical 
autonomy  as  a  safe  possession. 

In  the  final  chapter  of  his  essay  Dr.  Domer  reviews  the 
principal  points  of  Hartmann's  philosophy.  He  especially  en- 
deavors to  show  up  its  inconsistency.  "  It  hovers,"  says  Dr. 
Dorner,  "between  heaven  and  earth.  Too  lame  to  reach  heaven, 
it  is  yet  unable  to  feel  at  home  upon  earth.  Thus  Pessimism, 
and  particularly  Hartmann's  philosophy,  will  maintain  its  sig- 
nificance in  the  history  of  German  philosophy  as  a  stage  of 
transition  from  the  rule  of  empiricism  and  eudemonism  to  a 
new  positive-ideal  progress." 

Zkitschrift  fur  Kirchenoeschichtk.  (Journal  for  Church  History.)  Edited  by 
Brieger.  Treatises  and  Essays:  1.  Ritschl,  The  Books  entitled  "On  Spir- 
itual Poverty."  2.  Volter,  The  Sect  of  Swabisch-Uall  and  the  Origin  of  the 
German  "  Kaisersage."  Critical  RMews :  BK!f rath,  History  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Italy.  The  Literature  of  the  Years  1876  to  1879.  Analecta:  1.  Erich- 
son,  Hedios  Itinerarium.  2.  Kawerau,  Letters  and  Documents  Relating  to  the 
History  of  the  Antinomistic  Controversy.  8.  Miscellaneous  Remarks,  by  Sauir- 
BRSi  and  Bemrath. 

"We  have  called  attention  in  former  numbers  of  the  Methodist 
Quarterly  Eeview  to  the  excellent  department  headed  "  Criticiil 
Reviews."  In  it  distinguished  Church  historians  review  from 
time  to  time  all  the  new  works  published  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years  on  some  section  of  Church  history.  A  review  in  the  pres- 
ent number,  by  Dr.  Benrath,  of  new  works  treating  of  the 
Reformation  in  Italy,  is  equal  to  the  best  articles  of  this 
kind  which  have  appeared  in  this  periodical.    Dr.  Benrath  is 


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170  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [Jan  nary, 

a  young  lecturer  in  the  faculty  of  Protestant  theology  of  Bonn, 
who  has  made  the  study  of  the  Italian  Reformation  a  specialty, 
and  has  already  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the 
highest  living  authorities  on  the  subject.  In  his  present  arti- 
cle he  enumerates  eighteen  new  works,  and  briefly  gives  the 
chief  contents  of  each.  He  had  previously  contributed  an  arti- 
cle of  the  same  kind  to  the  volume  of  this  periodical  for  1875, 
and  in  1876  had  published  a  small  work,  entitled,  "  On  the 
Sources  of  the  History  of  the  Italian  Eeformation."  The  au- 
thor expresses,  in  his  present  article,  great  joy  at  the  activity 
which  is  no^  exhibited  by  the  Italians  themselves  to  bring 
to  light  the  hidden  treasures  of  the  Italian  libraries  relating  to 
the  conflicts  between  the  Papacy  and  the  Liberal  governments 
of  a  number  of  Italian  States  in  the  siirteenth  century.  He 
quotes,  as  a  document  of  special  importance,  a  circular  issued 
in  1876  by  the  Minister  of  Justice,  Mancini,  to  the  Directors 
of  the  State  Archives,  in  which  he  says :  "  Among  the  most 
glorious  leaves  of  the  annals  of  Italy  we  must  count  those 
which  report  examples  of  civil  courage  and  firnmess  of  indi- 
viduals and  governments  who  dared  bravely  to  resist  a  power 
which  had  become  terrible  to  the  existence  and  independence 
of  the  nation.  But  the  documents  which  give  testimony  of 
such  manifestations  of  natipnal  life  are  for  the  most  part  yet 
unkiiown.  I  believe  I  render  an  important  service  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  nation  if  I  should  succeed  in  compiling  and  in 
publishing  from  the  various  archives  of  the  principal  cities  a 
collection  of  hitherto  unedited  and  little-known  documents  of 
this  class."  The  minister  recommends  especially  search  for 
documents  bearing  upon  the  relations  between  the  House  of 
Savoy  and  the  Curia,  the  conflicts  between  Venice  and  Paul  V., 
the  opposition  of  Naples  against  the  introduction  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, etc. 

A  very  valuable  library  of  books  relating  to  the  history  of 
the  Reformation  of  Italy  has  been  collected  by  Count  Piero 
Guicciardini,  and  has  been  since  1877  in  possession  of  the  city 
o£  Florence.  Count  Guicciardini,  the  venerable  patriarch 
among  the  native  converts  to  Protestantism,  had  at  first  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  collecting  all  the  Italian  translations  of  the 
Bible  from  the  fifteenth  century  to  the  present  time.  While 
he  examined  for  this  purpose  the  libraries  of  Switzerland, 


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1881J  Synapsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  171 

France,  and  England,  the  plan  was  gradually  enlarged  80  as  to 
include  all  works  relating  to  the  history  of  the  Reformation. 
For  eighteen  years  Count  Guicciardini  devoted  his  time  and  a 
large  portion  of  his  property  to  collecting  works  on  tliis  subject, 
and  he  succeeded  in  forming  a  library  of  more  than  three  thou- 
sand volumes.  The  library  has  been  put  in  order  and  cata- 
logued by  T.  P.  Rossetti,  who  has  given  a  description  of  it  in 
the  "  Vedetta  Christiana,"  May  1, 1877. 


Freach  Reviews, 

Beyui  CHBirmrNi,  (Christian  Reyiew.)  September,  1880. — 1.  Alons,  Amelia 
de  Lassaulx.  2.  Bruston,  On  the  Morality  of  the  Song  of  Songs.  8.  Grazalet, 
Frederic  Mistral.  4.  Ducbos,  Vinet's  IndividualisuL  6.  Presssnse,  Reply  to  the 
Preceding  Article. 

October. — 1.  Aloitb,  Amelia  de  Lassaulx.  2.  Oitnning,  Dante  AlighierL  8.  Bous- 
CA88I,  On  the  Religious  Instruction  of  Children. 

November. — 1.  Bianqdi,  Sermon  on  the  Reformation.  2.  Cunning,  Dante  Alighi- 
eri,  (Second  Article.)  8.  Jacot,  Some  Words  of  Professor  Beck.  4.  Ntboaaro, 
Assistant  Pastors.    6.  Loriot,  A  Great  Man  and  a  Great  Nature. 

Among  the  most  distinguished  persons  who  joined  the  Old 
Catholic  movement  of  Germany  was  the  Superior  of  the  Con- 
vent of  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  at  Bonn,  Amelia  de  Xassaulx. 
She  was  the  descendant  of  a  distinguished  family  at  Coblentz, 
on  the  Rhine,  which,  as  the  name  indicates,  was  of  French  ori- 
gin. She  was  one  of  six  children,  all  of  whom  made  their  mark 
in  the  world,  the  most  distinguished  being  her  brother,  Ernest 
de  Lassaulx,  who  became  Professor  at  the  University  of  Mu- 
nich, and  was  regarded,  with  Dollinger,  as  one  of  the  pillars  of 
the  Catholic  interests  at  that  important  institution.  Like  her 
father  and  all  her  brothers  and  sisters,  Amelia  was  early  noted 
for  a  strong,  unconquerable  will.  Her  parents  wished  to  marry 
her  against  her  will,  but  she  successfully  resisted,  because  a 
mysterious  love,  in  regard  to  which  her  biographers  observe  an 
absolute  silence,  prevented  her  from  accepting  the  propositions 
made  to  her.  She  subsequently  gave  her  entire  affections  to  a 
young  man  whom  for  a  time  she  thought  to  be  the  model  of 
all  perfections.  When  she  found  out  that  in  her  estimation 
of  her  lover  she  had  been  sadly  mistaken,  she  broke  not  only 


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172  MetJwdist  Qua/rterly  Revieio.  [January, 

with  him,  but,  as  many  Catholic  girk  do  in  similar  circumstances, 
with  the  world,  and  resolved  to  become  a  nun.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  there  was  a  remarkable  revival 
of  the  spirit  of  charity  in  Germany,  both  among  Protestants 
and  Catholics.  Among  the  former  Amelia  Sicveking  gained 
immortal  laurels  by  her  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  poor.  Among 
('atholics  the  young  women  flocked  in  large  numbers  to  the 
religious  orders  which  specially  devote  their  labors  to  the  cai'e 
of  the  sick  and  poor.  Amelia's  elder  sister  had  previously 
taken  the  veil  as  a  "  Gray  Sister  "  at  Nancy,  France.  Amelia 
concluded  to  follow  her  example ;  and  she  did  follow  it  in 
spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  her  relations  and  friends,  who,  on 
account  of  her  strong  individualism,  believed  her  unsuited  for 
monastic  life.  At  this  time  a  mild  type  of  Roman  Catholicism 
prevailed  in  Germany  and  in  many  other  countries.  That  sys- 
tem of  ultramontanism  which  was  dogmatized  in  1870  by  the 
Vatican  Council  had  but  few  zealous  defenders.  The  Chris- 
tian doctrines  which  Catholics  hold  in  common  with  Evangel- 
ical Protestants  were  thought  of  greater  moment  than  those 
which  separate  the  large  divisions  of  Christianity.  Amelia  de 
Lassaulx  fully  entered  into  this  spirit,  and  when  gradually  the 
spiritual  atmosphere  in  the  Church  began  to  change,  and  a  rigid 
ultramontane  Churchism  began  to  claim  an  unconditional  and 
a  foremost  recognition.  Sister  Amelia  felt  as  though  a  new  re- 
ligion, full  of  childish  practices  and  of  superstitions,  had  been 
grafted  upon  the  religion  in  which  she  had  grown  up.  Her 
diary  shows  in  many  places  that  the  consciousness  of  this 
difference  caused  her  great  pain,  and  her  conscience  revolted 
against  much  which  she  considered  as  being  at  variance  with 
the  teachings  of  Christ  and  the  Christianity  of  the  Bible.  She 
had  by  this  time  risen  to  a  prominent  position  in  her  order. 
At  the  age  of  only  thirty-two  years  she  was  appointed  Superior 
of  a  new  house  of  her  order  which  was  established  at  Bonn. 
In  this  position  she  developed  an  extraordinary  talent  of  organ- 
ization, which  was  subsequently  exhibited  on  a  much  larger 
scale  when  she  was  called  upon,  in  the  campaigns  of  Schleswig 
and  Bohemia,  to  organize  or  reorganize  the  service  of  ambu- 
lances. Her  eminent  success  in  the  management  of  the  affairs 
of  the  convent  was  recognized  by  the  Superiors  of  the  order, 
who  sent  her  from  different  houses  many  novices  for  education, 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qtco/rterUes.  173 

especially  such  about  whose  fitness  or  abilities  serious  doubts 
were  entertained. 

To  many  young  women  she  thus  became  a  guide  to  the  at- 
tainment of  an  inner  religious  life,  which  found  greater  conso- 
lation in  a  strong  Christian  faith,  in  an  ardent  love  of  God  and 
the  poor,  than  in  the  strict  observation  of  the  many  ceremonies 
of  the  Church.  She  weaned  herself  more  and  more  from  the 
narrow  views  which  are  so  often  met  with  in  pious  Catholic 
women,  wlio  are  justly  admired  for  their  heroic  devotion  to 
works  of  Christian  charity.  She  sought  and  appreciated  the 
friendship  of  distinguished  men  and  women ;  and  among  her 
best  friends  at  Bonn  she  even  counted  a  number  of  Protestants, 
as  Professor  Mendelssohn  and  his  wife,  the  wife  of  Professor 
Sulpice  Boisser6,  and  especially  Professor  Perthes.  Her  spirit- 
ual adviser  was  Professor  Ililgers,  of  the  theological  faculty  of 
Bonn,  who  preached  every  Sunday  in  her  chapel,  in  the  place 
of  the  Jesuits,  of  whom  she  had  a  great  horror.  In  the  cam- 
paign of  Schleswig  she  at  one  time  assisted  a  Lutheran  pastor 
■in  giving  to  a  sick  soldier  the  Lord's  Supper,  an  act  which  was 
never  forgiven  by  the  zealous  ultramontanes.  From  1855  to 
1868  she  lost  her  mother,  her  brothers  Ernest  and  Hermann, 
her  sister  Nannette,  and  her  friend  Professor  Perthes.  The 
only  member  of  her  family  who  survived  was  her  sister  Clem- 
entine, Superior  of  the  Convent  of  Luxemburgh,  who  was  of 
an  entirely  different  chai'acter,  and  had  but  little  sympathy 
with  her.  The  severe  trial  through  which  she  had  thus  to  pass 
was  interrupted  by  the  great  crisis  in  her  Church  which  began 
with  the  Vatican  Council  in  1870,  and  the  dogmatization  of 
papal  infallibility.  She  felt  the  warmest  sympathy  with  the 
eighty-eight  bishops  who  voted  against  the  new  dogma,  and  felt 
all  the  more  aggrieved  when  these  bishops  in  rapid  succession 
gave  in  their  submission  to  the  Pope,  until  at  last  only  one  re- 
mained. Bishop  Strossmeyer.  Even  for  him  she  trembled,  and 
justly,  for  he,  too,  finally  yielded  to  the  demands  of  Kome. 
She  felt  some  consolation  in  the  fact  that  a  man  like  Dollinger 
remained  firm  in  his  opposition.  "  Let  us  praise  God,"  she  said ; 
"  as  long  as  such  an  apostle  of  truth  and  justice  lives,  I  do  not 
want  to  lose  courage."  She  was  at  first  opposed  to  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Old  Catholic  Church,  which  appeared  to  her  like 
a  schism,  but  after  a  time  she  perceived  the  necessity  of  the 


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174  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Janusu'y, 

movement,  and  approved  of  it.  She  was  determined  not  to 
conceal  her  view ;  at  the  same  time  she  did  not  deem  it  neces- 
sary to  proclaim  it  before  she  was  asked.  This  time  soon  came. 
She  was  denounced  to  the  Superior  of  her  order  by  a  person 
whom,  several  years  before,  she  had  charitably  received  into 
her  convent.  The  mistress  of  novices  was  sent  from  Nancy  to 
Bonn  to  ascertain  her  belief  concerning  Papal  Infallibility. 
She  frankly  and  promptly  acknowledged  it.  "And  as  to  the 
Immaculate  Conception,"  she  was  asked,  "  do  you  not  believe 
in  it,  either  ? "  "As  a  dogma,"  she  said,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  it 
either,"  and  added,  "  I  wish  to  keep  until  death  the  Catholic 
faith  in  which  I  was  bom,  in  which  I  was  raised,  which  I  have 
faithfully  observed  all  my  life.  I  shall  not  allow  new  doctrines 
to  be  imposed  upon  me."  A  few  days  later  the  Mother  Supe- 
rior arrived  herself  from  Nancy,  and  when  the  above  declara- 
tion was  repeated,  Amelia  de  Lassaulx,  after  having  twenty-five 
years  presided  over  the  Community  of  Bonn,  was  deposed  from 
her  office.  She  was  told  that  she  could  not  remain  in  Bonn, 
and  though  her  health  was  so  feeble  that  her  physician  forbade 
an  immediate  departure,  she  was  removed  to  a  little  hospital 
of  the  order  at  Vallendaar,  near  Coblentz.  Her  friends  in 
Bonn  invited  her  to  leave  the  order  and  reside  with  them,  but 
she  considered  herself  bound  by  her  vows,  and  concluded  to  re- 
main and  die  in  the  order.  Death  soon  relieved  her  from  fur- 
ther suffeiing.  She  arrived  at  Vallendaar  December  14,  1871, 
and  died  January  28,  1872.  All  who  surrounded  her  death- 
bed imited  in  asking  her  to  submit,  but  she  finally  refused. 
Her  dying  words  were  two  verses  from  a  Protestant  hymn, 

"  Lord  Jesus,  in  Thee  I  lire, 
Lord  Jesus,  in  Thee  I  die," 

and  several  times  she  ejaculated  the  words,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus." 
By  order  of  the  Superior  the  body  was  deprived  of  the  mo- 
nastic dress,  and  it  was  even  forbidden  to  place  a  crucifix  in  her 
hands.  In  accordance  with  her  wish,  the  body  was  interred 
in  the  Catholic  cemetery  of  Coblentz,  in  the  vault  of  the  Las- 
saulx family.  Permission  was  obtained  only  with  great  diffi- 
culty to  carry  the  corpse  through  the  large  gate  of  the  cemetery. 
Orders  had  been  given  that  no  priest  be  present  or  officiate  at 
the  funeral.    The  Old  Catholic  Professor  Reusch,  of  the  Uni- 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qua/rterUes.  175 

versity  of  Bonn,  was  only  allowed  to  recite  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Several  excellent  biographies  related  the  story  of  her  holy,  de- 
voted life  to  the  German  people.  At  thehead  of  the  article  from 
which  the  foregoing  remarks  are  taken  we  find  the  titles  of  two 
French  works,  "  Oonrte  Notice  sur  Ara^lie  de  Lassaulx,"  by 
H.  Leconltre,  with  an  introduction  of  M.  Hyacinthe  Loyson, 
priest,  Paris,  1879;  and  "Am61ie  de  Lassaulx,  en  religion  soeur 
Augustine."  The  latter  work  contains  an  authorized  transla- 
tion of  her  "  Reminiscences."  Lausanne,  1880.  Among  the 
innumerable  articles  which  the  leading  papers  of  Germany  and 
France  have  devoted  to  her  life,  the  admirable  article  which 
E.  de  Pressens^  has  contributed  to  the  "Journal  des  Debats," 
deserves  to  be  prominently  mentioned.  He  calls  Amelia  de 
Lassaulx  the  Saint  of  the  Catholic  Eeformation. 


Am.  IX.— FOREIGN  RELIGIOUS  INTELLIGENCE. 
THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

While  in  1879  three  Old  Catholic  synods  met  in  Germany,  Switzerland, 
and  Austria,  only  one  assembled  in  1880,  that  of  Switzerland.  The 
Swiss  synod  began  its  sessions  at  Geneva  on  May  20.  From  the  annual 
report  of  Bishop  Herzog  it  appears  that  the  Christian  Catholic  Church 
in  Switzerland  has  suffered  since  the  synod  of  1879  the  loss  of  twelve 
parishes  and  ten  priests.  This  loss  was  due  to  the  recurrence  of  the  six 
years'  period  of  popular  election  of  priests.  In  the  parishes  where  the 
Boman  Catholic  party  had  a  majority  it  elected  the  priest  and  retook 
possession  of  the  church  property.  Most  of  the  parishes  which  were 
lost  had  been  but  nominally  held,  the  number  of  Old  Catholics  being 
very  small ;  but  in  three,  at  least,  there  is  a  very  strong  body  of  Chris- 
tian-Catholics who  demand  the  services  of  a  priest  and  the  use  of  a 
church.  In  these  three  the  reformers  having  lost  the  income  of  the  parish, 
-which  goes  with  the  election,  have  to  support  their  priests  out  of  their 
own  resources.  In  two  cases  of  a  contested  election  the  Old  Catholics 
were  in  a  majority  and  held  the  parish.  Other  losses  were  in  prospect 
for  the  current  year.  To  support  their  services  in  the  places  which  the 
Old  Catholics  lose  the  government  grant,  the  bishop  has  appealed  to 
the  generosity  of  the  Anglican  Churcbies,  and  in  his  report  he  acknowl- 
edges the  receipt  of  5,000  francs  from  the  secretary  of  the  Anglo-Conti- 
nental Society  of  London.  The  bishop  reports  fifty-nine  priests  as  being 
at  work  in  Switzerland,  as  against  seventy-two  of  1879 ;  and  five  students 
of  the  Berne  University  were  awaiting  ordination.  Among  the  losses  of 
ecclesiastics  since  the  synod  of  1879  only  two  were  cases  of  recession  to 


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176  *  Methodist  Quarterly  Revieio.  [January, 

Kome.  There  was  no  diminution  in  any  canton  but  Berne  and  Geneva. 
The  number  of  established  parishes  in  the  possession  of  Old  Catholics  was 
forty-eight.  A  Christian-Catholic  Prayer  Book  which  had  been  pre- 
pared by  Bishop  Herzog,  after  the  model  of  the  Anglican  manual,  was 
adopted  by  the  synod  as  the  official  manual  of  the  Christian-Catholic 
Church,  and  it  was  ordered  that  the  office  of  the  mass  contained  therein 
should  be  used  universally.  A  committee  of  five,  consisting  of  the 
bishop  and  the  two  German-speaking  and  two  French-speaking  mem- 
bers, was  appointed  for  the  completion  of  the  rubrics  and  for  the  prep- 
aration of  an  edition  suitable  for  theological  use.  Among  those  at- 
tending the  synod  as  visitors  were  Dr.  Riley,  Bishop  of  the  Valley  of 
Mexico;  Lord  Plunket,  Bishop  of  Meath;  and  M.  Hyacinthe  Loyson, 
rector  of  the  Galilean  Church  in  Paris.  In  September  and  October, 
Bishop  Herzog,  in  response  to  friendly  invitations,  paid  a  visit  to  the 
United  States,  and  attended,  in  particular,  the  General  Convention  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  He  repeatedly  performed  in  Episco- 
pal churches  liturgical  acts  in  his  own  clerical  garments,  and  expressed 
himself  strongly  in  favor  of  establishing  a  closer  intercommunion  be- 
tween the  Anglican  and  the  Old  Catholic  Churches. 

The  Old  Catholic  Church  of  Germany  has  now  settled  into  a  round  of 
synod  and  congress  to  be  held  in  alternate  years.  The  former  is  the 
authoritative  legislative  body,  the  latter,  like  the  Church  congresses  in 
the  Anglican  Church  of  England  and  the  United  States,  a  popular,  tone- 
giving  assembly.  As  the  synod  had  been  held  in  1879,  a  congress  met 
again  in  1880.  It  took  place  at  Baden-Baden  from  Sept.  12  to  14,  and 
was  the  seventh  since  the  rise  of  the  Old  Catholic  movement,  the  for- 
mer having  been  held  at  Munich,  Cologne,  Constance,  Freiburg,  Bres- 
lau,  and  Mainz.  The  congress  in  1880  was  well  attended  by  delegates 
from  the  congregations,  over  150  being  present.  The  Berne  and  Munich 
professors  still  hold  aloof  from  the  meetings  of  the  Church.  Among 
the  prominent  men  of  the  Church  who  attended  were  Bishop  Reinkens, 
and  the  Professors  Schulte,  Michelis,  and  Knoodt.  Among  the  visitors 
from  abroad  were  an  Old  Catholic  priest  of  Austria  and  five  Anglican 
clergymen.  Letters  of  friendly  greeting  were  sent  by  six  Anglican 
bishops  and  the  Old  Catholic  or  Jansenist  Archbishop  of  Holland. 
Professor  Michelis  made  an  interesting  report  of  a  visit  he  had  just  paid 
to  the  neighboring  city  of  Constance,  where  an  ultramontane  congress 
Had  been  in  session.  He  had  preached  there,  and  had  publicly  chal- 
lenged the  bishops  attending  the  congress  to  discuss  with  him  the  fol- 
lowing thesis:  **The  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope  is  either  a  Cath- 
olic dogma  or  a  terrible  imposture ;  it  is  not  a  Catholic  dogma,  because 
it  is  not  contained  in  Scripture,  is  not  handed  down  in  tradition,  and 
has  not  been  decreed  by  an  ecumenical  council ;  therefore  it  is  a  fearful 
imposture."  Bishop  Reinkens  reported  favorably  on  the  progress  of 
the  Church  in  Germany.  The  progress  was  not  large,  but  it  could  l)e 
tabulated.  The  figures  of  the  present  yea*  gave  a  slight  advance  all 
along  the  line  over  those  of  the  last  year;  but  then  it  must  be  remem- 


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1881.]  Foreign  ReUgioua  InidUgence.  177 

bered  that  in  1876-78  a  somewhat  serious  falling  off  had  been  observ- 
able. The  number  of  Old  Catholics  of  Germany  is  still  somewhat  under 
the  50,000  returned  a  few  years  ago,  and  the  number  of  priests  is  also 
proportionately  less;  the  announcement,  therefore,  that  at  last  there 
was  a  turn  in  the  tide  was  received  with  great  satisfaction.  The  con- 
gress adopted  the  following  resolutions  as  expressive  of  the  present 
stand -point  of  the  Old  Catholic  party  in  relation  to  the  papacy:  1.  An 
actual  and  effective  contradiction  between  faith  in  the  fundamental  truths 
otOhristianity  founded  upon  the  testamentary  proof  of  history,  and  science 
grounded  upon  the  immediate  facta  of  nature  and  mind,  is  not  possible. 
Each  protects,  carries  on,  and  completes  the  other.  2.  The  independent 
character  of  national  Churches  is  just  as  much  in  accordance  with  the  uni- 
versal character  of  the  Church  as  are  national  peculiarities  in  the  State, 
art,  and  science,  with  the  general  object  of  culture.  8.  It  is  a  mischievous 
error  of  many  Protestants  to  regard  the  Church  which  the  adherents 
of  the  Vatican  are  bound  to  recognize  as  the  only  rightful  one,  as  the 
shield  of  faith,  a  rallying  point  for  authority  in  civil  and  social  affairs, 
and  a  protection  against  destructive  socialistic  tendencies,  and  therefore 
to  adopt  it  as  a  conservative  ally.  4.  History,  the  task  and  duty  of  self- 
preservation,  compels  the  German  empire  to  oppose  the  Vatican  system. 
5.  Negotiations  with  the  infallible  Pope  or  his  organs  upon  all  matters 
which  concern  the  promulgation  of  laws  and  the  authority  of  the  State 
are  objectionable.  Transactions  of  this  kind  lead  to  the  dissolution  of 
the  national  State.  The  Prussian  government  seems  no  longer  to  take 
the  same  interest  in  the  progress  of  the  movement  as  in  former  years; 
but  when,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year,  objection  was  made  in  the  Prus- 
sian House  of  Deputies  to  that  item  of  the  budget  which  makes  provis- 
ion for  the  Old  Catholic  bishop,  the  minister,  Herr  von  Pnttkammer, 
stated,  in  the  name  of  the  government,  that  this  arrangement  was  a  part 
of  the  law  of  the  land,  and  that  the  government  intended  to  carry  out 
the  ecclesiastical  laws  as  long  as  they  remained  on  the  statute  books. 

In  Austria  the  Old  Catholics  appear  to  have  made  no  progress.  An 
application  to  the  government,  made  by  the  synodal  council  which  was 
elected  in  June,  1879,  for  recognition  by  the  State,  was  denied  by  the 
minister  of  religion,  who  said  that  the  State  could  not  afford  to  grant  it. 

In  France  the  congregation  of  M.  Hyacinthe  Loyson  reported  in  June, 
1880,  a  membership  of  about  1,000.  It  did  not  yet  own  a  church  build- 
ing, and  was  about  $1,000  in  debt.  It  had  three  priests.  On  August  27 
M.  Loyson  solemnized  the  marriage  of  a  regular  priest.  Abbe  Laine. 

In  Russia,  the  province  of  Volhynia  has  several  communities  of  Bohe- 
mians who  have  attached  themselves  to  the  Old  Catholic  movement. 
They  have  three  priesta  who  are  recognized  and  supported  by  the  State. 
In  reply  to  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  the 
priests  even  requested  to  hold  a  conference  with  some  of  the  most  influ- 
ential of  the  Bohemian  laymen  to  formulate  a  statement  of  their  funda- 
mental doctrines  and  organic  constitution.  This  conference  was  to 
serve  as  a  permanent  organization  and  constitute  a  synodal  counciL 


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178  MetJvodist  Quarterly  Review,  fJannary, 


Abt.  IX.— quarterly  book -table. 

Religion^    Theology^   and  Biblical  Literature. 

The  Authonhip  of  the  Fourth  Ghtpel,  By  Ezra  Abbot,  D.D.,  LL.D.  8to.  1880. 
The  Gospel  of  John,  as  our  readers  well  know,  has  been  one  of 
the  main  battle-fields  of  Christian  evidences,  and  the  volumes 
published  on  the  subject  by  our  German  cousins  form  an  exten- 
sive library.  One  of  the  latest  and  most  persistent  assaults  upon 
the  genuineness  of  this  gospel  has  been  furnished  by  the  author 
of  "  Supernatural  Religion,"  a  work  which  has  passed  through  a 
number  of  editions.  A  royal  service  was  done  in  behalf  of  its 
genuineness  by  a  former  distinguished  professor  in  Harvard 
College,  Andrews  Norton;  and  it  is  refreshing  to  receive  from 
Harvard  even  this  brief  posting  of  the  subject  down  to  the 
present  hour  from  so  thorough  a  scholar  as  Prof.  Abbot. 

The  professor  first  counts  the  posts  that  have  been  won  in  the 
long  war.  JFirst,  The  Tttbingen  theory,  which  imagined  the 
Apostolic  Church  to  be  divided  into  two  hostile  camps — a  Gen- 
tile, with  Paul  at  its  head,  and  a  Judaic,  under  Peter  and  John; 
and  that,  therefore,  John  could  not  be  the  author  of  so  anti- Jew- 
ish a  gospel,  is  about  abolished  and  extinct.  We  confess  that 
we  have  never  wasted  our  time  in  going  into  the  depths  of  this 
theory,  for  it  bore  on  its  face  an  artificiality  condenming  it, 
d  priori,  as  a  German  fandango.  Secofid,  The  argument  against 
the  gospel  derived  from  the  paschal  controversies  is  at  an  end. 
Third.  The  late  dating  the  appearance  of  this  gospel  is  now  gen- 
erally agreed  to  be  untenable.  Adverse  criticism  is  compelled 
to  admit  so  early  a  date  that  Church  tradition,  placing  it  at  the 
close  of  the  first  century,  is  perfectly  credible.  The  grounds  thus 
cleared,  the  professor  discusses  the  four  main  arguments  for  the 
authenticity :  1.  The  universal  acceptance  of  the  gospels  as 
supreme  authority  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century, 
necessitating  the  concession  of  their  authority  from  the  start. 
2^  The  testimony  of  Justin  Martyr.  3.  The  early  Gnostic  testi- 
mony to  their  authority.  4.  The  closing  testimony  of  the  gos- 
pel itself. 

Justin  Martyr  justly  figures  as  a  very  important  witness  in  this 
trial.  He  gives  us  this  classic  passage :  ^^  On  the  day  called  Sun- 
day all  who  live  in  cities,  or  in  the  country,  gather  together  in 
one  place,  and  the  Memoirs  by  the  Apostles,  or  the  writings  of 
the  prophets,  are  read  as  long  as  time  permits.    When  the  reader 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-Tdhle.  179 

has  finished,  the  president  admonishes  and  exhorts  to  the  imita- 
tion of  these  good  things."  Eight  times  he  mentions  these  "Me- 
moirs by  the  Apostles,"  once  "  Memoirs  made  by  the  Apostles, 
which  are  called  Gospels,"  and  once,  in  apparently  quoting  Luke, 
"  Memoirs  composed  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  those  who 
followed  with  theta."  The  question  is  raised.  Could  these  "  Me- 
moirs "  be  any  other  than  our  four  gospels,  John  included  ? 

The  passage  is  of  prime  importance :  1.  From  the  early  posi- 
tion of  Justin,  whose  life  covered  the  immediate  post-apostolic 
age  so  as  to  join  on  to  the  Canon  itself.  2.  From  the  perma- 
nence and  universality  of  the  practice  of  a  liturgical  reading  of 
the  gospels  in  the  Christian  Churches  at  this  early  date.  8.  From 
the  high  rank  thereby  assigned  to  these  "  Memoirs,"  namely,  a 
priority  to  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  liturgically  read,  in  the 
churches  as  in  the  Jewish  synagogues.  We  see  thus  how  the 
canon  came  into  spontaneous  existence.  And  we  may  here  note 
that  the  word  gospel^  evayyikiov^  (good  message,)  was  beautifully 
used  by  the  primitive  Church,  as  at  the  present  day,  to  designate 
either  of  the  four  gospels  as  a  book,  then  the  common  substance 
of  the  four  as  the  Gospel,  and,  finally,  the  entire  Christian  doctrine. 

Now,  inasmuch  as  the  next  information  on  the  subject  finds 
the  four  evangelists  thus  read  in  supreme  authority  in  all  the 
Churches  of  the  world,  it  is  not  easy  to  doubt  that  these  were  the 
80-" called  gospels"  of  Justin.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  any  one 
of  these  "  gospels  "  could  jump  out  of  the  hands  of  the  churches, 
be  supplanted  by  another,  and  never  be  heard  of  afterward. 

But  the  opponents  of  the  fourth  gospel  are  competent  to  treat 
it  with  heroic  practice.  They  maintain  that  the  quotations  of 
Justin  are  made,  not  from  the  present  evangelists,  but  from  some 
of  the  many  spurious  gospels  extant  in  Justin's  time.  They  show 
variations  in  language  from  our  received  gospel  text.  They  even 
insinuate  that  the  present  gospel  is  later  than  Justin,  and  that 
Justin's  quotations  are  really  embodied  into  it  from  him.  It  is  a 
wonderful  world  of  research  that  has  been  brought  to  bear  from 
all  sides  by  the  learned  contributors  to  this  part  of  the  discussion. 
Our  interest  in  it  is  less  intense,  from  the  fact  that  Baur  &  Co. 
have  very  little  affected  the  mind  of  the  American  Church,  and  the 
noise  of  the  battle  has  but  faintly  rumbled  hither  from  another 
continent.  This  is  all  the  better,  from  the  fact  that  the  heat  of  the 
fight  is  over,  and  men  are  beginning  to  wonder  why  the  forced 
constructions  of  the  firm  aforesaid  were  ever  thought  worthy 
of  80  much  racket.     Prof.  Abbot  shows  very  clearly  that  there 


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180  Methodut  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

were  no  such  numerous  spurious  gospels  in  Justin's  time  as  that 
his  quotations  could  be  attributed  to  them ;  that  Justin's  free 
quotations  from  memory  are  just  such  as  he  makes  from  the  Old 
Testament,  and  such  as  are  made  by  the  fathers  of  the  Church, 
and  even  by  modem  Christian  writers  very  plentifully;  and  the 
priority  of  Justin  to  John's  Gospel  is  essentially  abandoned  even 
by  the  opponents  of  the  genuineness  of  the  latter. 

The  fairness,  clearness,  and  conclusiveness  of  Dr.  Abbot's  argu- 
ment entitle  him  to  the  thanks  of  biblical  scholars. 


The  Wetley  Memorial  Vclvme;  or,  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement  Judged 
by  nearly  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Writers,  Living  and  Dead.  Edited  by  Rev, 
J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.  New  York :  Phillips  k  Hunt.  Cincinnati :  Walden 
&  Stowe.  Macon :  J.  W.  Burke.  Nashville :  J.  B.  M'Ferrin.  St.  Louis :  L  D. 
Dameron  &  Co.     1880.     8vo.,  pp.  744  . 

The  enterprising  editor  of  this  elegant  Memorial  Volume  has 
unwittingly  furnished  an  ecumenical  Methodist  book  preparatory 
to  our  Ecumenical  Methodist  Council.  His  aim  was  to  bring 
within  its-  pages  a  representative  writer  from  every  Methodist 
organization  of  every  country  or  color.  ^V^latever  of  differences 
have  existed,  all  could  unite  upon  Wesley,  his  doctrines  and  his 
work,  as  their  common  center.  Signally  happy  is  the  father  of 
the  great  Wesleyan  family,  in  that  his  name  is  for  all  a  note  of 
harmony  and  oneness. 

The  Memorial  Church,  whose  interests  gave  existence  to  this  vol- 
ume, is  well  entitled  to  this  honor  from  its  being  erected  "  in  the 
only  city  in  America  in  which  Mr.  Wesley  had  a  home  and  a  parish." 
The  beautiful  city  of  Savannah  has  this  singular  pre-eminence 
in  our  South — a  section  rich  in  memorial  spots  of  our  Methodist 
primitive  history.  Our  John-street  Church  in  New  York,  where 
Embury  inaugurated  American  Methodism,  and  Boston's  beauti- 
ful Common,  where  Lee  discharged  the  first  gun  for  New  En- 
gland Methodism,  are  spots  of  memorial  interest  for  every  reflect- 
ive Methodist  in  every  section  of  our  great  country.  Under  Dr. 
Clark's  suggestion  and  skillful  guidance,  Savannah  now  asserts 
her  claim  on  unique  grounds  to  being  the  most  primitive  memo- 
rial spot  for  Methodism  in  America. 

Tlie  editor  was  singularly  successful  in  obtaining  ready  con- 
tributions from  a  large  corps  of  able  pens  in  both  England 
and  America,  both  within  and  without  the  communion  of  Meth- 
odism. Such  writers  as  Punshon,  Rigg,  Pope,  and  Tyerman, 
represent  English  Methodism.     Men  like  Bishops  Simpson,  E.  O. 


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1881 J  Quarterly  Book -Table.  181 

Haven,  Foss,  Dr.  Newman,  and  Dr.  Abel  Stevens,  represent  our 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Of  the  lights  of  our  Church  South, 
there  are  Bishops  M'Tyeire,  G.  F.  Pierce,  Wightman,  Drs.  Lips- 
comb and  Summers,  with  several  contributions  from  the  prolific 
mind  of  the  editor.  From  the  colored  American  Churches  are 
Bishop  Holsey  and  Rev.  B.  F.  Lee.  From  the  other  continent  out- 
side of  Methodism  are  Dean  Stanley,  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  de  Pres- 
sens6.  These  are  brilliant  names,  and  the  volume  should  be  wel- 
comed to  the  hands  and  hearts  of  universal  Methodism  as  an 
ecumenical  book.  It  will  furnish  an  admirable  prelude  to  the 
meeting  of  that  approaching  Council  by  which  Catholic  Meth- 
odism will  stand  out  in  her  unity  with  a  fresh  distinctness  both 
in  her  own  view  and  before  the  eyes  of  the  world. 


Mcimanie  Prophedet,  Lectures  by  Fransz  Delitzsch,  Professor  of  Theology,  Leip- 
zig. Translated  from  the  Manuscript  by  Samuel  Itks  Gurtiss,  Professor  in 
Chicago  Theological  Seminary.  Edinburgh :  T.  &  T.  Clark.  1880.  8to.,  pp.  124. 
[Special  edition,  imported  by  Scribner  k  Welford.    New  York.    Price,  |8.] 

This  tall  and  thin  octavo  contains  a  full  report  of  Delitzsch's 
extemporaneous  lectures  to  his  classes,  made  by  one  of  his  stu- 
dents, and  with  the  learned  author's  consent  translated  by  Profes- 
sor Curtiss  for  the  benefit  of  his  pupils  in  the  Chicago  Seminary. 
Though  an  outline  only,  they  are,  of  course,  sketched  by  the  hand 
of  a  master;  and  though  there  are  some  concessions  made  under 
pressure  of  German  rationalism  which  we  regret  to  notice,  yet 
there  are  choice  suggestions  scattered  all  along  the  pathway;  and 
the  very  brevity  of  the  outline  both  brings  the  whole  prophetic 
structure  more  clearly  within  the  grasp  of  the  mind,  and  furnishes 
a  programme  for  the  student's  filling  out  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
studies  in  this  interesting  department  of  biblical  theology. 

The  work  is  divided  into  two  parts,  entitled  "The  Foundation," 
and  "The  History."  The  Foundation  is  the  peculiar  nature  of  the 
prophetic  office,  a  unique  phenomenon  in  human  history.  As  God 
and  man  are  generically  one  as  mind,  so  God  may  communicate 
to  man,  and  of  this  communication  the  prophet  is  a  mediator. 
£ven  a  particular  people,  as  Israel,  may  be  the  appointed  pro- 
phetic mediator  for  the  human  race;  so  that  the  apparent  contra- 
diction of  Jehovah  being  at  once  God  of  Israel  and  yet  God  of 
all  the  earth  is  solved.  In  Israel  it  was  the  office  of  prophecy  ta 
infuse  spirituality  into  the  ritual,  and  to  stand  as  the  inspiring 
conscience  of  the  people;  fulfilling,  as  John  Stuart  Mill  remarks, 
the  highest  duty  of  the  modem  periodical  press.    Delitzsch  seems* 

FouBTH  Sebies,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 12 


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182  Mdhodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jannary, 

to  recognize  that  there  is  a  natural  "fullness  of  powers  slum- 
bering in  the  soul,"  really  existing,  yet  limited  by  the  material 
inclosure,  which  form  the  basis  of  prophetic  action.  Hereby  we 
understand  the  difference  between  true  prophecy  and  heathen 
soothsaying.  The  former  is  the  soul's  presentimental  power 
more  or  less  liberated  and  inspired  by  divine  agency;  the  latter 
is  the  faculty  of  prevision  in  specially  susceptible  persons,  roused 
by  artificial  means  to  preternatural  and  usually  delusive  excite- 
ment. Hence,  the  latter  was  marked,  externally,  by  the  frenzy 
of  the  soothsayers,  while  in  true  prophecy  the  rational  powers 
were  in  clear  and  normal  action.  We  doubt,  however,  whether 
this  absence  of  ecstasy  in  true  prophecy  as  a  unifonn,  distinctive 
characteristic  is  not  overstated  by  Delitzsch  and  others. 

The  history  traces,  analytically  and  synthetically,  the  serial 
stages  of  Messianic  prophecy  through  the  Old  Testament.  From 
the  very  first  promise  in  Eden  of  the  woman's  seed  to  closing 
Malachi,  there  are  perpetually  occurring  bright  spots  of  promise, 
passages  of  anticipation  of  a  future  blessed  time  on  earth,  a  fu- 
ture comer  who  is  a  more  than  human  deliverer,  sufferer,  teacher, 
ruler,  who  is  to  iaake  all  right  in  the  world.  Other  nations  have 
flight  shadows  of  a  similar  deliverer,  but  with  Israel  it  was  the 
dominant  Idea.  From  this  Idea  it  is  that  Israel  drew  his  earlier 
And  later  historic  life. 

*  The  successive  stages  through  which  this  Idea  is  traced  (vary- 
ing from  Delitzsch  somewhat)  are:  the  pre-Mosaic,  the  Mosaic,  the 
royal  Davidic,  the  divided  kingdom  to  the  exile,  the  exilic,  and 
post-exilic.  During  the  pre-Mosaic  period  we  have  the  Edenic 
promise,  the  Abraham  ic  and  other  theophanies,  the  blessings  of 
the  dying  patriarchs,  of  Isaac  upon  Jacob,  and  of  Jacob  upon 
Judah.  Then  came  the  unparalleled  endowment  of  Moses,  sole 
parallel  to  the  prophetic  Christ.  Thence  Messianic  prophecy, 
though  not  wholly  silent,  is  not  ringingly  vocal  until  David.  In 
Delitzsch's  view  David  supposed  himself  the  Messiali  of  the 
promise,  until  his  sad  criminalities  taught  him  to  look  for  a  bet- 
ter in  the  future. 

But,  as  above  intimated,  there  are  surrenders  made  by  Delitzsch 
in  which  we  can  scarce  concur.  We  do  not  believe  in  yielding, 
contrary  to  all  the  authority  of  the  ancient  Jewish  writers,  the 
application  of  Shiloh  to  the  personal  Messiah.  We  scarce  accept 
an  Isaiah  sawn  asunder,  or  the  mutilation  of  a  Daniel  authenti- 
cated by  Jesus  Christ  himself.  The  defense  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel  by  Pusey  we  as  yet  believe  unanswerable. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book -Table.  183 

A  Popular  Commentary  on  Ihe  New  Testament.  By  English  and  American  Scholars 
of  yarious  Evangelical  Denominations.  With  Illustrations  and  Maps.  Edited 
by  Philip  Schaff,  J)J>.,  LL.D.  Vol.  II.  The  Gospel  of  John  and  the  Acts. 
8vo.,  pp.  677.  New  York :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  Edinburgh :  T.  &  T.  Clark. 
1880.    Price,  |6. 

This  is  so  rich  and  stately  a  volume  as  to  be  rather  an  aristocratic 
than  "  popular"  production.  It  is  furnished  with  a  large  number 
of  authentic,  fresh,  and  graphic  illustrations  and  maps.  The  au^ 
thors  of  the  notes  on  John  are,  Professor  Milligan,  of  Aberdeen 
University;  and  Professor  Moulton,  of  De  Lees  College,  Cam- 
bridge ;  on  Acts,  Dean  Howson  and  Canon  Spence.  The  Intro^ 
ductions  are  full;  the  notes  not  very  copious,  but  done  in  the 
highest  style  of  scholarship. 


Philosophy^  Metaphysics^  amd  Oeneral  Science. 

The  Chain  of  Life  in  Oeologieal  Time.  A  Sketch  of  the  Origin  and  Succession  of 
Animals  and  Plants.  By  J.  W.  Dawson,  LL.D.  With  numerous  Dlustrations. 
12mo.    Pp.  272.    London :  Religious  Tract  Society.     1880. 

The  source  whence  this  volume  is  issued  indicates  that  it  is 
intended  to  present  such  a  view  of  paleontology  as  might  well 
be  taken  by  the  hearty  believer  in  the  Bible.  It  is  written  in  a 
lucid  style,  with  an  effort,  tolerably  successful,  at  intelligibility 
to  the  popular  reader.  Yet  something  of  scientific  stiffness 
remains.  Nor  does  Dr.  Dawson  usually  display  the  vis  vivida 
and  pictorial  power  which  leads  the  popular  reader  onward  by 
its  fascination  in  Professor  WinchelPs  admirable  "Sketches  of 
Creation."  With  its  plentiful  engravings,  and  its  clear  methods, 
it  is,  nevertheless,  perhaps  the  best  brief  work  extant  for  the  unsci- 
entific reader  who  desires  to  obtain  a  view  of  the  state  of  the  ques- 
tion as  it  exists  at  the  present  hour;  a  state,  however,  still  liable 
to  be  materially  varied  at  any  time  by  advancing  investigation. 

In  nine  successive  chapters  the  author  discusses  the  beginnings 
of  life  on  earth  ;  the  age  of  invertebrates  of  the  sea ;  the  origin 
of  plant  life  on  earth ;  the  appearance  of  vertebrates ;  the  first 
air-breathers  ;  the  empire  of  the  great  reptiles  ;  the  first  modem 
forests ;  the  reign  of  mammals  ;  the  advent  of  man  ;  the  review 
of  the  history  of  life. 

A  survey  of  the  whole  course  of  life  shows  progress,  specific 
and  generic  advancements,  culminating  at  last  in  man.  It  equally 
reveals  that  life  had  a  beginning.  There  was  a  practical  anterior 
eternity  where  no  phenomenal  life  had  ever  been.  We  may  add 
that  in  Hume's  sense  of  the  phrase  life  was  "  contrary  to  experi- 


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184  Methodut  Qua/rterly  Eeview.  [January 

ence  ; "  and  so  its  commencement  was  miramlmis.  Probably  the 
most  conclusive  argument  for  genetic  derivation  of  all  species  is 
drawn  from  the  fact  that  we  know  generation  by  experience,  and 
rto  have  an  experimental  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  chain  of 
life  through  ages.  But  then  we  have  also  virtual  experience  of  a 
commencement  of  the  chain  which  is  original  and  not  genetically 
derived.  And  if  there  be  one  commencement  experienced  there 
may  be  thousands  and  millions.  Mr.  Darwin  suggests  that  the 
Creator  may  have  breathed  life  into  two  or  three  primordial 
forms;  but  if  he  performs  such  an  act  once  he  may  do  so  any 
number  of  times.  Mr.  Darwin  herein  avows  belief  both  in  a 
Creator,  and  in  that  bugbear  at  which  so  many  scientists  turn 
"  doughface  " — a  "  special  creation."  Now  all  that  Dr.  Dawson 
maintains  is  the  reasonableness  of  the  claim,  sustained  as  it  is  by 
stupendous  facts,  that  such  repeated  creations  in  series  indicating 
an  order  of  law,  have  truly  taken  place.  And  such  he  holds  is 
the  probable  solution  of  that  continuity  of  typical  forms,  within 
due  limits  of  variation,  actually  visible  in  the  extended  chart  of 
life.  There  is  serial  derivation,  genetic  to  a  wonderful  extent, 
yet  subordinate  to  a  great  plan  of  intellective  derivations,  whose 
programme  exists  in  the  divine  Mind. 

How  truly  this  derivation  may  be  intellective,  rather  than 
genetic,  is  remarkably  illustrated  by  one  peculiar  fact.  Far  back 
in  geologic  time,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  age  of  great  rep- 
tiles, long  before  the  appearance  of  the  first  mammal,  we  are 
struck  by  the  apparition  of  the  skeleton  of  a  human  arm.  There 
it  is  with  the  hand  and  its  five  digits,  presenting  that  significant 
peculiarity  which  distinguishes  man  from  the  ape— a  thumb  op- 
posed to  the  fingers !  It  is  the  unquestionable  form,  the  idea^  of 
a  human  arm.  This  arm  man  has  inherited ;  but  how  ?  Not 
generatively,  but  ideally,  through  a  law,  not  of  matter,  but  of 
mind.  For  this  arm  belonged  to  a  lizard-like  reptile,  some  three 
or  four  feet  long,  at  the  beginning  of  the  "  reptilian  empire,"  an 
empire  swept  away  by  repeated  revolutions  since.  That  arm  was 
lost  through  geologic  ages.  By  numerous  instances  of  this  kind 
we  seem  to  be  cautioned  against  too  confident  an  assumption, 
that  ideiitity  of  form  demonstrates  hereditary  derivation. 

In  point  of  continuity  there  is  a  great  difference  in  species. 
Some  of  the  humblest  forms  beginning  at  the  beginning  of 
earthly  life,  have  survived  through  all  the  revolutions,  and  are 
found  unchanged  to-day.  Other  species  spring  up  with  higher 
organization  without  any  apparent  predecessors  or  parents,  and 


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1881.1  Qua/rterly  Book -Table.  185 

suddenly  overspread  the  geologic  world.  Their  ancestors  could 
not  have  been  destroyed,  for  their  sudden  apparition  takes  place 
in  (juiet  times.  Other  species,  as  the  horse,  appear  through  sev- 
eral periods  in  somewhat  varied  forms,  and  present  the  most 
favorable  aspect  for  inferring,  in  their  case,  genetic  derivation. 
Yet  even  the  supposed  ancestors  of  the  horse,  so  confidently 
traced  by  Mr.  Huxley,  are  doubtful.  "  Gaudry  and  other  ortho- 
dox evolutionists  in  Europe  deduce  the  horse,  not  from  Eohippus, 
but  from  the  Paleotherium  " — a  very  different  pedigree ;  that  is, 
80  questionable  is  the  derivation  of  the  horse  from  the  eohip- 
pus, that  other  scientists  than  Mr.  Huxley  reject  it,  and  look  for 
other  ancestors  for  equus.  But  even  admit  the  Huxleyan  equine 
pedigree,  what  then  ?  We  have  simply  a  case  of  a  species  con- 
tinuing through  successive  periods  under  somewhat  varying 
forms.  But  that  is  very  far  short  of  proving  the  universality 
of  genetic  derivation. 


British  TTiouffkts  and  Thinken,    By  George  S.  Morris.    Chicago :   S.  C.  Grigga 
&  Co.     1880. 

Professor  Morris'  work  deals  less  with  British  thoughts  than  with 
British  thinkers,  and  is  mainly  biographical.  The  thinkers  se- 
lected comprise  the  early  English  scholastics,  Spenser  and  Shakes- 
peare of  the  poets.  Hooker  of  the  theologians,  and  Hacon,  Hobbes, 
Locke,  Berkely,  Hume,  Hamilton,  Mill,  and  Spenser  of  the  phi- 
losophers. The  biographical  sketches  are  very  interesting  and 
readable.  Professor  Morris'  involved  and  Germanized  style  does 
not  appear  in  this  part  so  prominently  as  in  his  speculative  discus- 
sions. In  the  latter  we  miss  completeness  of  exposition.  These 
essays  are  said  to  be  "  introductory  studies ; "  and  yet  they  are 
scarcely  intelligible  except  to  one  already  familiar  with  philos- 
ophy. So  much  is  taken  for  granted,  and  so  much  more  is  stated 
without  proof,  that  a  beginner  would  find  himself  at  the  end  of 
the  work  with  a  series  of  dogmatic  statements  in  his  mind,  but 
without  any  appreciation  of  their  ground  or  of  the  problems  to 
which  they  relate.  This  is  always  the  result  when  the  history 
of  philosophy  is  studied  as  an  introduction  to  philosophy.  The 
procedure  is  as  inverted  and  confusing  as  it  would  be  to  begin  a 
course  in  mathematics  by  a  history  of  mathematics.  We  agree 
entirely  with  Professor  Morris'  conclusions  and  principles,  and 
are  sure  that  he  could  give  the  reasons  which  are  lacking ;  but 
his  unfortunate  method  has  produced  a  work  which,  while  valu- 
able for  the  initiated,  would  be  very  unsatisfactory  for  beginners. 


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186  Methodut  Quarterly  Eeview.  [Jannary, 

One  must  know  what  the  problems  are  before  their  history  can 
have  any  value.  Of  course  the  biographical  part*  is  intelligible 
on  its  own  account. 

Christian  Sociology.     Bj  J.  H.  W.  Stuckenberg,  Professor  in  the  Theological  De- 
partment of  Wittenberg  College.    Kew  York :  I.  K.  Funk  &  Co.    1880. 

The  author  believes  that  Christianity  is  not  meant  for  the  indi- 
vidual alone,  but  for  society  also.  He  holds,  therefore,  that  Chris- 
tianity contains  implicitly  a  theory  of  society  and  laws  for  its 
government.  To  illustrate  this  thought  is  the  aim  of  this  book. 
Without  doubt  the  conceptions  of  Christianity  current  among 
English  and  American  Christians  are  too  individualistic  and 
atomistic  ;  and  its  social  significance  is  overlooked.  The  author 
has  done  well  in  calling  attention  to  this  fact,  and  to  the  need 
of  a  larger  and  more  organic  view.  We  can  hardly  estimate  his 
claims  to  Ve  a  pioneer  in  this  realm  as  highly  as  the  author  him- 
self; for  we  see  no  essential  difference  between  his  aim  and  that 
of  Christian  ethics,  except  that  the  latter  is  the  more  compre- 
hensive. The  author  aims  to  deduce  social  duties  from  the  stand- 
point of  Christian  life  and  doctrine,  while  Christian  ethics  aim 
to  deduce  the  law  of  the  entire  life  from  the  same  source.  The 
work  might  also  be  called  somewhat  rambling  in  plan  and  execu- 
tion. Nevertheless,  it  is  genial  and  suggestive,  and  very  well 
worth  reading.  It  is  all  the  more  valuable  to  the  American 
ministry  because  of  our  grievous  errors  on  the  side  of  an  exclusive 
individualism. 


History^  Biography^  cmd  Topography, 

A  Tear  of  Wreck.    A  True  Story.    By  A  Vicmi.    12mo.,  pp.  4T2.    New  York : 
Harper  &  Brothers.    1880. 

This  book  is  a  narrative  of  facts,  yet  it  is  as  fascinating  as  a  work 
of  fiction.  It  is  a  story  of  Mississippi  cotton  planting  by  two 
Northern  gentlemen,  a  druggist  and  a  physician,  who,  charmed 
by  the  fortune  on  paper  which  their  figures  most  convincingly  as- 
sured them,  emigrated  thither  in  1866,  in  the  days  when  Andrew 
Johnson  occupied  the  presidential  chair.  The  promised  short  road 
to  wealth  was  very  alluring,  but  the  expected  nine  hundred  bales 
dwindled  in  the  outcome  to  sixty-five,  and  the  figured  income  of 
a  hundred  and  eight  thousand  to  six  thousand  five  hundred.  It 
was,  indeed,  "  a  year  of  wreck."  Numbers  emigrated  southward 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  after  a  like  experience  returned  to 


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1881J  Qua/rt&rJy  Book 'Table.  187 

the  North.  Our  author  intimates  that  the  philosophy  of  the 
general  wreckage  is  the  same.  If  so,  their  failure  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at.  It  would  seem  that  any  average  business  man 
would,  before  investing,  take  certain  precautions,  make  certain 
inquiries,  and  ascertain  certain  particulars  and  facts;  but  the 
principle  of  leaping  before  looking  is  the  chief  one  of  this  year's 
work.  As  a  picture  of  Southern  life,  in  1 866,  the  book  is  worth 
reading.  It  shows  us  both  white  and  black,  the  latter  just  eman- 
cipated, and  with  all  the  habits  and  vices  engendered  by  the 
slave  system,  and  the  former  expecting  to  recover  through  Andy 
Johnson  all  they  had  lost  by  the  war.  The  then  existing  intense 
hate  and  persecution  of  Northern  men  appear  in  the  narrative. 

A  supplementary  chapter  shows  our  planters  in  1880  in  high 
prosperity,  and  attests  a  great  change  in  many  respects  among  the 
people  of  the  South.  Free  negro  labor  is  a  success.  Manufactories 
are  springing  up,  and  railroads  are  in  construction;  business  meth- 
ods are  improving ;  and  the  South  is  gaining  in  many  important 
respects.  We  rejoice  in  this  prosperity,  in  the  full  belief  that  that 
section  may  become  the  garden  of  the  country.  But  it  must  be 
by  education — compulsory  education  for  black  and  white — indus- 
try, temperance,  and  freedom  of  speech  and  vote,  and  an  unfet- 
tered and  correctly-counted  ballot.  The  great  need  of  the  South 
to-day  is  emancipation  from  its  "mischievous  boys,"  its  bull- 
dozers and  tissue  ballots,  and  its  barbarian  crowd  of  ignorant, 
whiskey-drinking  ruffians.  When  the  good  and  true  men  of  that 
section  shall  assert  themselves,  as  they  can  and  ought,  we  verily 
believe  the  South  will  enter  upon  a  career  of  prosperity  as  yet 
unknown.  Its  political  intolerance,  now  its  ineffable  disgrace, 
will  then  be  likely  to  disappear,  and  a  firm  hand  will  maintain  the 
equal  rights  of  all  men  before  the  law.  w. 


A  ffUtory  of  ChrisHan  Doctrines.  By  the  late  Dr.  K.  R.  Haoknbach.  With  an 
Introduction  by  E.  H.  Plumptre,  D.D.  Vol.  I.  8vo.,  pp.  438.  Edinburgh :  T.  & 
T.  Clark.     1880.  [Scribner  &  Welford'd  imported  edition.    Price  $3.] 

This  is  a  new  translation  from  the  author's  fifth  and  last  edition. 
The  present  volume  covers  his  first  two  periods  of  Christian 
doctrine;  namely.  Period  First,  extending  from  A.D.  70  to  A.D, 
254,  by  him  entitled  "The  Age  of  Apologetics;"  and  Period 
Second,  extending  to  A.D.  730,  "  The  Age  of  Polemics."  We 
peed  not  again  commend  this  standard  work.  The  present  vol- 
ume is  especially  valuable  as  giving  us  the  earliest  phenomena 
of  Christian  defense  and  Chrbtian  doctrine. 


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188  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

Old  Times  in  the  Colonies.  By  Charles  Carlton  Cofpin,  author  of  "  The  Boys  of 
'76,"  "  The  Story  of  Liberty,"  etc.  Illustrated.  8vo.,  tinted  paper,  cloth  and 
gilt.     Pp.  460.    *New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.    1881. 

Mr.  Coffin's  book  essays  to  shed  a  fresh  interest  upon  those  be- 
ginnings of  our  continental  existence  which  our  historians  have 
generally  found  unattractive  ground  for  the  general  reader.  He 
dedicates  his  work  to  the  "  boys  and  girls  of  America,"  and  aims 
to  suit  their  taste  by  a  popular,  sketchy,  colloquial,  and  sometimes 
incoherent  and  slightly  ungrammatical  style,  aided  by  a  ricli 
abundance  of  illustrative  cuts.  The  history  and  the  cuts  con- 
trive to  present  a  rich  variety  of  events,  characters,  and  scenes, 
extending  from  the  seas  and  seals  of  our  arctic  to  the  palms  on 
the  banks  of  the  St.  John's  and  the  exuberant  foliage  of  Florida. 
The  lessons  of  enterprise,  freedom,  and  religion  involved  in  the 
history  are  faithfully  presented.  It  is  a  very  acceptable  present 
to  the  "  boys  and  girls,"  young  and  old. 


7%e  History  of  the  Dedine  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  By  Edward  Gibbon, 
Esq.  Family  Edition.  With  a  complete  Index  of  the  whole  Work.  Abridged 
and  Edited  by  James  A.  Dkan,  D.li.  In  two  volumes,  12mo.  Vol.  L,  pp.  670. 
New  York :  PubUi»hed  for  the  Editor  by  Phillips  &  Hunt.    1880. 

Dr.  Dean  has  here  endeavored  to  furnish  a  Gibbon  free  from  the 
prolixity,  skepticism,  and  pruriencies  of  the  original  work.  He 
aims  to  give  it  a  fullness  sufficient  to  furnish  an  ample  survey  of 
the  course  of  the  history  without  making  it  too  ponderous  for 
the  general  reader.  He  appears  to  have  executed  the  work  with 
judgment  and  skill,  and  the  popular  reader  may  assume  that  he 
takes  in  hand  an  unobjectionable  and  attractive  Gibbon* 


literature  amd  FicUon. 


Studies  of  the  Greek  Poets.  By  John  Addinoton  Symonds,  author  of  "  Sketches 
and  Studies  in  Southern  Europe,"  etc.  Two  vols.,  small  12mo.,  pp.  488,  419. 
New  York  :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1830. 

Mr.  Symonds  has  splendid  qualifications  for  giving  us  unsurpassa- 
ble dissertations  on  Greek  poetry.  He  is  an  elegant  pagan.  He 
is  an  idolater  of  ideal  beauty.  He  has  ranged  through  the  ele- 
gant literature  of  various  languages,  and  the  Greek  appears  to  be 
his  specialty.  He  has  a  rich  appreciation  of  that  wonderful  de- 
velopment of  genius,  which  awakened  without  a  parallel  in  pre- 
vious human  history  in  the  little  spot  of  Greece,  speaking  such 
thoughts  of  beauty  and  wisdom  in  the  most  wonderful  of  hu- 
man languages,  as  to  render  Greece  the  esthetic  teacher  of  the 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book -Table.  189 

most  cultured  peoples  of  the  world  through  subsequent  ages. 
His  volumes  present  us  a  series  of  disquisitions,  exhibiting  a  rich 
mastery  of  the  subject  in  a  style  of  great  brilliancy.  By  a  most 
wonderful  reversal  of  the  laws  of  gradual  development,  Greek 
poetry  opens  with  a  morning  brighter  than  midnoon  in  the  poems 
of  Homer.  Then  comes  the  drama,  truly  beginning  with  the  sub- 
limest  genius  of  classic  antiquity,  -^schylus,  in  equal  defiance 
of  developmental  themes.  Meanwhile  the  lyric  poets  are  fling- 
ing up  their  witching  strains;  and  then  after  Euripides,  Greek 
poetry  draws  out  her  long  anti-climax  in  almost  uninterrupted 
deterioration,  / 

When  we  said  Mr.  Symonds  was  a  pagan,  understand  us  not 
as  intimating  that  he  is  a  literal  worshiper  of  any  thing.  His 
Agnosticism  hangs  like  a  gloom  over  his  volumes,  as  the  sense  of 
coming  nothingness  hung  over  the  thought  and  productions  of 
some  of  the  best  minds  of  Greek  antiquity.  His  sole  remedy  for 
the  darkness  of  pessimism  which  godlessness  lets  in  upon  the  soul 
is  that  which  he  recognizes  as  accepted  by  the  best  Greek  mind 
.  desperate  but  resolutely  cheerful  manliness. 


liUeeUaneom  Works  of  Lord  Maccnday.  Edited  by  his  Sister,  Lady  Trevbltaw. 
In  five  volumes,  Svo.  Vol.  I,  pp.  628 ;  Vol.  11,  pp.  664 ;  Vol  III,  pp.  670 ; 
Vol.  JV,  pp.  669 ;  Vol  V,  pp.  670.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.      1880. 

This  magnificent  set  of  volumes,  neatly  boxed,  is  another  of  those 
literary  presents  to  the  scholar's  and  gentleman's  library  with 
which  the  Harper  press  has  been  so  prolific.  We  need  not  say 
that  Macaulay  is  supremely  a  dasaic  in  English  literature,  and 
that  these  essays,  with  the  closing  volume  of  parliamentary 
speeches,  stand  without  a  rival  in  their  class.  As  to  the  supposed 
dogmatUm  pervading  Macaulay's  writings,  which  prompted  the 
keen  honmot  of  Lord  Melbourne,  "  I  would  be  glad  to  be  as  sure 
of  any  thing  as  Macaulay  is  of  every  thing,"  we  may  say  that 
we  prefer  the  positiveness  of  Macaulay  to  the  slack  Pyrrhon- 
ism of  Melbourne.  Give  ns  the  man  of  positive  conviction  and 
explicit  expression* 

>  »• 

PeriocUcals. 

The  Premdenfi  Mestage, 

President  Hayes  closes  his  series  of  annual  messages  in  a  justly 
cheerful,  if  not  triumphant,  tone.  His  candid  opposers  admit 
that  no  purer  administration  has  ever  honored  our  national  his- 
tory.    As  to  the  charge  oi  fraud  in  his  election  the  question  may 


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190  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [January, 

be  fairly  raised  whether  the  apparent  popular  majority  of  his  op- 
ponent was  not  truly  the  fraud.  After  passion  has  subsided, 
calm  history  may  decide  that  had  there  been  what  General  Han- 
cock so  neatly  calk  "  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count,"  Mr.  Hayes 
was  the  real  choice  of  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  our  coun- 
try. General  Garfield,  if  duly  counted  in  as  well  as  elected,  will 
be,  we  trust,  not  a  partisan  but  a  patriotic  President.  He  was  in 
full  sympathy  with  the  conciliatory  policy  by  which  Mr.  Hayes  for 
a  while  endeavored  to  unite  the  heart  of  the  nation.  He,  indeed, 
then  declared  that  the  time  for  a  sectional  platform  was  past; 
little  anticipating  that  he  would  be  forced  by  the  South  herself 
to  be  elected  on  a  necessary  antithetical  sectional  platform  to 
save  the  country  from  being  seized  by  a  Southern  sectional  coup 
d^etat.  We  doubt  not  that  under  President  Garfield's  adminis- 
tration a  practicable  civil  service  reform,  advocated,  indeed,  by 
the  best  men  of  both  parties,  will  complete  a  work  which  Mr. 
Hayes  has,  with  all  the  efficiency  in  his  day  possible,  successfully 
begun.  This  reform  will  expel  from  our  politics  a  large-  share 
of  the  selfish  violence  arising  from  the  array  of  two  stupendous 
armies  of  office-holders  and  office-seekers  against  each  other,  and 
thereby  diminish  the  danger  of  our  national  elections. 

It  was  by  two  concurrent  causes  that  Mr.  Garfield's  election 
was  gained,  namely,  the  solid  South  and  the  business  interests. 
Both  these  causes  were  well  stated  by  a  Southern  Democratic 
business  man,  (of  course  not  by  a  Southern  politician,)*  Dr.  Si- 

♦  How  some  Southern  politicians  deliver  themselyes  may  appear  from  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  **  Solid  South/*  recently  established  in  Memphis,  and  it  may 
be  Memphis'  response  to  the  sympathies  she  received  from  the  North  in  her  late 
distress: 

The  Democratic  masses  in  both  the  confederate  and  federal  sections  of  these  vir- 
tually dis-United  States  are  sick,  tick,  sick  of  the  putrid,  peccant,  and  pusillanimous 
marches,  counter-marches  and  surrenders  that  have  characterized  the  pestilent 
policy  of  the  cowardly  and  crawl- about  conservatives  in  our  party  household  since 
the  surrender.  The  shams,  sneakbys,  and  snakes-in-the-grass  who  have  only  too 
frequently  exercised  a  controUing  influence  in  making  our  party  platforms,  nomi- 
nating our  party  tickets,  and  managing  our  party  campaign  since  the  dastardly  new 
departure  of  1871,  have  deserted  the  last  living,  breathing,  throbbing  principle 
of  Democracy,  and  are  moving  heaven,  earth,  and  the  otlier  place  to  make  the 
world  believe  they  are  better  radicals  than  the  radicals  themselves.  .  .  .  They  think 
that  they  can  thus  befool  and  bejuggle  the  bloody-shirters  of  blue-bellydom  into  the 
fond  belief  that  we  are  a  reconstructed  people,  when  the  fact  is  that  we  are  not 
reconstructed ;  when  the  fact  is  that  we  hate  a  Union  that  is  cemented  by  the 
blood  of  our  fellow-partisans ;  when  the  fact  is  that  we  loathe  the  star-spangled 
rag  that  reminds  us  of  the  crimes  of  our  conquerors ;  when  the  fact  is  that  we  spit 
upon  federal  legislation  that  aeeks  to  limits  the  powers  and  prerogatives  of  oar 
sovereign  OommonwealthB. 

In  presenting  the  initial  iasne  of  the  "  Solid  South  **  to  the  public  we  want  it  nxh* 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-Table.  191 

monds,  president  of  a  Charleston  bank.     He  said  just  after  the 
election : 

A  few  days  before  the  election  a  gentleman  came  into  my  office  and  began  talk- 
ing about  the  State  of  South  Oarolina  consols.  He  said  that  he  was  satisfied  that 
if  Hancock  was  elected  the  bonds  would  appreciate,  and  if  Garfield  was  elected  they 
would  depreciate  in  value.  I  told  him  then  that  my  opinions  were  just  the  reverse, 
and  that  I  belicTed  that  if  Garfield  was  elected  our  seeurUien  vxndd  he  improved. 
To-day  he  called  to  see  me  again,  and  said  :  "  Tou  were  right ;  South  Carolina  bonds 
have  gone  up  from  one  to  one  and  a  half  per  centum,  and  there  is  an  increased  de- 
mand for  them  from  the  North.*'  He  asked  me  to  give  him  my  opinion  as  to  the 
reason  for  this,  and  I  told  him  that  it  was  because  Oarfield  was  the  candidate  of 
the  great  party  which  represeTUed  the  wealth  and  intelligence  of  the  North,  which  was 
opposed  to  every  thing  that  smacked  of  repudiation,  and  the  reflection  of  that  pol- 
icy upon  the  South  would  strengthen  the  opposition  to  repudiation  in  the  Southern 
States.  Of  course  it  is  not  Garfield  himself,  but  it  is  the  party  he  represents,  that 
has  this  influence.  I  think  that  the  policy  of  the  incoming  administration  toward 
the  South  will  neoessarily  be  to  devek^  all  her  resources.  The  South  is  the  best  cus- 
tomer the  North  has,  and  the  people  of  the  North  have  too  much  intelligence  to  do  any 
thing  to  cripple  us.  But  as  the  result  of  the  election  has  shown,  theg  are  equally  di- 
termined  that  we  shall  not  rule  them.  It  was,  in  my  opinion,  the  conviction  that  the 
Solid  South  and  the  success  of  the  Democratic  party  would  destroy  them  that  made  the 
people  of  the  North  so  solid  against  us.  The  very  men  who  gave  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  to  insure  the  success  of  the  Republican  party  are  the  very  men 
who  will  throw  their  whole  influence  to  prevent  any  action  on  the  part  of  the 
government  which  would  injure  the  South.  It  is  to  their  interest  that  they  shorild 
see  us  a  prosperous  people.  The  South  cannot  afford  to  remain  solid  any  longer. 
They  have  made  nothing  by  it,  and  the  varied  interests  of  the  States  is  bourrd  to 
create  a  division  in  sentiment.  I  have  not  the  slightest  idea  that  the  Republican 
party  will  lend  its  power  to  uphold  governments  in  the  Southern  States  which 
would  be  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  South.  But  of  one  thing  I  am 'sure, 
and  that  is  that  they  will  fight  fer  fair  and  free  elections ;  and  the  sooner  this 
state  of  things  is  reached  the  better  it  will  be  for  us.  For  instance,  I  don't  think 
that  it  would  be  to  the  benefit  of  this  bank  that  one  of  my  tellers  should  cheat  my 
customers  out  of  money  that  goes  into  the  vaults  of  the  bank.  It  would  be  all 
very  well  for  a  while,  but  it  would  ruin  the  bank  in  the  long  run.  I  am  associated 
In  business  with  both  Republicans  and  Democrats  at  the  North,  and  I  find  no  dif- 
ference between  them  upon  the  great  financial  interests  of  the  country.  When 
people  talk  about  Garfield  ruining  the  Bouth,  the  simple  question  is,  whether  he 

derstood  that  we  wash  white  our  hands  of  the  doings  and  misdoings  of  the  con- 
servative tricksters,  toad-eaters,  and  thimble-riggers  in  our  party  ranks.  They  may 
crawl  on  their  bellies  and  lick  the  bare  feet  of  their  Yankee  masters,  but  we  will 
defy  the  devil  dogs  of  Puritan  power,  and  tell  them  to  their  teeth  that  they  can 
never  ram  their  black,  besotted,  and  beastly  heresies  down  our  throats  or  down 
the  throats  of  the  Democratic  masses.  .  .  .  We  will  speak  our  sentiments  in 
words  as  hot  and  hard  as  musket  balls  on  the  wing ;  we  will  champion  State  sov- 
ereignty— including  the  incidents  of  secession  and  nullification ;  we  will  favor  the 
repeal  of  all  the  legislation  that  the  radical  party  has  spewed  upon  the  statute 
books ;  we  will  advocate  free  trade ;  we  will  oppose  national  banks,  ship  bounties, 
railroad  subsidies,  and  every  thing  that  has  the  smack  and  flavor  of  a  moneyed 
monopoly.  In  brief,  we  propose  to  publish  a  paper  that  will  commend  itself  to 
the  Democratic  masses  by  ...  its  defiant  devotion  to  the  prerogatives  and  principles 
that  thundered  from  the  guns,  pealed  from  trumpets,  and  hung  like  a  glory  over 
the  battle  banner  of  the  confederate  cause. 

We  trust  that  such  drunken  ravings  will  exert  by  reaction  the  same  effect  on 
sensible  Southern  people  that  the  similar  ravings  of  the  dnmken  Helots  did  apoa 
the  youDg  Spartans— that  of  making  them  sober. 


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192  Methodist   QuaHerly  Remem.  [January, 

will  paralyze  the  material  interests  of  the  South  becaose  of  its  solid  oppositiuQ  to 
him.  He  is  a  man  of  too  much  sense,  and  he  is  the  representative  of  a  party  that 
depends  too  largely  upon  the  JSouih  for  its  business  prosperity,  to  commit  any  such 
suicidal  act.  Every  thing  points  to  a  continuance  of  prosperity.  It  cannot  be  other- 
wise.    The  country  can't  help  prospering. — ClMrleston  (S.  C)  News  and  Courier. 

The  adoption  and  announcement  by  the  Southern  leaders  of  a 
bold  plan,  by  a  concentrated  spring,  to  pounce  upon  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country,  was  a  specific  act  at  a  certain  date,  taking 
the  country  unawares.  We  well  remember  the  earnest  note  of 
remonstrance  and  warning  of  Dr.  Fuller,  of  the  "  Atlanta  Advo- 
cate," when  the  ominous  phrase  "  a  Solid  South  "  first  broke  upon 
the  public  ear.  He  foretold  to  the  South  with  the  clearness  of 
prophecy  the  disaster  that  would  follow  that  fatal  aggression. 
There  was  no  call,  and  no  excuse,  for  this  solidification.  Presi- 
dent Hayes  had  done  his  best  for  the  obliteration  of  sectional 
political  lines.  Had  th©  Southern  leaders,  like  patriotic  states- 
men, been  content  with  their  fair  share  in  the  government  of  the 
country,  the  antithesis  of  North  and  South  would  have  soon  be- 
come as  little  significant  as  the  antithesis  of  East  and  West,  which 
is  just  what  should  be.  But  Dr.  Simonds  most  truly  said  of  North- 
em  voters  "they  are  determined  that  we  shall  not  rule  them." 
The  South  had  Congress;  they  must  also  have  the  Executive  and 
the  Supreme  Court.  Now,  had  the  relations  of  South  to  North 
been  as  harmonious  as  those  of  West  to  East,  such  a  concurrence 
would  have  been  no  way  alarming.  A  spontaneous  preponder- 
ance of  the  West  would  waken  no  revolt  in  the  East.  But  here 
it  is  not  spontaneous;  it  is  a  complotment  for  the  very  purpose 
of  a  sectional  supremacy.  Nor  was  this  sectionalism  at  all  dimin- 
ished by  their  selecting  a  Northern  candidate  for  the  presidency. 
The  North  very  well  knew  that  to  elect  General  Hancock, 
whatever  his  personal  excellences,  was  to  elect  the  "  Solid  South  " 
in  supremacy  over  us;  a  supremacy  not  the  less  objectionable 
because  she  thereby  rules  us  through  a  Northern  proconsul.  In 
all  the  qualifications  for  governing  the  whole  nation  every  can- 
did Southerner  will  admit  the  South  is  illy  equipped.  In  pop- 
ulation, in  wealth,  in  intelligence,  in  enterprise,  in  political  wis- 
dom, in  all  the  elements  that  constitute  prosperity  and  national 
greatness,  she  is  in  a  sad  minority. 

This  unpreparedness  for  rule  is  especially  emphasized  by  the 
second  decisive  cause  of  General  Hancock's  defeat — the  business 
interests  of  the  country,  not  only  North,  but,  as  President  Simonds 
indicates,  as  truly  at  the  South.  When  Democracy  apparent- 
ly won  in  Maine,  business  confidence  perceptibly  fell;  when  it  was 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Bodk-Tahle.  193 

defeated  in  Indiana,  it  rose,  and  the  pulse  beat  alike  in  North  and 
South;  and  not  with  the  city  millionaires  alone,  but  with  the 
humblest  dealers  in  all  the  sections  of  the  country.  It  was  the 
secret  consciousness  of  the  whole  people  that  the  rule  of  the 
Democratic  leaders  would  be  a  rule  of  recklessness.  The  result  of 
their  rule  in  the  South  is  slight  encouragement  for  other  sections 
to  accept  its  blessings. 

For  "The  future  policy  of  the  South"  in  view  of  her  defeat  we 
will  quote  another  Southern  authority,  this  time  a  politician  of  the 
extremest  school,  editor  of  the  "Savannah  News."  He  thinks  that 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  South  showed  her  non-sectionalism  by 
nominating  a  northern  Union  General  for  President,  and  that 
"  she  has  striven  to  secure  the  blessings  [?]  of  honest,  impartial, 
Democratic  government  to  the  whole  country,"  yet  "  the  more 
embittered  has  become  the  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  North 
against  her."  "  The  sentiment .  .  .  that  the  wealthy  and  intelli- 
gent North  should  control  the  poverty-stricken  South  has  been 
generally  accepted."  He  infers,  truly,  that  "  so  long  as  the  South 
remains  under  the  ban  of  poverty,"  [and  he  should  have  added,  un- 
der that  thriftlessness  and  disorder  that  made  her  "poverty,"]  and 
in  the  "minority,"  she  will  be  overruled;  and  he  should  have  added 
onght  to  he.  What  right  has  a  "  minority,"  "  poverty-stricken  " 
through  improvidence,  to  claim  rule  over  enterprise,  intelligence, 
wealth,  and  majority  ?  That  majority,  most  rightly,  does  not 
desire  to  be  ruled  by  the  statesmanship  that  has  secured  itself  a 
minority  by  its  intolerance  of  immigration,  and  brought  on  its 
"  poverty"  by  recklessness.  He  proceeds  to  enumerate  most  elo- 
quently and  truly  the  unlimited  resources  of  the  South  for  wealth, 
omitting  to  tell  us  why  these  resources  have  for  centuries  been 
allowed  to  lie  idle ;  and  he  concludes  with  one  stroke  of  wisdom, 
namely,  that  the  duty  of  the  South  is  to  go  to  work  and  "get  rich." 
But  this  getting  "rich"  is  to  be  done  in  the  most  exclusive  way. 
Yet  an  ideal  Chinese  wall  must  still  divide  the  South  even  in  busi- 
ness from  the  North.  We,  the  South,  must  get  rich  all  alone;  and 
by  "  ourselves ; "  "  wrapt  in  the  solitude  of  our  own  originality." 
Contrast  these  narrow  utterances  with  the  broad  commercialism 
of  President  Simonds,  and  note  the  diflFerence  between  a  states- 
man and  a — courtesy  forbids  our  saying  what. 

"  Get  rich,"  that  is  the  true  maxim.  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  pure 
and  peaceable  let  the  South  "get  rich."  So  say  we  all;  for  wealth 
is  not  only  a  great  element  of  national  prosperity  and  power,  but  its 
acquirement,  in  the  general,  presupposes  those  qualities  of  peace, 


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194  Methodut  Quarterly  Semew.  [January, 

order,  industry,  enterprise,  and  broad  commercial  liberality,  which 
constitute  character.  In  the  process  of  getting  "  rivh  "  the  South 
would  necessarily  put  off  those  habits  which  have  made  her  poor 
and  isolated,  and  would  put  on  those  qualities  which  would  ren- 
der her  homogeneous  with  the  Korth,  and  in  that  process 
sectionalism  would  disappear.  President  Simonds  would  calm- 
ly assure  the  editor  that  the  commercial  spirit  regards  the  pros- 
perity of  each  section  as  most  desirable  to  the  other,  and  just 
as  fast  as  that  spirit  grows  in  the  South,  his  sectional  mad-dog 
virus  would  dry  up.  We,  therefore,  second  the  editor's  motion, 
let  the  South  "  get  rich."  Her  political  demagogues  would  then 
grow  sober,  her  political  trouble  would  cease,  and  she  would  be- 
come a  much  more  comfortable  neighbor  to  her  sister  sections. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  one  point  which  the  North,  and  all 
parties,  are  bound,  calmly  and  candidly,  to  consider — the  Negro 
problem.  Underlying  all  the  political  violences  and  frauds  in  the 
South  is  the  genuine  grievance  of  "  negro  predominance."  If  the 
South  is  unfit  to  govern  the  country,  is  the  negro,  by  race  or  edu- 
cation, fit  to  govern  the  South  ?  There  are  Counties  and  States 
where  the  negroes  are  a  strong  majority;  must  the  majority  not  only 
be  enfranchised  voters  but  also  installed  rulers  ?  Here  is  the  pinch. 
It  may  be  easy  for  a  Massachusetts  Republican  to  say.  Let  the 
majority  in  South  Carolina  rule ;  but  would  he  be  willing,  under 
that  maxim,  to  enthrone  a  negro  upper  crust  over  Massachusetts? 
When  a  Northern  Republican  goes  into  a  Southern  Republican 
political  meeting,  say  in  Florida,  what  does  he  see  ?  A  crowd 
of  black  humanity  with  a  few  white  leaders  as  their  officers  and 
spokesmen.  Can  he  wonder  that  the  proud  white  community 
look  upon  those  leaders  as  aiming  to  overslaugh  them  with  a  ser- 
vile domination?  A  very  intense  philanthropist  or  a  northern 
Stalwart,  fit  counterpart  to  the  southern  Bourbon,  may  say.  Let 
absolute  right  prevail;  but  most  practical  men  will  say  that 
this  is  no  case  for  absolute  extremes.  It  is  laying  a  most  crush- 
ing weight  upon  the  Southern  negro  to  base  the  structure  of 
a  great  national  party  upon  him.  He  is  unequal  to  the  mission, 
and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  laws  and  penalties  laid  upon 
his  opponents  will  fail  to  give  him  solidity.  We  acknowledge 
that  the  South  is  largely  responsible  for  the  severe  conditions 
of  this  problem.  The  national  administration,  before  enfran- 
chising the  negro,  did  offer  her  a  constitutional  amendment  by 
which  every  State  should  have  a  representation  in  the  national 
government  proportioned  to  its  number  of  voters,  thereby  leav- 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-Tahle.  .105 

ing  the  white  South  supreme  in  each  State,  with  an  induce 
ment  to  enfranchise  the  negro  just  as  fast  as  the  white  South 
could  prepare  him  for  safe  citizenship.  This  most  fair  and  equi- 
table arrangement,  which  would  have  harmonized  the  elements, 
leaving  the  whole  control  in  the  hands  of  the  more  civilized 
South,  was  promptly  by  the  SotUh  rejected.  So  that  for  the  pres- 
ent sad  condition  of  tilings  the  South  herself  is  largely  responsi- 
ble. Rejecting  a  legal  and  constitutional  arrangement  of  inter- 
ests, she  has  chosen  to  right  matters  by  unconstitutional  repres- 
sive and  fraudulent  methods;  methods  that  barbarize  her  popu- 
lation, unsettle  her  society,  and  drive  out  immigration  and  capi- 
tal from  her  borders.  But  the  pfist  cannot  be  recalled,  and  the 
candid  inquiry  remains :  What  remedy  for  the  present  and 
future  ? 

We  claim  no  extra  wisdom  on  this  subject,  but  we  imagine 
that,  concurrently  with  the  process  of  getting  rich,  the  white  South- 
erners have  in  their  hands  two  or  three  peaceful  and  natural  reme- 
dies. The  first  is  immigration.  Let  the  South  organize  a  system 
for  calling  in  a  Northern  and  European  population,  as  well  as  invite 
Northern  capital.  Both  have  tried  to  go  in,  and  have  been  repelled 
both  by  Southern  purpose  and  by  the  apparent  unquietness  of 
Southern  society.  This  immigration  would  reduce  the  colored  ma- 
jorities, and  tend  to  so  divide  the  negro  vote  that  no  man  would 
be  elected  because  he  is  a  negro,  but  because,  though  a  negro,  he 
has  the  highest  qualifications.  The  South,  in  solidifying  herself 
on  the  sectional  line,  perpetuates  the  color  line,  and  prompts  the 
aspiration  of  the  colored  majorities  to  rule  by  the  color  line.  Let 
the  South  divide  on  special  questions,  and  the  negro  vote  will  be 
divided,  and  the  danger  of  negro  domination  be  diminished.  The 
second  is  education,  for  both  races,  by  national  aid.  The  intel- 
lectual culture  line  will  thus  be  in  time  greatly  obliterated,  ren- 
dering more  easy  a  forgetfulness  of  the  color  line  in  public  mat- 
ters. The  third,  emigration.  Even  the  late  "exodus,"  attended 
though  it  has  been  by  charges  of  oppression  on  one  side,  and  of  po- 
litical colonization  on  the  other,  has  had  its  benefits.*    Cannot  the 

*  The  leading  paper  of  our  colored  people,  the  Philadelphia  **  Christian  Recorder '' 
fpeaks  thus  of  this  **  exodus :"  "  That  it  will  continue  we  have  no  doubt.  And 
that  it  ought  to  continue  we  are  of  the  same  mind.  There  are  altogether  too 
manj  of  us  at  the  South.  Labor  is  too  plentiful.  Capital  too  domineering.  Scat- 
teration  should  be  the  word.  Not  to  Kansas  alone,  but  all  over  the  North,  save 
its  great  cities.  Agricultural  in  their  capacities,  let  our  brethren  seek  the  farm- 
ing regions  of  the  great  North  and  the  greater  West,  and  all  will  be  well 


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196  Mefthodist  QuaHerly  Remew.  [Jannary, 

American  Colonization  Society  be  aided  in  her  work  of  benefi- 
cence alike  for  America  and  Africa?  Or  can  there  not  be  a 
**  reservation  "  for  our  African  as  well  as  for  our  Indian  people, 
where  a  new  State  may  be  organized  of  colored  population  ? 

But  the  above  invitation  to  immigration  must  forego  all  inquisi- 
tion into  the  religious  or  political  opinions  of  the  immigrant.  How 
incapable  the  extreme  Southern  Democrat  at  present  is  of  such  tol- 
erance, how  little  he  yet  knows  what  such  tolerance  is,  is  illustrated 
by  a  Florida  paper  lying  before  us.  The  editor  is  zealous  for  immi- 
gration ;  he  repels  indignantly  the  imputation  that  he  is  not  a 
perfectly  liberal  advocate  for  a  perfectly  free  incoming  population. 
But  then  the  incomer  must  not  be  a  "carpet-bagger;"  reserving 
to  himself,  of  course,  to  decide  what  the  very  expansible  term, 
"carpet-bagger,"  shall  include;  he  must  not  encourage  negroes 
to  vote  "against  us;"  that  is,  he  must  not  be  a  Republican  leader 
where  the  voters  are  colored  men ;  and  he  predicts,  since  the  last 
election,  that  in  a  brief  period  all  the  radical  leaders  in  Florida 
will  leave  the  State.  Banishment  of  political  opponents  from  the 
State  is  thus  his  ready  thought.  Not  long  since  he  advised  Mr. 
Bisbee  to  leave  the  State;  said  Bisbee's  only  crime  being,  we  be- 
lieve, that  he  was  elected  to  Congress  from  an  eastern  district  of 
Florida,  and  deprived  of  his  seat  by  a  Democratic  governor  and  a 
Democratic  Congress.  Now  this  editor  intends  to  be,  thinks  he  is, 
and  on  most  points  doubtless  is,  a  truly  liberal  gentleman.  Yet 
take  the  sum  total  of  his  utterances,  and  they  amount  to  about  the 
claim  that  every  active  Republican  ought  to  be  banished  from 
Florida.  He  seems  to  imagine  that  he  and  his  associate  thinkers 
have  the  right  to  prescribe  the  terms  of  admission  into  Florida; 
and  to  dictate  exclusion  from  the  State  even  to  those  who  are  al- 
ready in  it,  unless  they  fulfill  the  conditions.  He  forgets  that  by 
the  American  Constitution,  The  citizens  of  each  iState  shaU  be  attl- 
tied  to  all  privileges  and  immu7iities  of  citizens  in  tfte  several  States, 
He  and  his  extreme  brethren  have  yet  to  learn,  that  as  a  Flo- 
ridian  has  the  same  rights  in  New  York  as  a  New  Yorker,  so  the 
New  Yorker  has  the  same  rights  in  Florida  as  a  Floridian.  And 
we  may  add,  that  as  this  editor  complains  very  bitterly  of  the 
injuly  done  to  Florida  by  radical  slanders,  so  we  can  assure  him 
that  no  slander  is  so  injurious  to  Florida  as  the  political  intoler- 
ance of  which  he  is  so  unconscious,  yet  so  genuine,  a  specimen. 
The  fact  is,  that  slavery  has  so  ingrained  political  proscription 
into  the  Southern  mind,  that  the  true  Bourbon  but  slowly  learns 
what  tolerance  is.     A  Northern  man  never  imagines  that  he  has 


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1881.1  QaaHefrly  Book -Table.  197 

a  right,  beyond  the  statutory  provisions,  to  say  who  may  or  may 
not  come  into  the  State.  But  the  Southern  Bourbon  imagines 
that  it  is  his  right  to  sit  imperially,  and  admit  just  the  man  he 
pleases  to  certificate.  At  present  his  permit  allows  all  Democrats, 
and  also  all  Republicans  who  consent  to  disfranchise  themselves 
of  their  rights  of  free  action  in  politics.  We  are  glad  to  say 
that  there  is  less  of  this  proscriptiveness  in  Florida  than  else- 
where; especially  in  eastern  Florida,  where  an  annual  rush  of 
Northern  visitors,  three  fourths  of  whom  are  doubtless  Repub- 
lican, brings  a  volume  of  greenbacks  and  bank  checks,  that  are  ac- 
ceptable even  to  a  Democratic  pocket,  and  soothing  to  the  par- 
oxysms of  the  most  frantic  Bourbon.  We  said  once  to  a  typical 
Floridian,  boasting  of  the  glorious  future  of  Florida,  "  But  all 
that  arises  from  the  abolition  of  slavery."  "That  is  so,"  replied 
he.  "  But  you  sustained  slavery."  "  Yes,  I  was  as  big  a  fool  as 
any  of  'em." 

It  would  be  a  dishonor,  at  the  present  time,  for  any  evangelical 
Church  to  be  outdone  by  the  commercial  interests  in  the  work  of 
peace.  There  is  no  moral  or  religious  excuse  at  the  present  hour 
for  churchly  cherishing  of  the  spirit  of  sectional  strife.  The  re- 
ligious and  the  commercial  community  should  harmonize  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  war  of  the  politicians.  The  time  should  be  hastened 
when  it  would  be  a  matter  of  as  much  indifference  whether  North 
or  South  has  a  spontaneous  preponderance  as  East  or  West.  The 
cordial  spirit  of  our  late  General  Conference,  we  believe,  con- 
vinced our  many  Southern  visitors  that  we  are  sincere  in  our  as- 
pirations for  Christian  and  national  harmony.  In  this  spirit  we 
united,  North  and  South,  in  heartily  urging  the  ecumenical  move- 
ment for  a  union  of  all  the  Methodisms  of  the  world.  On  that 
movement  we  believe  the  divine  blessing  rests;  and  we  hail  it  as 
not  only  tightening  the  cords  of  our  national  Union,  but  as  in- 
creasing the  ties  that  bind  the  world  together  in  the  bonds  of 
truth  and  peace. 


Foreign  Theological  Publications. 

Die  DarwinU  dk«fi  Theorien  wid  ihre  SteUung  zur  ^hUoaophie^  Religion,  und  Moral 
Yon  RuD.  SOHMID.    Stuttgart,  1878:  Moser. 

The  Darwinian  excitement  is  beyond  its  crisis.     The  heads  on 
both  sides  are  become  much  cooler.     It  is  begun  to  be  felt  that  it 
is  very  unwise  for  scientists  lo  theol*ogize  so  hastily  from  such 
Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 13 


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198  Ifethodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jan  nary, 

hypothetical  premises,  and  equally  unwise  for  theologians  to  be 
so  overzealous  in  steadying  the  "  ark "  before  it  is  in  any  real 
danger.  Schinid's  book  (pp.  426)  is  very  cool,  and  clear,  and 
Christian.  It  gives,  first,  a  candid  statement  of  the  various  Dar- 
winian and  Darwinistic  theories;  then  it  considers  the  bearing 
of  these  theories  on  the  many  questions  of  philosophy,  ethics,  and 
religion.  The  style  is  pleasing,  the  temper  admirable,  the  results 
pacifying.  What  if  some  of  the  main  points  of  Darwinism  were 
true  ?  Christianity  would  remain  undisturbed.  But  they  are  not 
yet  proved.  Conclusion :  Let  physics  continue  on,  undisturbed, 
its  valuable  investigations  in  one  sphere  of  truth ;  let  theology 
still  work  on,  unjealously,  in  its  grand  sphere  of  all  truth.  The 
points  at  which  Darwinistic  specialists  have  violated  the  laws 
of  true  science  are :  1.  They  have  indulged  too  much  in  hypoth- 
eses, and  ignored  the  laws  of  logic.  Their  conclusions  are  largely 
colored  with  enthusiasm  and  imagination.  2.  They  exaggerate 
the  inflnence  of  selectioTu  The  influence  of  climate  and  of  other 
physical  conditions  are  more  potent  than  that  of  selection:  instead 
of  coming  to  the  aid  of  selection  they  generally  lend  to  counteract 
it.  Sexual  selection  is  not  mainly  governed  by  beauty  and  force. 
It  is  largely  influenced  by  the  law  of  opposites,  the  one  party  in- 
stinctively mating  with  another  whose  advantages  contrast  with 
his  defects,  or  conversely — which  tends  on  the  whole  not  to  the 
improvement  of  the  race,  but  simply  to  the  conservation  of  the 
original  type.  3.  They  exaggerate  the  influence  of  heredity. 
When  heredity  is  not  artificially  directed,  it  tends  rather  to  the 
degeneration  of  the  species  than  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Very  marked  traits  are  observed  to  appear  utterly  unexpectedly, 
and  then  suddenly  to  vanish  for  a  generation  or  a  whole  epoch. 
The  noblest  qualities  are  the  lot  of  the  fewest  individuals,  and 
are  not  generally  transmitted.  It  is  not  infrequent  that  an  ideally 
beautiful  individual  springs  from  uncomely  parents,  and  the  con- 
verse. 5.  They  press  unwarrantably  the  analogy  between  arti- 
ficial and  natural  selection.  The  finest  products  of  artificial  se- 
lection are,  in  a  certain  degree,  abnormal  and  monstrous.  They 
serve  only  the  special  purpose  of  the  artful  producer;  they  do 
not  profit  the  individual  produced.  The  '* improved"  kinds  of 
animals,  birds,  and  plants  are  uniformly  less  hardy  and  less  ca- 
pable of  self-assertion  than  were  the  "  common  "  individuals  from 
which  they  sprang.  So  soon  as  left  to  themselves,  they  speedily 
revert  to  the  common  type,  or  become  extinct.  Which  proves 
that  artificial  selection  is  limited  in  its  effects  to  mere  individuals, 


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1881.]  Qua7^terly  BooJc-TabU,  199 

bat  does  not  affect  or  in  any  way  benefit  the  race.  6.  The  most 
serious  error  of  the  Darwinists  is  their  obscuring  of  the  idea  of 
species.  This  is  a  matter  of  radical  importance ;  for  this  idea  is 
the  pole-star  of  natural  science.  An  essential  element  in  the 
notion  of  species  is  that  o^  filiation.  This  they  generally  ignore. 
And  their  indistinct  idea  of  species  leads  to  equally  obscure  no- 
tions of  race  and  variety.  They  perpetually  confound  species, 
races,  and  varieties.  And  this  vagueness  leads  them  to  overlook 
the  radical  difference  between  hybridization  and  metissage.  The 
hybrid  comes  from  the  crossing  of  different  species ;  the  metif 
from  the  crossing  of  races  or  varieties  of  the  same  species.  Now 
the  former  can  be  effected  only  with  the  utmost  difficulty,  and  the 
individuals  resulting  are  uniformly  feeble,  and  usually  sterile.  In 
any  case,  they  speedily  perish,  or  revert  to  the  type  of  a  single 
one  of  their  producing  species.  They  never  pennaueutly  retain 
the  traits  of  both.  On  the  contrary,  the  metif  is  produced  spon- 
taneously without  the  least  artificial  constraint.  And  it  has  no 
defect  of  vigor  or  of  reproductive  power.  Here  there  is  no  viola- 
tion of  the  integrity  of  the  species  ;  the  races  or  varieties  uniting 
are  of  the  same  species.  6.  There  is,  therefore,  no  warrant  what- 
ever for  the  immense  Darwinistic  inference  of  a  transformation 
of  species.  It  is  utterly  contradicted  by  the  only  two  things 
which  could  prove  it :  the  results  of  experiments,  and  the  his- 
torical evidence  of  the  geological  records.  The  records  of  the 
rocks  show  not  transformation,  but  only  permanent  persistence 
of  type.  And  when  refuge  is  taken  to  imaginary  millions  of 
ages,  the  well  ascertained  laws  of  physics  and  chemistry  put  in 
their  caveat:  such  fabulous  millions  of  millions  of  years  have 
not  existed.  The  remains  of  species  found  in  the  most  remote 
geological  ages  are  like  those  of  species  now  existing,  and  all 
the  artificial  variations  which  man  has  been  able  to  effect  are 
but  as  a  momentary  ripple  on  a  narrow  surface;  they  soon  dis- 
appear, and  the  great  level  stream  of  the  species  moves  on  as 
fipom  of  old. 

BneydopSdie  des  Sciences  JieHgieuses.  Public  Sous  la  Direction  de  F.  Lichtenberg- 
er,  Doyen  de  la  Faculty  de  Theologie  Protestente  de  Paris.  Paris:  Sandoz 
et  Fischbacher. 

The  four  stout  volumes  which  have  already  appeared  of  this  mas- 
ter-work of  French  Protestant  erudition  fully  meet  the  high  ex- 
pectations awakened  by  the  prospectus  of  the  work  in  18V7.  It 
is  to  embrace  the  whole  scope  of  subjects  falling  under  the  head 
of  "  religious  sciences."    Each  article  of  importance  is  the  produc- 


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200  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [January, 

tion  of  a  recognized  expert  on  the  subject  discussed.  The  spirit 
of  the  whole  is  purely  scientific.  The  tone  of  the  work  is  evangel- 
ically catholic.  Contributors  to  the  work  are  eminent  men  from 
all  folds  of  the  Church.  M.  Lichtenberger,  the  editor-in-chief,  is 
a  fine  representative  of  French  orthodoxy,  and  enjoys  the  esteem 
and  confidence  of  all  the  Churches.  He  exercises  the  right  of 
striking  out  from  the  articles  of  his  contributors  every  thing  of  a 
polemical  or  otherwise  offensive  character.  .  .  .  Each  subject  is, 
therefore,  presented  simply  on  its  own  footing ;  and  the  whole 
work  bears  largely  the  character  of  compact  scientific  summary 
or  of  direct  historical  statement.  From  a  careful  examination  of  a 
wide  range  of  test  articles,  we  are  highly  pleased  with  the  tone  of 
the  work.  "We  mention  a  few  points.  The  work  is  not  Calvinis- 
tic.  Nor  is  it  sacramentarian ;  the  Anglican  ritualist  will  find  in 
it  no  crumb  of  comfort.  It  is  just  to  Arminianism,  and  to  all 
schools  of  Methodism.  And  in  general  its  treatment  of  the  history 
of  every  evangelical  sect  is  candid  and  sympathetic.  As  a  whole 
the  work  ought  to  find  its  way  to  all  our  college  and  theological 
libraries.  And  we  cordially  advise  all  preachers  who  read  French 
to  procure  it  for  their  personal  enjoyment.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
read  it.  When  we  take  down  our  "  Herzog  "  we  expect  a  little 
tug  of  war,  and  a  positive  exertion  of  attention  intermingled  with 
an  occasional  yawn.  But  our  **  Lichtenberger  "  is  an  esthetic  de- 
light ;  it  keeps  us  awake  even  of  a  hot  summer  afternoon.  The 
work  is  finely  printed,  and,  we  may  add,  cheaply.  It  appears  in 
installments  of  160  octavo  pages,  at  seventy  cents  per  part.  The 
whole  work  is  to  consist  of  twelve  volumes  of  800  pages  each, 
every  five  installments  making  a  volume.  It  can  be  had  by  mail, 
or  through  any  foreign  bookseller.  We  close  by  citing  a  passage 
of  statistics  from  an  article  on  Egypt.  It  is  by  E.  Vaucher :  "  The 
wars  of  1874-75  nearly  trebled  the  dominions  of  the  Khedive. 
He  now  rules  over  at  least  17,000,000  souls.  Among  his  new  sub- 
jects there  are  1,000,000  Nubians,  6,000,000  Ethopians,  and  nearly 
6,000,000  of  Africans,  (in  his  southern  borders.)  To  Egypt  proper 
the  official  census  gives  6,252,000.  The  religion  of  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  whole  population  is  that  of  Islam.  But  contact 
with  Christian  nations  has  rendered  Islamism  more  tolerant 
here  than  in  any  other  country.  The  venerable  Christian  com- 
munity of  the  Copts  have  asserted  their  existence  without  inter- 
ruption for  eleven  centuries  of  Mohammedan  subjugation.  In 
the  eighth  century  they  numbered  some  600,000  communicants; 
they  still  number  about  200,000.  The  head  of  their  hierarchy  is  a 
patriarch.     The  Khedive  invests  him  with  his  office  after  his  con- 


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1881.]  Qua/rterly  Book-TaUe.  201 

secration.  But  this  is  a  mere  formality,  paid  for  by  a  compliment 
in  money.  Under  the  patriarch  there  are  at  present  twelve  bishops. 
The  other  orders  of  the  priesthood  are  arch-priests,  piiests,  dea- 
cons, and  readers.  The  monastic  life  is  largely  prevalent,  there 
being  araontc  them  at  least  threescore  of  convents.  The  other 
Christians  of  Egypt  number  some  80,000.  They  are  mostly  for- 
eigners. The  Roman  Church  has  long  tried  in  vain  to  win  the  Copts 
into  submission  to  ihe  Pope.  There  is  a  bishop  at  Cairo,  with 
some  score  of  missionary  outposts.  The  whole  Catholic  popula- 
tion numbers  40,000.  Of  these  some  10,000  are  Copts.  The  orig- 
inal Catholic  Church  of  Egypt,  the  Orthodox  Greek,  still  numbers 
some  35,000  souls.  Of  Protestants  of  all  denominations  the  number 
is  certainly  below  10,000.  Few  countries  have  proved  more  un- 
fruitful as  missionary  ground.  The  hope  once  entertained  of  re- 
viving the  spirituality  of  the  Copts  is  not  likely  to  be  realized. 
The  Missionaiy  Society  of  Basle  made  extensive  efforts  between 
1861  and  1872.  Thfeir  unsuccess  seems  to  have  discouraged  them. 
As  yet,  therefore,  it  must  be  confessed,  a  solid,  reliable  nucleus  of 
a  Protestant  Church  in  Egypt  has  not  been  formed." 


MisceUcmecms. 

Andym  and.  Formation  of  Latin  Words.  With  Table  for  Analysis,  List  of  Books, 
etc.  By  Frank  Smallet,  A.M.  12mo.  Pp.  87.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. :  John  T. 
Roberts,  1879. 

Our  Syracuse  Latin  professor  has  here  furnished  a  unique  class- 
book,  original,  we  believe,  in  its  character,  and  arising  from  the 
needs  of  his  pupils.  It  consists  of  a  presentation  of  the  prin- 
ciples, with  exercises,  of  verbal  analysis  by  distinguishing  the 
roots  and  tracing  the  modifications  through  which  they  pass  in 
the  formation  of  words.  •  A  number  of  ruled  blank  pages  are 
added  for  the  student's  practice.  This  is  one  of  the  results  of 
comparative  philology,  by  which  new  interest  is  given  to  the 
study  of  language  and  new  benefits  attained  in  its  acquirement. 

Sabbath  Home  lUadings.  A  Series  of  Meditations  for  the  Lord's  Day;  Upon 
Vital  Themes  of  Spiritual  Thought,  Experience,  and  Duty.  By  J.  W.  Cornb- 
Lius.     12mo.,  pp.  582.    Baltimore :  D.  H.  Carroll.     1879. 

The  writer  informs  us  that  his  volume  is  prepared  for  those  who 

look  in  vain  for  just  the  right  book  for  Sunday  reading.     He  has 

no  conception  that  the  Sunday  newspaper  satisfies  all  demands. 

His  plan  is  to  furnish  a  consecutive  series  of  reading  for  every 

Sunday  in  the  year.    These  are  written  in  a  pure  style,  a  devout 


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203  Methodist  Quarterly  Reoiew.  [January, 

and  reflective  spirit,  with  a  due  depth  of  both  Christian  doctrine 
and  Christian  experience.  It  is  very  admirable  for  consecrating 
the  Sabbath  to  the  work  of  growing  in  Christian  life. 

Pastoral  Bays;  or,  Memories  of  a  New  England  Year.    By  W.  Hamilton  Gibson. 

Dlustrated.  8vo.,  gilt.  New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers.  1881. 
This  is  a  book  of  beauty,  an  annual  for  this  or  any  other  year. 
Mr.  Gibson's  descriptions  of  the  New  England  season  are  written 
in  the  style  of  a  most  minute  observer  and  graphic  delineator  of 
nature;  and  the  illustrations,  designed  by  his  own  hand,  are  sin- 
gularly delicate  and  truthful 

Conquests  by  the  Sea.  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  President  of  the  Ocean 
Grove  Camp-Meeting  Association  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Paper 
covert,  8vo.,  pp.  48.  Published  by  order  of  the  Association,  Ocean  Grove, 
N.  J.     1880. 

A  very  interesting  survey  of  one  of  the  most  successful  efforts 

to  raise  a  Christian  community  by  the  sea-side. 

The  Standard  Series.    4to.,  paper.    Pulpit  Table-Talk,   .By  Edward  B.  Ramsat, 

LL.D.     The  JBible  and  the  Newspaper.    By  Charles  H.  Spurqeon.    Lacon ;  or, 

Many  Things  in  Few  Words.    Addressed  to  Those  who  Think.     By  Rev.  C.  0. 

CoLTON,  A.M.     New  York:  L  K.  Funk  &  Co. 
History  of  the  English  People.    By  John  Richard  Green,  M.A.    Vol.  IV.     The 

Revolution,  1683-1760.   Modem  England,  1760-1815.   8vo.,pp.  619.   New  York: 

Harper  &  Brothers. 
History  of  Our  Own  Times.    From  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria  to  the  General 

Election  of  1880.     By  Justin  M'Carthy.    Vol  XL     Small  8vo.,  pp.  682.    New 

York :  Harper  &  Brothers.    1880. 
7'he  Doctrines  and  Discipline  of  the  Methodist  Episcopai  Churchy  1880.     With  an 

Appendix.    Edited  by  Bishop  Harris.     32mo.,  pp.  460.    New  York :  Phillips  k 

Hunt.     Cincinnati :   Walden  &  Stowe. 
New  Colorado  and  tlie  Santa  Fe  Trail,     By  A.  A.  Hates,  Jun.,  A.  M.     Illustrated. 

8vo.,  pp.  200.     New  York:   Harper  &  Brothers.     1880. 
Duty^  with  Illustrations  of  Courage^  Patience^  and  Endurance.     By  Samuel  Smiles* 

LL.D.     12mo.,  pp.  412.     New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 
The  Illustrated  CoiUwlic  Family  Annual  for  1881.     Paper  covers,  12mo.,  pp.  144. 

New  York :   The  Catholic  Publication  Society  Co. 
Report  of  the  Commissioner  of   Education  for  the  year  1878.     8vo.,   pp.   780. 

Washington  :   Government  Printing-office.     1880. 
The  Phceacians  of  Homer.    The  Pha3acian  Episode  of  the  Odyssey,  as  comprised 

in  the  Sixth,  Seventh,  Eighth,  Eleventh,  and  Thirteenth  Books.     With  Introduc- 
tion, Notes,  and  Appendix.     By  Augustus  C.  Mkrrlim,  Ph.D.    Illustrated,  12mo., 

pp.  286.     New  York  :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1880. 
Emlish  Men  of  Letters.    Edited  by  John  Morley.    John  Locke^  by  Thomas  Fowler, 

12rao.,  pp.  200.     New  York  :    Harper  &  Brothers.     1880. 
The  Class-Meeting.     In  Twenty  Short  Chapters.    By  0.  P.  Fitzgerald,  D.D.     16mo., 

pp.  104.     Nashville,  Tenn. :  Southern  Publishing  House.     1880. 
American  Manual  of  Parliamentary  Law  ;  or,  The  Common  Law  of  Deliberative 

Assemblies.     Systematically  arranged  for  the  Use  of  the  Parliamentarian  and 

the   Novice.    By  George  T.  Fish.    16mo.,  pp.  140.    New  York :  Harper  k 

Brothers.     1880. 
Genesis  I-II:  An  Essay  on  the  Bible  Narrative  of  Creation.     By  Augustus  R. 

Grotb,A.M.     12mo.,  paper.    Pp.82.    New  York :  Asa  K.  Butts.     1880. 


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1881.]  Quartey^ly  Book-TcMe.  203 

Franklin  Squari  Librart.  4to.,  paper:  The  Life  of  Jame*  A.  GarfUHd,  By  Ed- 
mund EiRKE.  Pp.  64.  Three  volumes  of  the  English  Men  of  Letters.  Edited 
by  John  Morley :  1.  Robert  Bums.  By  Principal  Shairp.  2.  Oliver  Goldstniih. 
By  William  Black.  3.  John  Bunyan.  By  James  Frocdb.  Pp.  81.  Three  vol- 
umes of  the  English  Men  of  Letters :  1.  Samuel  Johnson.  By  Leslie  Stephen. 
2.  iSSir  Waiter  Scott.  By  Richard  H.  Hutton.  3.  William  M.  Thackeray.  By 
Anthony  Trollope.  Pp.  88.  The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox.  By 
George  Otto  Treveltan,  M.P.  Pp.  84.  A  Sailor's  Sweetheart,  etc.  By  W. 
Cla&k  Russell.  Pp.  81.  Three  Recruits,  and  the  Girls  They  Left  Behind  Them. 
By  Joseph  Hatton.  Pp.  68.  Horace  M'tean:  A  Story  of  a  Search  in  a  Strange 
Place.  By  Alice  O'Hanlon.  Pp.  66.  From  The  J^n^s.  By  B.  H.  Buxton. 
Pp.  62.  He  That  WiU  Not  When  He  May.  By  Mrs.  Oliphant.  Pp.  86.  Fn- 
dymion.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Benjamin  Disraeli.  Pp.  84.  Duty,  with  Illustra- 
tions of  Courage,  Patience,  and  Endurance.  By  Samuel  Smiles,  LL.D.  Pp.  68. 
New  York :   Harper  &  Brothers. 

Harper's  Half-Hour  Series.  82mo,  paper.  Life  Sketches  of  Macaulay.  By  Charles 
Adams,  D.D.  Pp.  140.  A  Primer  of  French  Literature.  By  George  Saintsburt. 
Pp.216.    New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers. 

7%«  Western  Farmer  of  America,  By  Augustus  Mongredien.  In  paper.,  12mo. 
Pp.  30.    Cassell,  Petter,  Galpin  k  Co.,  London,  Paris,  and  New  York. 

Shakspeare's  Tragedy  of  Eing  Lear.  Edited,  with  Notes,  by  William  J.  Route, 
A.M.   With  Engravings.    16mo.,  pp.  267.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.    1880. 

Good  Government.  Appeal  of  Peter  Cooper,  now  in  the  Slst  Year  of  his  Age,  to 
all  Legislators,  Editors,  Religious  Teachers,  and  Lovers  of  Our  Country.  By 
Peter  Cooper.  Paper  covers.  8vo.,  pp.  48.  New  York :  J.  J.  Little  *&  Co., 
Printers.     1880. 

Higher  Education  of  Medical  Men,  and  its  Influence  on  the  Profession  and  the  Public. 
Being  the  Address  delivered  before  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine,  at  its 
Fifth  Annual  Meeting.  By  F.  D.  Lente,  A.M.,  M.D.  Paper.  8vo.,  pp.  16.  New 
York:  Charles  L.  Bermingham  k  Co.    1880. 

The  American  Conflict.  A  Household  Story.  By  Mart  S.  Robinson.  Three  Vol- 
umes. 16mo.  Illustrated.  VoL  I,  pp.  273;  Vol.  II,  pp.  291;  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  194. 
New  York :  Phillips  k  Hunt.    Cincinnati :  Walden  A  Stowe.     1880. 

The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox,  By  George  Otto  Treveltan,  MP. 
8vo.,  pp.  470.    New  York:  Harper  ft  Brothers.     1880. 

7%*  Senior  Lesson  Book.  (Berean  Series,  No.  1.)  On  the  International  Lessons  for 
1881.  16mo.,  pp.  182.  New  York:  Phillips  &  Hunt  Cmcinnati:  Walden  & 
Stowe. 

The  Berean  Question  Book,  (Berean  Series,  No.  2.)  On  the  International  Lessons 
for  1881.  16mo.,  pp.  179.  New  York:  Phillips  &  Hunt.  Cincinnati:  Walden 
&  Stowe. 

The  Berean  Beginner's  Booh,  (Berean  Series,  No.  8.)  16mo.,  pp.  208.  New  York : 
Phillips  &  Hunt.     Cincinnati :  Walden  &  Stowe. 

The  RaUan  Principia,  Part  L  A  Rrst  Italian  Course.  Containing  a  Grammar, 
Delectus,  and  Exercise  Book,  with  Vocabularies  on  the  Plan  of  Dr.  William 
Smith*8  ** Principia  Latina.**  12mo.,  pp.  221.  New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers. 
1880. 

A  Graded  SpeUing-Book.  Being  a  Complete  Course  in  Spelling  for  Primary  and 
Grammar  Schools.  Two  Parts  in  One  Volume.  By  H.  F.  Harrington.  16mo. 
Part  I,  pp.  78 ;  Part  n,  pp.  92.    New  York:  Harper  A  Brothers.     1881. 

The  Lesson  Commentary  on  The  International  Sunday-School  Lessons  for  1881. 
By  John  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  J.  L.  Hurlbut,  M.A.  8vo.,  pp.  842.  New 
York :  Phillips  k  Hunt.     Cincinnati :  Walden  k  Stowe.    1880. 

Four  Centuries  of  English  Letters.  Selections  from  the  Correspondence  of  One 
Hundred  and  Rfty  Writers,  from  the  Period  of  the  Parton  Letters  to  the  Pres- 
ent Day.  Edited  and  Arranged  by  W.  Baptists  Scoonbs.  12mo.,  pp.  678. 
New  York:   Harper  A  Brothers.     1880. 


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204  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [January. 

Drifting  and  Anchored.  By  Mrs.  E.  J.  Richmond,  Author  of  "  The  M'Allstere/' 
"The  Jeweled  Serpent,"  " Zoa  Rodman,"  "The  Fatal  Dower,"  *' Adopted," 
"  Hope  Raymond,"  etc  Three  Illustrations.  16mo.,  pp.  258.  New  York  :  Phil- 
lipn  k  Hunt.     Cincinnati :   Walden  k  Stowe.     1880. 

Amy's  Probation  ;  or.  Six  Months  at  a  Convent  School.  An  Answer  to  the  Ques- 
tion, Shall  Protestant  Girls  be  sent  to  Roman  Catholic  Schools  ?  By  the  Author 
of  "Glaucia,"  "  Flavia,"  "  Ayesha,"  etc  Two  Illustrations.  16mo.,  pp.251. 
New  York :   Phillips  &  Himt.    Cincinnati :  Walden  A  Stowe.     1880. 

JSaxby.  A  Tale  of  Old  and  New  Elgland.  By  Emma  Leslue,  Author  of  "  Ayesha," 
"  Margarethe,"  "  Walter,"  etc  Four  Illustrations.  12mo.,  pp.  315.  New  York  : 
Phillips  &  Hunt    Cincinnati :  Walden  A  Stowe.  1880. 

Walter,  A  Tale  of  the  Times  of  Wesley.  By  Emma  Leslie,  Author  of  **  Leof- 
wine  the  Saxon,"  "Conrad,"  etc.  Four  Illustrations.  12mo.,  pp.  864.  New  York : 
Phillips  A  Hunt    Cincinnati :   Walden  A  Stowe.    1880. 

JFur  Clad  Adventurers  ;  or  Travels  in  Skin-canoes,  on  Dog-sledges,  on  Reindeer  and 
on  Snow-shoes,  through  Alaska,  Kamchatka,  and  Extern  Siberia.  By  Z.  A. 
MuDGK,  Author  of  "  Arctic  Heroes,"  "  North-Pole  Voyages,"  etc.  Four  Illustra- 
tions. 16mo.,  pp.  842.  New  York :  Phillips  k  Hunt  Cincinnati :  Walden  & 
Stowe.     1880. 

Elizabeth  Christine,  Wife  of  Frederick  the  Great.  By  Catharink  E.  Hurst.  Jive 
Illustrations.  16mo.,  pp.  253.  New  York :  Phillips  k  Hunt  Cincinnati :  Wal- 
den &  Stowe.     1880. 

Thirty-Eighih  Annual  R^ort  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Oity  and  County 
of  New  York,  for  the  Official  Year  Ending  December  81,  1879.  8vo.,  pp.  885. 
New  York :  Hall  of  the  Board  of  Education.     1880. 

William^  CuUen  Bryant.  A  Biographical  Sketch,  with  Selections  from  his  Poems 
and  other  Writings.  By  Andrkw  James  Stmimgton,  F.R.S.N.A.  12mo.,  pp.  256. 
New  York :  Harper  A  Brothers.     1880. 

The  Origin  of  the  Homeric  Poems.  A  Lecture  by  Dr.  Hbrmanh  Bonitz.  Translated 
from  the  Fourth  German  Edition,  by  Lewis  R.  Packard.  16mo.,  pp.  119.  New 
York:   Harper  &  Brothers.     1880. 

The  Boy  Travelers  in  the  Far  East.  Part  Second.  Adventures  of  two  Youths 
in  a  Journey  to  Siam  and  Java,  with  descriptions  of  Cochin-China,  Cambodia, 
Sumatra,  and  the  Malay  Archipelago.  By  Thomas  W.  Knox,  author  of  "  Camp- 
Rre  and  Cotton  Field,"  "  Overland  Through  Asia,"  "  Under  Ground,"  "  John," 
etc.    Illustrated.     8vo.,  pp.  446.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

The  End  of  a  Coil.  By  the  Author  of  "  The  Wide,  Wide  World."  12mo.,  pp.  718. 
New  York:    Robert  Carter  &  Brothers.     1880. 

Washington  Square.  By  Henry  James,  Jun.,  Author  of  "  Daisy  Miller,"  "  An  In- 
ternational Episode,"  etc  Illustrated  by  George  Du  Maurier.  12mo.,  pp. 
266.    New  York :  Harper  k  Brothers.     1881 

George  Bailey.  A  Tale  of  New  York  Mercantile  Life.  By  Outer  Oldbot.  12ma, 
pp.  288.     New  York:    Harper  k  Brothers.     1880. 

Mary  Anerly.  A  Yorkshire  Tale.  By  R.  D.  Blaokmork,  Author  of  "  Alice  Lor- 
raine," " Loma  Doone,"  etc  12mo.,  pp.  516.  New  York:  Harper  k  Broth- 
ers.    1880. 

Friends  Worth  Knowing.  Glimpses  of  American  Natural  History.  By  Ernest 
IngersoU.    Illustrated.    12mo.,  pp.  255.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.    1881. 

Ben-Hur.  A  Tale  of  the  Christ  By  Lew.  Wallace,  Author  of  the  "  Fair-God." 
12mo.,  pp.  552.    New  York  :  Harper  k  Brothers.     1880. 

The  Moral  Pirates,  By  W.  L.  Alden.  Hlustrated.  12mo.,  pp.  148.  New  York: 
Harper  k  Brothers.     1881. 

American  Newspaper  Directory.  8vo.,  pp.  1044.  New  York :  G«orge  P.  Rowell  & 
Co.    1880. 


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yvi 


ETHODIST 

Quarterly  Eeview. 

APEIL,    1881. 


Abt.  I.— MAN'S  PLACE  IN  TIME. 

Preadamiiei ;  or,  A  Demonstration  of  the  Existence  of  Man  before  Adam.  By 
Alexander  Winchell,  LL.D.  Chicago :  S.  C.  Griggs  k  Co.  London :  Tnibner 
A  Co.    1880. 

£nrly  Man  in  Britain  and  His  Place  in  the  Tertiary  Period.  By  W.  Botd  Daw- 
UN8,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.S.A.    London:  Macmillan  k  Co.    1880. 

The  Auri/erGU*  GhraveU  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of  California,  By  J.  D.  Whithet. 
Cambridge:  Printed  by  the  Uniyersity  Press.    1879. 

It  is  now  nearly  forty  years  since  M.  Boucher  de  Perthes  and 
the  Danish  archceologista  laid  the  foundation  of  the  science  of 
prehistoric  archaeology.  The  former,  in  1844,  announced  his 
discoveries  of  implements  of  human  workmanship  in  the  drift 
of  the  Somme  Valley,  and  earlier  than  that  Thomsen,  Wop- 
saae,  and  others  had  unearthed  ^^  the  primeval  antiquities  of 
Denmark,"  and  formulated  their  theory  of  the  Stone,  Bronze, 
and  Iron  Ages,  as  based  on  the  discoveries  made  in  the  Danish 
peat-bogs,  stone-graves,  and  shell-moxmds.  Some  ten  or  fifteen 
years  later  Dr.  Keller  brought  to  light  the  relics  of  man  which 
had  slept  for  so  many  years  beneath  the  waves  of  the  Swiss 
lakes;  and  contemporaneously  with  these  explorations  Bateman 
and  Thumam  commenced  their  diggings  into  the  ancient  Brit- 
ish barrows.  The  results  of  all  these  investigations  were  first 
collected  and  laid  before  the  British  public  in  1863  by  Sir 
Charles  Lyell  in  his  famous  work  on  "  The  Antiquity  of  Man," 
and  in  1865  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  his  "Prehistoric  Times." 
After  it  rained  it  soon  began  to  pour,  and  the  evidences  of  the 
Fourth  Sbmbs,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 14 


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206  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

antiquity  of  man  seemed  to  multiply  in  every  direction.  Egyp- 
tian pottery  was  found  at  the  depth  of  sixty  feet  in  the  mud  of 
the  Nile ;  human  bones  were  reported  from  the  coral  rock  of 
Florida ;  a  human  skeleton  was  found  near  New  Orleans,  whose 
age  was  estimated  at  nearly  60,000  years ;  a  number  of  primi- 
tive canoes  were  found  buried  in  the  earth  at  a  depth  of  from 
five  to  twenty-five  feet  from  the  surface,  so^e  of  them  twenty 
feet  above  high-water  mark,  near  the  city  of  Glasgow ;  stone 
axes  were  found  in  the  river  gravels  of  India  associated  with 
the  bones  of  extinct  animals ;  tombs,  assigned  to  the  Bronze 
Age,  were  found  intact  under  the  peperino,  or  volcanic  tufa,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Home ;  arrowheads  and  pottery  were  found 
in  association  with  the  bones  of  the  mastodon  and  mammoth 
in  the  United  States ;  human  bones  were  found  with  those  of 
the  elephant  in  the  volcanic  breccia  of  Puy  de  D6me,  in  Cen- 
tral France ;  perforated  sharks'  teeth  were  found  in  the  Plio- 
cene beds  of  the  east  coasts  of  England ;  strange  stories  were 
told  before  scientific  associations  of  human  skulls  found  in  the 
heart  of  Table  Mountain,  California.  There  were  so  many 
converging  lines  of  evidence,  and  the  authority  on  which  the 
facts  were  given,  or  vouched  for,  was  so  high — men  like  Lyell, 
Wallace,  Owen,  Lubbock,  Huxley,  De  Quatrefages,  De  Mor- 
tillet,  Broca,  Virchow,  Dana,  Cope — that  the  received  Mosaic 
chronology  was  almost  dropped  by  general  consent,  and  the 
enemies  of  Christianity  congratulated  themselves  that  a  ball 
at  last  had  been  driven  through  the  sacred  roll  of  the  Hebrew 
books. 

The  age  of  the  "  artisans  of  the  drift " — the  men  of  the  river 
gi.avel8 — was  variously  estimated  at  from  100,000  to  500,000 
years.  Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  calculated  that  the  worked 
flints  found  beneath  the  stalagmitic  floors  in  Kent's  Cavern  at 
Torquay  had  lain  there  500,000  years,  and  another  scientist  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  they  were  even  1,000,000  years  old. 
Sir  Charles  Lyell  referred  the  gravels  of  the  Somme  Valley  to 
the  close  of  the  Glacial  Epoch,  whose  date  he  fixed  at  800,000 
years  ago. 

But  in  1863  M.  Desnoyers  reported  to  the  French  Academy 
of  Sciences  that  he  had  discovered  far  older  traces  of  man  than 
most  of  these  in  the  upper  Pliocene  beds  of  St.  Prest,  and  about 
the  same  time  a  similar  discovery  in  Italy  was  reported  to  the 


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1881.]  Man'%  Place  in  Time.  207 

Italian  Society  of  Natural  Sciences  by  Professor  Eamorino. 
Nor  did  the  discoveries  stop  here.  M.  Bourgeois,  in  1869, 
claimed  that  he  had  found  flints  chipped  into  cutting  imple- 
ments by  man  in  the  Calcaire  de  Beauce,  near  Pontlevoy,  in 
France,*  some  of  which  had  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire. 
It  was  this  same  year  that  Professor  J.  D.  Whitney  submitted 
to  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
the  famous  Calaveras  skull  found  in  the  heart  of  Table  Mount- 
ain, California,  under  130  feet  of  volcanic  and  other  deposits. 

In  1874  Professor  James  Geikie,  F.E.S.E.,  F.G.S.,  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Scotland,  published  his  weU-known  work, 
"  The  Great  Ice  Age,  and  its  Eolation  to  the  Antiquity  of 
Man."  At  the  close  of  the  volume  he  placed  the  following 
addenchmi: 

Postscript.  A  remarkable  discove^  has  just  been  announced. 
Mr.  Tiddeman  writes  to  "Nature,"  Nov.  6,  1873,  that  among  a 
Dumber  of  bones  obtained  during  the  exploration  of  the  Victoria 
Cave,  near  Settle,  Yorkshire,  there  is  one  which  Mr.  Busk  has 
identified  as  human.  Mr.  Busk  says :  "  The  bone  is,  I  have  no 
doubt,  human;  a  portion  of  an  unusually  clumsy  fibula,  and  in 
that  respect  not  unlike  the  same  bone  in  the  Mentone  skeleton ! 
The  interest  of  this  discovery  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  deposit 
from  which  the  bone  was  obtained  is  overlaid,  as  Mr.  Tiddeman 
has  shown,  by  a  bed  of  stiff  glacial  clay  containing  ice-soratched 
boulders."  Here,  then,  is  direct  proof  that  man  lived  prior  to  the 
last  inter-glacial  period.  1  have  said  above  (p.  472)  that  it  is 
highly  likely  that  man  may  have  occupied  Britain  in  early  inter- 
glacial  or  pre-glacial  times;  but  I  haraly  looked  for  so  early  and 
complete  a  confirmation  of  views  which  I  first  published  in  the 
beginning  of  1872. 

The  same  year  that  Mr.  Geikie's  work  appeared.  Professor 
W.  Boyd  Dawkins,  M.A.,  F.E.S.,  F.G.S.,  F.S.A.,  Curator  of 
the  Mxiseum  and  Lecturer  in  Geology  to  the  Owens  College, 
Manchester,  published  his  work  on  "Cave-Hunting,"  and  in 

•  Juflt  here  we  want  to  say,  that  if  (as  alleged)  these  flints  found  in  the  Miocene 
straU  are  (as  they  are)  pronounced  artificial  by  archaeological  experts  in  France, 
then  a  very  grave  doubt  is  thrown  over  the  artificial  character  of  the  quaternary 
flints  from  the  Somme  Valley.  It  is  certain  that  no  flints  were  chipped  by  man  in 
the  middle  tertiary  period,  and  if  the  flints  of  Thenay,  which  have  deceived  De 
Mortillet,  Cartailhac,  and  others  who  profess  to  understand  the  subject,  are  really 
only  natural  forms,  (lilte  those  found  by  Professor  Hayden  on  the  buttes  at  the 
base  of  the  Uintah  Mountains,)  then  it  is  very  probable  that  the  discoveries  of  M. 
Boucher  de  Perthes  are  all  a  delusion. 


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208  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview,  [April, 

this  he  also  referred  to  the  discovery  of  the  human  fibula 
under  the  glacial  clay  in  the  Victoria  Cave,  and  stated  that  it 
established  the  pre-glacial  age  of  man. 

In  1876  Professor  Riitimeyer,  of  Switzerland,  announced  in 
"Archiv  fur  Anthropologic"  that  traces  of  basket-work  and 
certain  sharpened  sticks  had  been  found  in  a  glacial  bed  at 
Diimten,  in  the  canton  of  Zurich. 

Certain  cut  bones  Tiave  also  been  reported  recently  from  the 
Pliocene  of  Italy  by  Professor  Capellini.  It  is  on  these  numer- 
ous announcements — beginning  vrith  the  Danish  archaeologists 
and  M.  Boucher  de  Perthes — that  the  opinion  has  grown  up 
with  regard  to  man's  immense  antiquity. 

Two  notable  works  on  the  subject  have  appeared  within  the 
past  year;  one  by  a  well-known  English  geologist,  and  the 
other  by  a  well-known  American  geologist — ^Professor  Daw- 
kins'  "  Early  Man  in  Britain,"  and  Professor  Alexander  Win- 
chell's  "  Preadamites."  Professor  Dawkins  is,  perhaps,  the 
best-informed  man  on  the  subject  in  Europe — at  once  geologist, 
palaeontologist,  and  archaeologist.  Professor  Winchell  fills  the 
chair  of  geology  and  palaeontology  in  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan, is  the  author  of  several  well-known  scientific  works,  and 
has  made  a  study  of  anthropology  for  many  years. 

The  evidence  for  the  antiquity  of  man  has  been  very  much 
impaired  in  the  past  ten  years ;  in  fact,  most  of  it  has  fairly 
broken  down,  as  will  appear  in  the  course  of  this  article. 

The  works  by  Professors  Dawkins  and  Winchell  which  Ve 
have  mentioned  appeared  about  the  same  time  last  year ;  and 
it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  while  both  are  written  to  establish 
the  remote  antiquity  of  the  human  race,  the  one  is  an  answer 
to  the  other,  and  that  they  mutually  destroy  each  other.  Pro- 
fessor Dawkins  undertakes  to  prove  that  man  appeared  on  the 
earth  in  what  he  calls  the  Middle  Pleistocene  Period — ^af  ter  the 
glaciation  and  submergence  of  the  land  during  the  Great  Ice 
Age — but  argues  that  all  the  evidences  for  the  existence  of 
man  in  the  Tertiary  Era  are  unreliable  and  worthless ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  that,  from  a  palaeontological  point  of  view,  terti- 
ary man  is  an  improbability,  if  not  an  impossibility. 

Professor  "Winchell,  on  the  other  hand,  points  out  that  the 
"  middle  pleistocene"  or  "  palaeolithic"  man  of  Professor  Daw- 
kins is  not  older  than  "  from  6,000  to  10,000  years,"  but  argues 


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1881.]  Man's  Place  in  Time.  209 

at  the  same  time  for  the  existence  of  man  as  far  back  in  geo- 
logical time  as  the  Middle  Tertiary — so  that  one  argument  de- 
vours the  other.  If  Professor  Dawkins'  book  is  a  trustworthy 
book,  Professor  Winchell's  is  entirely  fanciful;  and  if  Professor 
Winchell's  work  is  trustworthy,  that  of  Professor  Dawkins  is 
all  wrong. 

Professor  Dawkins  rests  his  opinion  on  the  discovery  of  the 
relics  of  n^n  in  the  bone-caves  and  river-gravels  under  con- 
ditions implying  great  changes  since  in  the  physical  geography 
of  the  country,  and  in  association  with  the  remains  of  great 
pachyderms  and  carnivores  now  extinct.  To  this  Professor 
Winchell  replies : 

When  we  come  now  to  investigate  the  anti(juity  of  the  Stone 
Folk  in  Europe,  it  becomes  simply  an  investigation  of  the  re- 
moteness of  the  last  glaciation  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere. 
Many  geologists  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  this  is  measured 
by  tens,  if  not  by  hundreds,  of  thousands  of  years.  I  propose  to 
explain  concisely  the  grounds  on  which  such  estimates  have  been 
based,  and  to  show  that  they  are  far  from  conclusive. 

He  then  considers,  1.  The  astronomical  hypothesis  of  glacial 
periods,  and  rejects  it.  2.  The  contemporaneousness  of  man 
with  animals  now  extinct.  He  points  out  in  this  connection 
that  geologists  have  been  mistaken  in  the  opinion  that  animal  ex- 
tinctions date  back  to  a  remote  period.  Extinctions  of  species, 
he  afiSrms,  have  taken  place  within  the  scope  of  human  mem- 
ory and  tradition.  He  cites  the  gigantic  birds  of  Kew  Zealand, 
of  Madagascar,  and  of  Mauritius.  He  refers  to  the  great  auk 
of  Newfoundland,  and  the  Labrador  duck ;  also  to  the  caper- 
cailzie of  Denmark,  the  aurochs,  the  great  trees  of  California, 
etc.  He  states  that  he  himself  has  exhumed  the  remains  of  the 
mammoth  in  Michigan  from  a  deposit  of  peat  not  over  eighteen 
inches  deep ;  that  a  pipe  has  been  obtained  from  the  mounds 
near  Davenport,  Iowa,  carved  in  the  form  of  an  elephant;  that 
the  Irish  elk  has  left  its  bones  in  the  bogs  of  Ireland,  and  that 
this  species,  in  fact,  is  known  to  have  survived  till  the  four- 
teenth century.  3.  The  magnitude  of  the  geological  changes 
since  man's  advent.  These,  he  thinks,  need  not  imply  a  great 
lapse  of  time.    He  says : 

We  are  in  the  midst  of  great  changes,  and  are  scarcely  con- 
scious of  it.     We  have  seen  worlds  in  flames,  and  have  felt  a 


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210  Methodist  Qtux/rterly  Review.  [April, 

comet  strike  the  earth.  We  have  seen  the  whole  coast  of  South 
Ai^aerica  lifted  up  bodily  ten  or  fifteen  feet  and  let  down  again 
in  an  hour.  We  have  seen  the  Andes  sink  220  feet  in  70  years. 
.  .  .  Vast  transportations  have  also  taken  place  in  the  coast-line 
of  China.  .  ,  .  We  have  seen  the  fflaciers  make  progress  in  their 
retreat  and  disappearance.  An  ice-peak  in  the  Tyrolese  Alps 
has  lowered  eighteen  feet  in  a  few  years.  The  Mer  de  Glace 
is  a  hundred  feet  lower  or  thinner  than  it  was  thirty  years 
a^o.  .  .  .  The  Indians  saw  Lake  Michigan  spread  its  waters  over 
Illinois.  .  .  .  The  land  at  New  Orleans  grows  seaward  838  feet 
annually.  .  .  .  Dr.  Lanoye  makes  the  delta  of  the  Nile  but  6,350 
years  old.  .  .  .  The  Greeks  retained  a  tradition  of  great  hydro- 

fraphic  changes  about  the  Black  Sea.  The  Symplegades,  or 
oating  islands,  were  only  landmarks  which  changed  their  po- 
sition relatively  to  the  changing  shore-line.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  rocky  barriers  of  the  Thracian  Bosphorus  gave  way 
and  the  Black  Sea  subsided.  .  .  .  During  its  former  hi^  level  it 
was  confluent  with  the  Caspian  and  Aral  seas,  and  thus  another 
Mediterranean  stretched  eastward  beyond  the  Dardanelles. 

He  concludes  his  review  of  these  points  as  follows : 

Whether,  then,  we  consider  the  magnitude  of  the  geological 
changes  since  the  advent  of  European  man,  or  his  contempora- 
neousness with  animals  now  extinct,  or  his  succession  upon  the 
continental  glacier,  we  do  not  discover  valid  grounds  for  assum- 
ing him  removed  by  a  distance  exceeding  six  to  ten  thousand 
years. — Pp.  431-441. 

If  we  may  trust  these  conclusions  of  Professor  Winchell, 
"  Early  Man  in  Britain  "  has  been  written  in  vain — ^it  is  a  mass 
of  misdirected  learning.  Professor  Winchell  might  have  said 
even  more  than  he  has  done  on  the  points  in  question — we  pre- 
sume he  merely  meant  to  touch  them.  He  might  have  cited, 
in  connection  with  the  extinction  of  animals,  the  disappearance 
of  the  reindeer  from  Central  and  Western  Europe  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era.  It  was  one  of  the  capital  points 
urged  by  Lyell  and  Lubbock,  that  in  the  days  of  the  "  Cave- 
men" the  climate  of  France  must  have  been  intensely  cold, 
because  the  reindeer  ranged  to  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees ;  but 
Professor  Dawkins  now  admits  that  it  was  still  in  Germany  in 
the  time  of  Cfiesar,  ("  Cave-Hunting,"  p.  79,)  and  we  know  that 
in  the  north  of  Scotland  it  survived  to  the  twelfth  century. 
Our  learned  author  might  have  referred  also  to  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  lion  from  Northern  India 
within  a  few  centuries ;  to  the  condition  of  the  carcasses  of  the 


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1881.1  '       M<mh' Place  in  Time.  211 

mammoth  and  rhinoceros  found  in  the  frozen  sands  of  Siberia ; 
to  the  presence  of  the  lion  in  the  mountains  of  Thrace  in  the 
time  of  Pansanias;  to  the  existence  of  the  hippopotamus  in 
India  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  to  the  existence  of 
the  elephant  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  probably  as  late  as 
800  B.C. 

He  might  have  added  to  his  citations  of  geographical  changes 
the  elevation  of  the  land  at  Linde,  in  Sweden,  230  feet  since 
the  date  of  the  neolithic  shell-heaps  in  Denmark ;  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  coasts  of  Norway  600  feet  since  the  adjacent  seas 
were  characterized  by  their  present  temperature ;  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  200  feet  at  Uddevalla,  in  Sweden ;  to  the  elevation  of 
the  island  of  San  Lorenzo,  (near  Callao ;)  to  the  discovery  of 
pottery  in  a  marine  deposit  150  feet  above  the  sea  on  the  coast 
of  South  America, 

It  abundantly  appears,  however,  that  the  American  professor 
does  not  believe  in  the  antiquity  of  the  relics  found  in  the  river- 
gravels  and  bone-caves  of  Europe.  What,  then,  is  his  theory? 
It  is  this :  That  primeval  man  appeared,  perhaps,  in  the  Mio- 
cene Period  (middle  tertiary)  on  an  ancient  continent,  now  sub- 
merged, which  lay  in  the  Indian  Ocean  between  Africa  and 
South-eastern  Asia — a  continent  called  by  Milne-Edwards  the 
Mascarene  Continent,  and  by  others  Lemuria,  Professor  Win- 
chell  does  not  produce  any  evidence  to  sustain  this  opinion,  for 
neither  the  continent  nor  the  human  remains  have  ever  been 
traced.  It  is  confessedly  a  mere  conjecture,  framed  to  account 
for  the  absence  of  all  traces  of  tertiary  man  on  the  existing 
continents,  when,  according  to  Professor  WincheU,  man  must 
have  existed  somewhere  at  that  time.  His  principal  reason  for 
believing  that  man  has  been  on  the  earth  during  all  these  long 
ages  is,  that  it  is  necessary  to  hold  this  opinion  in  order  to  ac- 
count for  the  differentiation  of  the  white,  brown,  and  black 
races  of  men,  and  their  dispersion  over  the  widely-separated 
continents  and  islands  of  the  globe — a  differentiation  which  al- 
ready existed,  as  seen  on  the  monuments,  at  a  very  early  period 
of  the  Egyptian  monarchy. 

But  it  is  here  that  the  British  professor  comes  forward  with 
equal  learning  to  show  that  this  view  is  improbable,  if  not  im- 
possible. Professor  Dawkins  believes  in  evolution,  and  would 
be  glad,  no  doubt,  to  draw  upon  the  long  ages  of  the  Miocene 


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212  MetJioddst  Quarterly  Remew.  [April, 

and  Pliocene  Periods  to  obtain  the  requisite  time  for  the  devel- 
opment of  man ;  but,  despite  this  bias,  he  is  compelled  by  the 
palseontological  facts  and  the  absence  of  all  unequivocal  traces 
of  man  in  the  tertiary  beds,  to  refuse  his  assent  to  the  conclu- 
sion reached  by  Professor  Winchell : 

Was  man  Fhe  asksl  an  inhabitant  of  Europe  in  the  Miocene 
Age  ?  The  climate  [ne  says]  was  favorable,  and  the  food,  ani- 
mal and  vegetable,  was  most  abundant.  . .  .  Miocene  Europe  was 
fitted  to  be  the  birthplace  of  man,  in  the  warm  climate  and 
in  the  abundance  of  food.  TTiere  is,  however,  one  most  impor- 
tant consideration  which  renders  it  highly  improbable  that  man 
was  then  living  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Uo  living  species  of 
land  mammal  has  been  met  with  in  the  Miocene  fauna.  Man, 
the  most  highly  specialized  of  all  creatures,  had  no  place  in  a 
fauna  which  is  conspicuous  by  the  absence  of  all  the  mammalia 
associated  with  him. 

There  is  no  answer  to  be  made  to  this ;  none  has  ever  been 
attempted.    He  goes  on : 

Were  any  man-like  animal  living  in  the  Miocene  Age,  he  might 
reasonably  be  expected  to  be  not  man,  but  intermediate  between 
man  and  somethmg  else,  to  bear  the  same  relation  to  ourselves 
as  the  Miocene  apes,  such  as  the  MesopithecuSy  bear  to  those  now 
living,  such  as  the  SemnopUhecus,  If,  however,  we  accept  the 
evidence  advanced  in  favor  of  Miocene  man,  it  is  incredible  that 
he  alone  of  all  the  mammalia  living  in  those  times  in  Europe 
should  not  have  perished,  or  have  changed  into  some  other  form 
in  the  long  lapse  of  ages  during  which  many  Miocene  genera  and 
all  the  Miocene  species  have  become  extinct.  Those  who  believe 
in  the  doctrine  of  evolution  will  see  the  full  force  of  this  argu- 
ment against  the  presence  of  man  in  the  Miocene  fauna,  not 
merely  of  Europe  but  of  the  whole  world. 

He  then  refers  to  the  splinters  of  flint  found  by  the  Abb4 
Bourgeois  (and  attributed  to  man)  in  the  mid-Miocene  strata  at 
Thenay,  and  to  the  notched  rib  of  the  Halitherium  found  by 
M.  Delaunay  at  Pouance,  and  remarks  that  if  these  marks  be 
artificial,  then  he  would  suggest  that  "  they  were  made  by  one 
of  the  higher  apes."  "  As  the  evidence  stands  at  present,"  he 
concludes,  "  we  have  no  satisfactory  proof  either  of  the  exist- 
ence of  man  in  the  Miocene,  or  of  any  creature  nearer  akin  to 
him  than  the  anthropomorphous  apes." — Page  68. 

In  the  chapter  which  follows  Professor  Dawkins  proceeds 
to  ask  further,  Whether  man  may  not  have  appeared  in  the 


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1881.]  M<m^%  Place  m  Time.  213 

Pliocene  Age  ?  He  notices  the  human  skull  f oand  by  Profess- 
or Cocchi  in  a  railway  cutting  at  Olmo,  near  Arezzo,  at  a  depth 
of  nearly  fifty  feet  from  the  surface.  Unfortunately  it  was 
found  with  a  Neolithic  flint  implement,  which  is  fatal  to  its 
pretensions.  He  then  refers  to  the  notched  bones  described 
by  Professor  Capellini  from  the  Pliocene  of  Tuscany,  and  finds 
the  evidence  here  also  unsatisfactory.  They  were  found  with 
pottery  which,  he  says,  was  unknown  in  Europe  even  in  the 
Pleistocene  or  Palseolithic  Age.    He  concludes : 

There  is  one  argument  against  the  probability  of  man  having 
lived  in  Europe  in  Pliocene  times  which  seems  to  me  unanswer- 
able. Twenty-one  fossil  mammalia  have  been  recently  proved  by 
Dr.  Forsyth  Major  to  hav^e  inhabited  Tuscany  in  the  Pliocene 
Age ;  of  these  there  is  only  one  species — the  hippopotamus — now 
alive  on  the  earth.  It  is  to  my  mind  to  the  last  degree  improb- 
able that  man,  the  most  highly  specialized  of  the  animal  King- 
dom, should  have  been  present  in  such  a  fauna  as  this,  composed 
of  so  many  extinct  species.  They  belong  to  one  sta^e  of  evolu- 
tion, and  man  to  another  and  a  later  sta^e.  ...  As  the  evidence 
stands  at  present  the  geological  record  is  silent  as  to  man's  ap- 
pearance in  Europe  in  the  Pliocene  Age.  It  is  very  improbable 
that  he  will  ever  be  proved  to  have  hved  in  this  quarter  of  the 
world  at  that  remote  time,  since  of  all  the  European  mammalia 
then  alive  only  one  has  survived  to  our  own  day. — Pp.  90-93. 

This  opinion  with  regard  to  the  existence  of  tertiary  man  is 
not  confined  to  Professor  Dawkins.  The  same  conclusion  was 
formally  enunciated  a  few  years  since  by  the  Anthropological 
Society  of  London,  and  in  an  address  before  the  Department 
of  Anthropology,  in  the  Biological  Section  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation, in  1878,  Professor  Huxley  said: 

That  we  can  get  back  as  far  as  the  epoch  of  the  Drift  is,  I 
think,  beyond  any  rational  question  or  doubt ;  .  .  .  but  when  it 
comes  to  a  question  as  to  the  evidence  of  tracing  back  man 
further  than  that — and  recollect  drift  is  only  the  scum  of  the 
earth's  surface — I  must  confess  that  to  my  mind  the  evidence  is 
of  a  very  dubious  character. 

It  abundantly  appears,  therefore,  from  the  quotations  we 
have  made,  that  the  science  of  Prehistoric  Archaeology  is  in  a 
fair  way  to  be  devoured  by  its  own  advocates — like  Actseon 
by  his  own  dogs ;  and  we  might,  perhaps,  leave  the  subject  in 
their  hands,  confident  that,  like  the  "Destructive  Criticism" 
of  the  Gennan  biblical  scholars,  it  will  end  in  the  illustration 


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214  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

and  the  confirmation  of  the  historical  accuracy  of  the  biblical 
records. 

The  history  of  this  science  is  full  of  instruction  as  to  the 
danger  of  generalizing  too  rapidly  in  scientific  matters  on  im- 
perfectly understood  facts.  It  would  seem  almost  incredible 
that,  ten  years  ago,  men  like  Lyell,  Lubbock,  Owen,  Busk, 
Geikie,  De  Quatrefages,  Broca,  Morlot,  De  Mortillet,  Lartet, 
Agassiz,  should  have  blindly  accepted  all  the  wild  theories 
of  enthusiastic  antiquaries  with  regard  to  the  ages  of  stone, 
bronze,  and  iron,  and  the  antiquity  of  the  races  whose  imple- 
ments or  bones  were  found  in  the  barrows,  the  lake-beds,  the 
refuse  piles,  the  peat,  and  the  caves  of  Europe.  In  nearly  all 
these  cases,  once  so  confidently  relied  on  to  prove  the  antiquity 
of  man,  the  evidence,  as  previously  remarked,  has  broken  down. 
We  hear  little  or  nothing  now  about  the  stone  circles,  the  crom- 
lechs, the  cairns,  the  tumuli,  which  exercised  so  powerfully  the 
imagination  of  Thumam,  Greenwell,  RoUeston,  and  Lubbock 
in  connection  with  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  Britain.  So 
many  discoveries  have  been  made  establishing  the  fact  that 
many  of  these  graves  are  even  later  than  the  advance  of  the 
Komans  into  Northern  Europe,  and  that  none  of  them  carry 
evidence  of  any  very  remarkable  antiquity,  that  this  branch  of 
the  evidence  seems  silently  to  have  dropped  out  of  archaeolog- 
ical literature.  The  same  remark  is  true  of  the  speculations 
which  were  based  on  the  relics  found  in  the  peat-bogs,  in  the 
lake-dwellings,  and  in  the  shell-heaps.  More  careful  inquiries 
showed  that  peat  frequently  formed  with  great  rapidity,  and 
objects  were  found  in  the  lowest  layers  of  the  French,  Danish, 
and  Irish  bogs,  which  belonged  to  the  Roman  or  even  more 
recent  periods;  as  the  boat  freighted  with  Roman  bricks  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Abbeville  peat,  the  Roman  axes  and  coins  in 
Hatfield  Moss,  etc.  With  regard  to  the  antiquity  of  the  lake- 
dwellers.  Professor  Winchell  informs  us  "that,  in  many  in- 
stances, the  debris  from  lacustrine  villages  have  yielded  Roman 
coins  and  other  works  of  Roman  art;"  and  that  "the  latest  pile 
habitations  come  down  to  the  sixth  century."  He  might  have 
stated  that  at  the  Stockholm  meeting  of  the  Anthropological 
Society  in  1874,  Prof essor  Virchow  presented  evidence  to  show 
that  these  settlements  were  in  existence  in  Sweden  and  Pome- 
rania  as  late  as  the  tenth  century. 


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1881.]  Man^s  Place  in  Time.  215 

Sir  Jolin  Lubbock  was  so  impressed  with  the  primitive 
character  of  the  flint  implements  obtained  from  the  Danish 
shell-heaps,  and  with  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
found,  that  he  assigned  to  them,  in  his  work  on  "  Prehistoric 
Times,"  a  very  high  antiquity.  He  considered  them  pre-Neo- 
lithic,  while  Professor  Worsaae,  of  Denmark,  assigned  them 
to  the  Palfieolithic  Age.  The  Kev.  Dunbar  Heath,  F.E.S.L., 
made  them  still  older ;  he  referred  them  to  a  race  of  mutes  at 
the  close  of  the  Tertiary  Era.  It  turned  out  that  they  had  no 
very  special  antiquity;  that  similar  refuse  heaps  of  Koman  date 
occur  in  the  Channel  Islands ;  that  the  extreme  rudeness  of  the 
implements  was  due  to  the  rude  condition  of  the  wretched  fish- 
ermen who  formerly  inhabited  the  Danish  islands ;  and,  finally, 
in  one  of  them,  where  the  objects  were  more  primitive  in  their 
form  and  workmanship  than  in  most  of  the  others,  to  wit,  at 
Samsingerbanken,  M.  Valdemar  Smith  reports  that  objects  of 
bronze  have  been  met  with. 

The  stalagmitic  floors  were  in  the  beginning  greatly  relied 
on  as  evidences  of  the  great  lapse  of  time  since  the  bone-caves 
were  inhabited  by  man.  Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  was  so 
impressed  with  the  facts  in  this  connection  at  Kent's  Hole, 
that,  as  we  have  previously  noticed,  he  calculated  the  antiquity 
of  the  bone  and  stone  objects  found  below  the  stalagmite  to  be 
as  great  as  500,000  years.  But  in  "Early  Man  in  Britain" 
Professor  Dawkins  observes :  "  This,  (the  stalagmite,)  however, 
offers  no  measure  of  the  interval, .  .  .  because  the  rate  of  accu- 
mulation depends  upon  the  currents  of  air  in  the  caves  and  the 
amount  of  water  passing  through  the  limestone,  both  of  which 
are  variables."  "  In  the  Ingleborough  Cave,"  he  says,  "  it  has 
been  so  swift  that,  between  1845  and  1873,  a  stalagmitic  boss, 
known  as  the  Jockey  Cap,  has  grown  at  the  rate  of  .2,941  inch 
per  annum,"  and,  as  he  remarks  elsewhere,  "from  this  in- 
stance of  rapid  accumulation,  the  value  of  a  layer  of  stalag- 
mite in  measuring  the  antiquity  of  deposits  below  it  is  compar- 
atively little." 

Equal  discredit  has  been  thrown  upon  "the  fossil  man  of 
Denise,"  "the  fossil  man  of  Guadaloupe,"  "the  fossil  man  of 
Florida,"  "the  fossil  man  of  New  Orleans,"  "the  fossil  man 
of  Natchez,"  Dr.  Homer's  Egyptian  pottery,  the  cone  of  the 
Tini^re,  the  canoes  bmied  in  the  silt  at  Glasgow,  the  tombs  of 


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216  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview,  [April, 

the  Bronze  Age  under  the  peperino  in  Italy,  the  perforated 
sharks'  teeth  from  the  English  crag,  etc. 

The  human  fibula  discovered  under  the  glacial  clay  in  the 
Victoria  Cave,  which  was  so  formally  and  seriously  indorsed 
by  Professors  Geikie  and  Dawkins,  it  is  now  ascertained  be- 
longed to  a  bear ;  and  the  basket- work  and  sharpened  sticks 
described  by  Professor  Riitimeyer  from  the  glacial  beds  of 
Switzerland,  are  also  given  up  by  Professor  Dawkins  in  his 
work  now  before  us. 

The  evidence  has,  in  fact,  given  way  all  along  the  line,  ex- 
cept at  one  point,  and  this  is  the  implements,  so-called,  found 
in  the  gravel-beds.  We  consider  that  nothing  else  remains  to 
prehistoric  archseology  but  this  point;  no  room  is  left,  we 
mean,  for  any  contention  except  just  here.  Professor  Daw- 
kins presses  tliis  point  with  great  learning  and  ability.  But 
we  have  already  explained  that  Professor  Winchell,  in  view  of 
all  the  evidence,  reaches  the  conclusion  that  a  very  exaggerated 
importance  has  been  given  to  the  physical  changes  and  other 
phenomena  relied  on  in  this  connection.  It  all,  as  he  says,  de- 
pends on  the  date  of  the  Glacial  Age,  and  the  close  of  this  epoch 
he  fixes  at  some  6,000  or  10,000  years  ago.  There  is  one  fact 
that  has  always  seemed  to  us  decisive  in  this  matter  of  the  ap- 
proximate date  of  the  Glacial  Age — one  which  has  never  been 
replied  to  by  the  advocates  of  the  remote  date  of  that  period. 
That  fact  is  this :  no  palaeolithic  implements  have  ever  been 
found  north  of  a  certain  line ;  none  have  been  found  in  Den- 
mark, Sweden,  Norway,  Scotland,  or  the  north  of  England. 
The  explanation  given  of  this  by  Lyell  is,  that  the  ice  had  not 
retired  from  these  northerly  regions  when  the  men  of  the  First 
Stone  Age  lived  in  the  Valley  of  the  Somme.  Nor  have  the 
remains  of  the  great  extinct  animals  been  found  in  Scandinavia. 
The  Glacial  Age  still  lingered  in  these  regions :  when  did  the 
ice  retreat  ?  The  first  trace  of  man  in  Scotland,  the  north  of 
England,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  Ireland,  is  in  connection 
with  the  implements  of  the  Polished  Stone  Age.  This  will 
fix  the  date  of  the  retreat  of  the  glaciers,  or,  more  strictly, 
perhaps,  of  the  glacial  seas,  if  we  can  fix  the  date  of  the  Pol- 
ished Stone  Age.  It  was  certainly  not  more  than  5,500  years, 
probably  not  over  3,500  years,  ago.  It  is  the  date  of  the  older 
lake-dwellings. 


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1881.]  Man'%  Place  in  Time.  217 

The  conceit  of  Professor  Wincliell  about  the  lost  continent 
in  the  Indian  Ocean  is  not  only  unsupported  by  facts,  but  it  is 
— we  say  it  most  respectfully — unscientific.  Dana  lays  it  down 
as  a  fundamental  principle,  in  his  "  Manual  of  Geology,"  (the 
greatest,  we  believe,  that  has  ever  been  published,)  that  the 
continents  were  outlined  as  we  now  know  them  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  that  the  continents  and  oceans  have  never  dianged 
places.  The  continents  have  often,  in  geological  lime,  been 
submerged  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  but  they  lay  at  compara- 
tively shallow  depths  under  the  invading  oceans.  Referring  to 
the  relations  of  the  North  American  Archsean  areas  to  the  con- 
tinent, he  says : 

The  evolution  of  the  grand  structure-lines  of  the  continent  was 
hence  early  commenced,  and  the  system  thus  initiated  was  the 
system  to  the  end.  Here  is  one  strong  reason  for  concluding 
iKat  the  continents  have  always  been  continents ;  that,  while 
portions  may  at  times  have  been  submerged  some  thousands  of 
feet,  the  continents  have  never  changed  places  with  the  oceans. 
— Mantudy  sec.  edit.,  p.  100. 

Le  Conte  teaches  the  same  doctrine : 

The  outlines  [he  says]  of  the  present  continents  have  been 
sketched  in  the  earliest  geological  times,  and  have  been  gradu- 
ally developed  and  perfected  in  the  course  of  the  history  of  the 
earth. — ElemmtSy  p.  169. 

Professor  Winchell  has  followed  the  theory  of  Lyell  and  the 
English  geologists  who  have  taught  (see  Lyell's  "  Principles," 
chap,  xii)  that  the  ocean  floors  and  the  continental  platforms 
have  from  time  to  time  exchanged  places.  Recent  investiga- 
tions seem  to  prove  decisively  that  Lyell  is  wrong,  and  Dana 
right.  In  an  article  contributed  last  year  to  the  "  Nineteenth 
Century"  by  Dr.  William  B.  Carpenter  on  "The  Deep  Sea 
and  its  Contents,"  he  states  that  nothing  struck  the  "Chal- 
lenger" surveyors  more  than  the  extraordinary /a^/i^*  (except 
near  shore)  of  the  ocean  floor.  They  ascertained  by  their 
soundings  (corresponding  with  those  in  ^the  Pacific  by  the 
United  States  Ship  "Tuscarora")  that  "the  form  of  the  de- 
pressed area  which  lodges  the  water  of  the  deep  ocean  is  rath- 
er, indeed,  to  be  likened  to  that  of  a  flat  waiter  or  tea-tray, 
surrounded  by  an  elevated  and  steeply-sloping  rim,  than  to 
that  of  the  '  basin '  with  which  it  is  commonly  compared."     A 


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218  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

belt  of  shallow  water  rune  along  the  coast-line  of  the  conti- 
nent, and  then  the  sea-bed  abruptly  descends  to  a  great  depth. 
This  interior  trough  (whose  average  depth  is  two  and  a  half 
miles)  has  never  been  above  the  waves.    Says  Dr.  Carpenter : 

Now  these  facts  remarkably  confirm  the  doctrine  long  since 
propounded  by  the  distinguished  American  geolo^st,  Professor 
l>ana,  .  .  .  that. these  elevated  areas  now  forming  the  continental 
platforms,  and  the  depressed  areas  that  constitute  the  existing 
ocean  floors,  were  formed  as  such  in  the  first  instance^  and  have 
remained  unchanged. 

These  results  were  presented  by  Professor  Geikie  in  his  able 
lecture  before  the  Geographical  Society  on  "  Geographical 
Evolution."  He  announces  as  a  settled  fact  that  "  from  the 
earliest  geological  times  the  great  area  of  deposit  has  been, 
as  it  still  is,  the  ma/rgi/nal  heU  of  sea-floor  skirting  the  l/md,'^^ 
And  again : 

From  all  this  evidence  we  may  legitimately  conclude  that  the 
present  land  of  the  globe,  though  composed  in  great  measure  of 
marine  formations,  has  never  lain  under  the  deep  sea,  but  that 
site  must  always  have  been  near  land.  ,  .  .  The  present  conti- 
nental ridges  have  probably  always  existed  in  some  form ;  and  as 
a  corollary  we  may  mfer  that  the  present  deep  ocean  basins  likewise 
date  from  the  ren^otest  geological  antiquity. 

What,  then,  becomes  of  Prof essor  Winchell's  Lost  Lemuria? 
His  conjecture  (for,  as  we  have  stated,  it  is  only  this)  falls  to 
the  ground ;  and  rejecting,  as  he  does,  all  trace  of  Tertiaiy  man 
on  the  existing  continents,  and  at  the  same  time  the  antiquity 
of  the  European  cave-men,  he  seems  shut  up  to  the  old-fash- 
ioned opinion  that  man  is  about  6,000  (or,  perhaps,  7,000)  years 
old,  and  no  more.  We  see  no  alternative,  and  Professor  Win- 
chell  is  thoroughly  candid,  and  will  not  seek  to  escape  from 
facts  which  he  regards  as  established. 

The  absence  of  all  traces  of  man  in  the  tertiary  strata,  now 
so  widely  explored  by  geologists  in  most  parts  of  the  world,  is 
a  very  pregnant  fact  in  its  bearing  on  modem  anthropological 
theories.  Recognizing  its  significance,  Sir  Charles  Lyell  was 
led  to  remark,  that  if  man  existed  at  this  remote  period,  we 
must  rather  expect  to  find  him  in  the  countries  of  the  anthro- 
pomorphous apes — the  tropical  regions  of  Africa,  and  the 
islands  of  Borneo  and  Sumatra,  which,  he  says,  "  have  not  yet 
been  explored."     ('*  Antiquity  of  Man,"  p.  538.) 


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1881.]  M<mU  Place  in  Time.  219 

Within  the  past  year  or  two,  however,  acting  on  this  hint, 
and  with  the  aid  of  funds  obtained  for  the  purpose  in  England, 
the  ossiferous  caves  of  Borneo  have  been  explored,  and  still  the 
missing  links  have  not  been  found.  In  these  caves,  where  it 
was  hoped  to  find  traces  of  early  anthropoid  forms,  the  only  hu- 
man remains  met  with  were  found  in  association  with  objects 
indicating  a  high  civilization.  "No  light,"  says  a  writer  in 
"  Nature,"  "  has  been  thrown  on  the  origin  of  the  human  race." 

It  has  also  been  well  replied  to  this,  (by  Alfred  Russel  Wal- 
lace,) that  in  Miocene  times  the  climate  of  the  south  of  Europe 
was  almost  tropical,  and  even  in  Pliocene  times  England  en- 
joyed a  climate  as  warm  as  that  of  Italy  at  present.  And  the 
remains  of  apes  have,  accordingly,  been  found  in  Miocene 
strata  in  India,  Greece,  Germany,  and  France,  and  in  the  Plio- 
cene beds  of  France,  Italy,  and  England. 

But  it  is  not  true  that  the  apes  are  not  adapted  to  a  tem- 
perate dimate.  They  range  at  present  as  far  north  as  Gibraltar 
and  Japan,  and  Dr.  Hooker  saw  monkeys  in  the  Himalayas 
at  the  height  of  8,000  feet,  while  Serrmopitheeus  thibetvs  and 
Macacus  thibetus  were  found  by  Father  David  inhabiting  the 
Snowy  Mountains  of  Moupin,  in  Thibet,  at  the  height  of  3,000 
metres.  They  are  believed  to  exist  in  Northern  China.  South- 
ward they  approach  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in  Africa,  and 
are  found  in  Brazil  and  Paraguay  as  far  as  30  degrees. 

The  difliculty  with  Professor  Winchell  is  the  Negro,  a  diflS- 
culty  which  we  appreciate.  The  Negro,  like  the  unspeakable 
Turk  in  politics,  offers  to  the  ethnologist  a  perpetu^J  puzzle. 
We  know  very  well  that  he  appears  very  early  on  the  Egyptian 
monuments.  The  differentiation  of  the  languages  of  mankind 
offers  a  similar  difficulty  in  connection  with  the  orthodox  opin- 
ion ^  to  man's  age  in  the  world.  They  are  difficulties  of  long 
standing.  But  when  the  archaeological  evidence  has  broken 
down,  shall  we  set  aside  the  biblical  chronology  on  the  sole 
ground  that  we  caiinot  explain  the  divergence  of  human  types 
and  human  languages  in  so  short  a  time  ? 

It  is  impossible,  within  the  brief  limits  of  this  article,  to  go 
over  the  ground  already  so  often  traversed.  Nearly  thirty 
years  ago  Nott  and  Gliddon  urged  this  objection  to  the  re* 
ceived  chronology  in  their  famous  "Types  of  Mankind,"  point- 
ing to  the  delineations  on  the  Egyptian  monuments. 


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220  Methodist  Quarterly'  Revieio.  [April, 

The  allusions  in  Genesis  to  Cain's  fears  lest  "  every  one  find- 
ing him  should  slay  him,"  and  to  his  "  building  a  city,"  have 
also  been  urged  in  "  The  Genesis  of  the  Earth  and  of  Man," 
(1857,)  and  in  M'Causland's  "  Adam  and  the  Adamite,"  not  to 
go  back  to  the  treatise  of  Peyrerius,  published  in  1655.  Pro- 
fessor Windiell  cites  these  authors  at  length,  and  makes  no 
claim  to  originality  in  this  part  of  his  work.  It  has  often  been 
suggested  that,  in  these  references  with  regard  to  Cain,  it  is 
implied  that  other  populations  than  the  Adamic  must  have 
been  in  existence.  But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  Cain  (ac- 
cording to  the  Bible)  probably  lived  near  a  thousand  years,  and 
that  a  very  considerable  population  would  have  gathered  on  the 
earth  from  Adam  in  that  time.  The  "  city,"  we  presume,  was, 
moreover,  a  mere  acropolis,  or  fort,  like  the  original  Troy  or 
Mycenae,  or,  yet  more  likely,  a  mere  village  containing  a  few 
huts.  A  similar  remark  will  apply  to  the  cities  said  to  have 
been  built  by  Nimrod:  Yiq  founded  them,  and,  living  possibly 
some  four  hundred  years,  he  saw  them  develop  into  consider- 
able places  for  that  age  of  the  world. 

More  time  is,  perhaps,  needed  between  Noah  and  Abraham 
than  is  allowed  by  the  received  Hebrew  chronology,  but  not  a 
great  deal — five  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  is  suflicient.  This 
may  be  obtained  by  supposing  (as  is  very  probably  the  fact) 
gaps  in  the  genealogy.  There  were  ten  names  from  Adam  to 
Noah ;  ten  from  Noah  to  Abraham.  So  there  were  ten  ante- 
diluvian kings  from  Alorus  to  Xisithrus  in  the  Chaldean  tra- 
dition. In  the  same  manner  the  sacred  books  of  the  Iranians 
reckon  nine  heroes  of  a  character  entirely  mythical,  who  succeed- 
ed Gayomaretan,  the  typical  man.  And  again,  we  meet  in  the 
cosmogenic  traditions  of  the  Indians  with  the  nine  BrahmA- 
dikas,  making,  with  Brahmd,  their  author,  ten,  who  are  called 
the  ten  Pitris,  or  "  fathers."  The  Chinese,  too,  reckon  ten  em- 
perors, partaking  of  the  divine  nature,  between  Foo-hi  and  the 
sovereign  who  inaugurated  the  historical  period,  Hoang-ti. 
The  Arabs,  also,  had  their  ten  mythical  kings  of  'Ad,  the  pri- 
mordial people  of  their  peninsula.  There  was  among  these 
primitive  races  some  reason  connected  with  their  manner  of 
constructing  their  genealogical  tables,  for  their  selecting  the 
number  ten^  just  as  we  see  in  St.  Matthew  the  genealogy  of 
our  Lord  arrayed  in  three  divisions  of  foxirteen  generations 


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1881.1  ManU  Place  in  Timd.  221 

each,  while  St.  Luke  from  Abraham  to  Christ  reckons  fifty-six. 
It  is  obvious  that  names  have  been  dropped  out  by  Matthew  to 
preserve  the  nwaxhQY  fourteen.  It  was  a  common  practice  with 
^  the  Jews  to  distribute  genealogies  into  divisions,  each  contain- 
ing some  typical  number,  and,  in  order  to  effect  this,  genera- 
tions were  either  repeated  or  left  out.  In  a  Samaritan  poem 
the  generations  from  Adam  to  Moses  are  divided  into  two  dec- 
ades, six  of  the  least  important  names  being  omitted. 

It  is  evident,  again,  that  the  figures  given  in  Genesis  in  this 
connection  have  been  tampered  with,  for  the  Hebrew,  the  Sa- 
maritan, and  the  Septuagint  texts  all  differ.  We  do  not  pur- 
pose, however,  as  we  have  said,  to  go  into  these  points ;  our 
object  at  present  is  to  consider  the  volumes  before  us  from  an 
archaeological  rather  than  a  biblical  stand-point,  and  these  and 
similar  points  made  by  Professor  Winchell,  and  presented  with 
great  learning  and  force,  are  familiar  to  theologians,  and  fall 
more  naturally  in  their  province. 

We  cannot  omit  altogether  to  notice  the  discussion  given  to 
the  Negro  in  Professor  Winchell's  work,  one  half  of  which  is 
devoted  to  developing  the  point  that  "the  actual  portraitures  on 
the  Egyptian  monuments  (as  far  back  as  2000  B.C.)  exhibit  the  > 
Negro  in  all  his  characteristics,  as  broadly  differentiated  from 
the  Noachite  as  he  is  to-day  upon  the  banks  of  the  Congo." 
"As  early  as  the  twelfth  dynasty  the  Egyptians  recognized  f our 
races — the  red,  the  yellow,  the  black,  and  the  white." 

The  attack  upon  the  biblical  chronology  comes  in  our  day  from 
geology  and  prehistoric  archaeology.  If  these  are  disposed  of, 
we  do  not  think  that  many  Christians,  at  least,  would  be  will- 
ing to  give  up  the  received  chronology  and  the  received  theology 
(whereby  Adam  is  regarded  as  the  federal  head  and  representative, 
of  the  human  race  in  the  Garden  of  Eden)  on  the  mere  ground 
that  we  cannot  explain  with  entire  clearness  the  early  diverg- 
ence of  races  and  languages.  There  is  no  more  difliculty,  as 
already  remarked  by  us,  about  the  early  differentiation  of  the 
yellow  race  than  there  is  about  the  early  differentiation  of  the 
Chinese  language.  The  Egyptian  language  was  differentiated 
from  the  very  beginning  of  the  monarchy.  So  of  the  Accadian 
language  in  Babylonia.  How  shall  we  explain  these  facts  in 
consistency  with  a  short  chronology  ?  Professor  Winchell  is  not 
one  of  those  scientists  after  the  order  of  Haeckel  or  Huxley ; 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXHL— 16 

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222  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [April, 

he  is  a  reverent  student  evidently  of  the  Bible,  and  a  devout 
believer  in  its  inspiration  and  its  authority.  How,  then,  will 
he  explain  the  divergence  of  languages  ?  We  refer  him  to  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Genesis. 

And,  now,  why  may  it  not  be  that  the  divergence  of  human 
types  occurred  in  the  same  way  ?  It  were  natural  that  the  im- 
mediate descendants  of  Noah  should  have  marked  peculiarities 
of  character  stamped  on  them  in  the  beginning  as  the  origines 
gentium — from  whom  all  the  varieties  of  the  human  family 
were  to  proceed.  We  see  such  a  fact  distinctly  pointed  out  in 
God's  dealings  with  Abraham.  Abraham  had  two  descendants 
— Jacob  and  Ishmael.  Now  all  the  race-traits  which  we  see  to- 
day in  the  Jew  were  foreshadowed  in  the  prophecies  regarding 
them  in  the  books  of  Moses,  and  may  be  even,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  recognized  in  the  character  of  their  great  progenitor. 
So  Ishmael  was  to  be  "a  wild  man,  and  his  hand  against  every 
man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  him" — a  fit  type  and  source 
of  his  Bedouin  descendants.  Now  we  can  see  nothing  more 
strange,  if  Cush  in  like  manner  should  have  been  marked  as 
the  progenitor  of  a  strongly  differentiated  race.  We  have  a 
most  decided  intimation  that  such  was  the  fact,  in  the  curse 
associated  with  his  family.  Professor  Winchell  observes  on 
this,  that  the  curse  was  against  Comaan^  and  that  the  descend- 
ants of  Canaan  did  not  even  settle  in  Africa.  The  truth  is, 
that  it  was  Ham  who  committed  the  sin,  and  in  the  biblical 
narrative  it  is  his  son  (Canaan)  who  is  cursed.  The  explana- 
tion is  this :  When  the  Mosaic  books  were  written  the  Israelites 
were  marching  against  the  Canaanites,  to  destroy  them  as  an 
accursed  race ;  they  constituted  the  most  prominent  object  be- 
fore them ;  therefore  Moses  singles  out  Canaan,  saying  nothing 
about  the  other  sons  of  Ham,  with  whom  the  Israelites  had 
no  concern,  and  (so  far  as  the  Cushites  were  concerned)  had  no 
contact.  The  writer  shows  what  was  in  his  mind,  commencing 
his  account  (ver.  22)  of  the  matter  with  "And  Ham,  the  father 
of  Cwnaa/n  " — it  was  Canaan's  connection  with  the  matter  that 
he  had  in  view.  It  was  the  posterity  (including  Canaan)  of 
Ham  who  were  marked  by  some  mental  peculiarity,  resulting, 
perhaps,  in  some  physical  distinction. 

If  these  hints  be  well-grounded,  we  pass,  then,  out  of  the 
domain  of'  science  in  considering  such  questions  as  the  divers- 


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1881.]  Mwn's  Place  m  Time.  223 

ity  of  langoages  and  the  diversity  of  races.  Scientific  men 
persist  in  bringing  down  every  transaction  in  the  Bible  to  the 
level  of  science ;  thus  they  cannot  understand  the  creation  of 
man,  nor  the  Flood.  But  if  there  be  a  God,  and  if  he  com- 
municates with  men,  and  interposes  in  human  aflfairs,  may  there 
not  be,  as  represented  in  the  Bible,  supernatural  occurrences  ? 
What  has  Science  to  say  to  the  career  of  Jesus  Christ  on  the 
earth  eighteen  hundred  years  ago?  If  Science  cannot  take 
cognizance  of  the  Resurrection,  then  why  must  the  Flood,  the 
Creation  of  Man,  the  Confusion  of  Tongues,  be  all  arraigned 
in  the  forum  of  Science? 

But,  after  all,  is  it  certain  that  it  would  take,  necessarily,  a 
very  long  time  to  produce  a  black  race?  The  guinea-pig, 
which  in  its  native  country  is  of  a  gray  color,  during  its  lim- 
ited sojourn  in  Europe  has  changed  into  a  variety  marked 
with  brown,  black,  and  white  spots.  Now,  why  should  not 
one  insist  that  this  differentiation — equal  as  regards  color  to 
the  differences  between  the  human  races — must  have  required 
long  ages?  The  American  wolf  and  the  European  wolf  are  the 
same ;  but  on  this  continent,  in  the  far  north  it  is  white ;  in 
temperate  latitudes  it  is  gray;  in  Florida  and  Georgia  it  is 
black ;  in  Missouri  it  is  clouded ;  in  Texas  it  is  red.  It  is  a 
well-faiown  fact  that  birds  of  the  finch  tribe,  if  fed  on  hemp, 
will  soon  turn  black.  "  The  color  of  the  skin,"  says  De  Qua- 
tref ages,  "  depends  upon  a  simple  secretion  which  is  subject  to 
modification  under  a  number  of  circumstances.  .  .  .  There  is, 
therefore,  nothing  strange  that  some  human  groups,  differing 
widely  in  other  respects,  should  resemble  each  other  in  the 
matter  of  color.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  Hindu,  (Aryan,) 
and  the  Bisharee,  and  the  Moor,  (Semitic,)  although  belonging 
to  the  white  race^  assume  the  same,  and  even  a  darker,  hue  than 
the  tf*y^  negro?'* 

Here  is  a  peculiar  case  referred  to  by  Professor  Huxley. 
He  says : 

In  the  woods  of  Florida  there  are  a  great  many  pigs;  and  it  is 
a  carious  thing  that  they  are  all  black,  every  one  of  them.  Pro- 
fessor Wyman  was  there  some  years  ago,  and  on  noticing  no  pigs 
but  these  black  ones,  he  asked  some  of  the  people  how  it  was 
that  they  had  no  white  pigs.  The  reply  was,  that  in  the  woods 
of  Florida  there  was  a  root  which  they  called  the  Paint  Root; 
and  that  if  the  white  pigs  were  to  eat  any  of  it,  it  had  the  effect 


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224  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview,  [April, 

of  making  their  hoofs  crack,  and  they  died;  but  if  the  black  pigs 
oat  any  of  it,  it  did  not  hurt  them  at  all 

Now  the  malaria,  it  has  been  suggested,  may  have  done  for 
the  primitive  human  settlers  in  Africa  what  the  Paint  Root 
has  done  for  the  white  and  black  pigs  in  Florida. 

The  hair  of  animals,  also,  changes  with  equal  facility  under 
certain  conditions.  According  to  Darwin,  in  the  West  Indies, 
about  three  generations  will  produce  a  very  marked  change  in 
the  fleece  of  sheep.  In  Africa  their  fleece  degenerates  into 
a  coarse  hair.  The  mastiff  and  the  goat  from  Thibet,  when 
brought  down  from  the  Himalaya  Mountains  to  Kashmir,  lose 
their  fine  wool.  At  Angora,  not  only  goats,  but  shepherd  dogs, 
and  even  cats,  have  fine  fleecy  hair.  Karakool  sheep  lose  their 
black  curled  fleeces  when  removed  into  any  other  country. 

Equal  changes  occur  in  form.  The  domestic  cat  did  not  ap- 
pear in  Northern  Europe  earlier  than  the  Christian  era ;  how, 
then,  shall  we  account  for  the  tailless  cat  of  the  Isle  of  Man  ? 
Swin^  with  solid  hoofs,  like  horses,  were  known  to  the  an- 
cients. Yet,  according  to  the  theory  of  evolution,  it  took  the 
whole  of  the  tertiary  period  to  consolidate  the  four  toes  of  the 
eohippus  into  the  compact  hoof  of  our  present. horse.  The 
European  hogs  carried  to  the  Island  of  Cubagua  by  the  Span- 
iards in  1509  have  degenerated  into  a  monstrous  race,  with  toes 
half  a  span  in  length.  Dr.  Bachman  states  that  the  cattle  in 
Opelousas,  Western  Louisiana,  in  thirty  years,  without  a  change 
of  stock,  produced  a  variety  of  immense  size,  with  a  pecul- 
iar form  and  enormous  horns,  like  the  cattle  of  Abyssinia. 
De  Quatrefages  mentions  the  niata  cattle  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
which  is  descended  (of  course)  from  a  European  stock.  It  now 
bears  the  same  relation  to  other  oxen  that  the  bull-dog  does  to 
other  dogs.  All  the  forms  are  shortened  and  thickened,  the 
head  especially  being  enlarged  and  concentrated. 

The  inferior  maxillary  bone  ...  so  far  exceeds  the  superior  in 
length  that  the  animal  is  unable  to  browse  on  trees.  The  cranium 
is  as  much  deformed  as  the  face;  not  only  are  the  forms  of,  the 
bones  modified^  but  also  their  relations,  not  one  of  which,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Owen,  has  been  strictly  preserved. 

But,  if  we  understand  Professor  Winchell,  changes  like  these 
require  time  stretching  back  to  the  Middle  Tertiary. 


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1881.]  Ma/n's  Place  in  Time,  225 

Now,  in  view  of  the  facts  cited,  we  ask  the  question :  If 
some  distinguishing  physical  peculiarity  should,  at  a  very  early 
period,  have  been  impressed  upon  some  of  the  descendants 
of  Ham,  and,  put  under  the  ban  and  ruled  out  by  the  other 
tribes,  they  should  have  become  isolated  in  some  miasmatic, 
marshy  district  of  Africa,  is  it  incredible  that  they  should  have 
formed  a  new  breed  of  men  ? 

We  merely  add,  that  it  may  very  well  be  that  the  differenti- 
ation of  the  races  took  place  before  the  Flood.  There  may 
have  been  more  colors  than  one  in  the  ark. 

The  third  work  on  our  list  is  that  of  Professor  Whitney  on 
the  Auriferous  Gravels  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of  Califomia. 
The  name  of  this  eminent  geologist  has  for  many  years  been 
associated  with  the  Calaveras  skuU,  which  was  found  in  a  shaft 
130  feet  deep,  under  five  beds  of  lava  and  volcanic  tufa,  and 
four  beds  of  auriferous  gravel.  The  discovery  was  so  astound- 
ing that  it  was  not  fully  credited,  although  it  is  cited  and  ac- 
cepted by  Dr.  Foster  in  his  "  Pre-historic  Eaces  of  the  United 
States,"  published  in  1873.  Bancroft,  also,  in  his  "Native 
Baces  of  the  Pacific  States,"  cites  a  large  number  of  cases  in 
which  stone  mortars,  weapons,  etc.,  have  been  found  in  Cali- 
fornia, in  Table  Mountain,  Tuolumne  County,  and  elsewhere, 
at  great  depths. 

This  subject  has,  however,  been  now  more  authoritatively 
brought  to  the  attention  of  scientific  men  by  the  publication 
of  the  present  volumes  from  the  types  of  the  University  Press 
at  Cambridge,  in  which  Professor  Whitney  discusses  these  dis- 
coveries at  length,  and  formally  reaches  the  conclusion  that 
they  establish  the  existence  of  man  on  the  Pacific  Coast  of 
North  America  in  the  Tertiary  age.  He  reports,  among  a 
nxunber  of  others,  the  following  caaes  in  which  human  remains 
and  works  of  art  have  been  found  in  the  auriferous  gravels. 

1.  Stone  mortars  and  platters,  at  the  depth  of  90  feet,  in 
1863,  at  Gold  Springs,  by  Mr.  Lot  Cannell,  a  miner.  These 
objects  were  found  in  the  same  stratum  with  bones  and  teeth 
of  the  mafitodon. 

2.  Stone  dishes  and  mortars,  and  stone  weapons,  on  Woods' 
Creek,  Tuolumne  County,  in  1862-65,  with  bones  of  elephant 
and  mastodon,  at  a  depth  of  20  to  40  feet. 

3.  Fragment  of  a  human  skull  in  Museum  of  Natural  Ilis- 


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MetJiodist  QiM/rterh/  Review.  [April, 

tory  Society  of  Boeton,  taken  from  a  shaft  in  Table  Mountain, 
180  feet  from  surface,  in  gold  drift,  near  mastodon  bones.  It 
was  overlaid  by  hard  basaltic  strata. 

4.  A  stone  mortar,  found  in  gravel,  at  a  depth  of  200  feet, 
under  Table  Mountain,  overlaid  by  60  feet  of  basalt,  and  at  a 
distance  of  1,800  feet  from  mouth  of  tunneil.  This  mortar  is 
two  feet  seven  and  a  half  inches  in  circumference. 

5.  The  Calaveras  skull,  found  in  1866,  near  Altaville,  in  Cal- 
averas County,  130  feet  from  the  surface.  Near  it,  in  the  shaft, 
the  miners  found  a  small  snail-shell,  {HeUx  mormonvan^  now 
existing  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,)  several  pieces  of  charcoal,  etc. 

Professor  Whitney  says  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  authenticity 
of  this  relic  The  skull,  he  says,  "  presents  no  signs  of  having 
belonged  to  an  inferior  race.  In  its  breadth  it  agrees  with  the 
other  crania  from  California,  except  those  of  the  Diggers,  but 
surpasses  them  in  the  other  particulars  in  which  comparisons 
have  been  made." 

6.  Stone  mortars  and  other  stone  relics,  near  San  Andreas, 
Calaveras  County,  at  the  depth  of  150  feet. 

7.  A  stone  hatchet,  perforated  for  a  handle,  at  from  60  to 
75  feet  from  surface,  in  gravel,  under  basalt,  and  300  feet  from 
mouth  of  tunnel.  "At  about  the  same  time  and  place  were  also 
found  stone  mortars  and  fossil  bones."  This  was  in  Table 
Mountain,  Tuolumne  County,  opposite  O'Bym's  Ferry,  on 
Stanislaus  Kiver. 

Many  other  cases  are  dt^d,  and  in  many  instances  the  depth 
at  which  the  mortars  and  other  objects  were  found  is  not  greater 
than  from  10  to  20  feet,  but  always  in  the  auriferous  gravel. 

From  these  facts  Professor  Whitney  draws  the  following 
conclusions : 

1.  The  clear  and  unequivocal  proof,  beyond  any  possibility  of 
doubt  or  cavil,  of  the  contemporaneous  existence  of  man  with 
the  mastodon,  fossil  elephant,  and  other  extinct  species,  at  a  very 
remote  epoch  as  compared  with  any  thing  recorded  in  history. 

2.  That  man,  thus  proved  to  be  contemporaneous  with  a  group 
of  animals  now  extinct,  did  not  essentially  differ  from  what  he 
now  is  in  the  same  region  and  over  the  whole  North  American 
continent. 

3.  That  there  is  a  large  body  of  evidence,  the  strength  of 
which  it  is  impossible  to  deny,  which  seems  to  prove  that  man 
existed  in  California  previous  to  the  cessation  of  volcanic  activity 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  to  the  epoch  of  the  greatest  extension  of 


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1881.1  Man's  Place  in  Time.  227 

the  glaciers  in  that  region,  and  to  the  erosion  of  the  present  river 
canons  and  valleys,  at  a  time  when  the  animal  and  vegetable  cre- 
ations differed  entirely  from  what  they  now  are,  ana  when  the 
topographical  features  of  the  State  were  extremely  nnlike  those 
exnibited  by  the  present  surface. 

4.  That  man  existing  even  at  that  remote  epoch,  which  goes 
back  at  least  as  far  as  the  Pliocene,  was  still  the  same  as  we  now 
find  him  to  be  in  that  region,  and  the  same  that  he  was  in  the 
intermediate  period  after  the  cessation  of  volcanic  activity,  and 
while  the  erosion  of  the  present  river  cafions  was  going  on. 

5.  That  the  discoveries  in  California,  and  those  in  other  parts 
of  the  world,  notably  in  Portugal  and  India,  present  a  strong 
body  of  evidence  going  to  prove  the  existence,  during  an  im- 
mensely long  period,  of  the  human  race  in  its  primitive  condition 
— that  is  to  say,  in  the  simplest  and  rudest  condition  in  which 
man  could  exist  and  be  man. 

6.  That,  so  far  as  we  know,  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  exist- 
ence of  any  primordial  stock  from  which  man  may  have  been  de- 
rived as  far  oack  at  least  as  the  Pliocene.  Man,  thus,  is  noth- 
ing BUT  MAN,  WHBTHSB  FOUND  IN  PlIOCBNB,  PoST-PlIOCBNB,  OB 

BBCBNT  F0BMATI0N8. — ^P.  288.     [The  Capitals  are  ours.] 

It  should  be  added  to  the  above  that  the  plants  as  well  as 
the  animals  found  in  the  lower  gravels  ai*e  of  Miocene  age,  and 
the  older  gravels  found  under  the  basalt  may  be  referred  to  the 
close  of  the  Miocene,  rather  than  to  the  Pliocene. 

Keferring  to  these  discoveries  in  his  address  before  the 
American  Association,  at  Saratoga,  in  1879,  Professor  Marsh 
fully  indorsed  them,  and  said  :  ^^At  present,  the  known  facts 
indicate  that  the  American  beds  containing  human  remains  and 
works  of  man  are  as  old  as  the  Pliocene  of  Europe.  The  ex- 
istence of  man  in  the  Tertiary  period  seems  now  fairly  estab- 
lished." 

The  gravity  of  the  situation  is  increased  by  the  circumstance 
that  Professor  Dana,  one  of  the  most  cautious  of  geologists,  has 
incorporated  the  California  discoveries  in  the  recent  edition  of 
his  "  Manual  of  Geology,"  with  no  words  of  criticism  or  dissent ; 
and  Professor  Le  Conte,  though  in  a  more  guarded  maimer, 
has  done  the  same  thing  in  his  "  Elements  of  Geology." 

What  is  the  result?  We  not  only  have  man  in  the  early 
Pliocene  or  the  Miocene,  but  we  have  man  at  this  remote 
epoch  "still  tlie  same  as  we  now  find  him,"  "nothing  but 
man ; "  man  fabricating  with  the  skill  of  a  modem  lapidary 
heavy  granite  dishes  and  mortars,  using  polished  stone  weapons 


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228  Methodist  Qtcarterly  Heview.  [April, 

and  perforated  stone  hammers.  The  mortars  and  pestles  are 
some  of  them  delineated  in  Bancroft's  "  Native  Races  of  the 
Pacific  States,"  vol.  iv,  pp.  697-709,  and  in  «  The  Epoch  of 
the  Mammoth,"  pp.  395-397,  by  the  present  writer.  They 
are  specimens  of  snperb  workmanship  in  the  hardest  stone. 
Bancroft  also  mentions  other  objects,  as  perforated  disks  and 
"  skillets  with  a  spont  and  three  legs."  This  Phocene  man 
of  America  is  far  in  advance  of  the  Palaeolithic  man  of  the 
European  river-gravels;  he  must  indeed  have  been  superior 
to  the  lake-dwellers  of  the  Second  Stone  Age.  And  now,  if 
these  conclusions  are  sotmd,  what  becomes  of  the  doctrine  of 
Evolution  ?  Man  not  only  appeared  on  the  earth  earlier  than 
any  other  mammalian  form  now  living  on  the  land,  but  he  was 
as  perfect  at  that  time  as  he  is  to-day ;  he  has  not  changed. 
Professor  Dawkins,  clingmg  to  the  theory  of  Evolution,  tells 
us  that  this  was  impossible.  How  could  the  highest  appear 
first  ?  It  is  as  if  some  zealous  antiquary  should  introduce  the 
vertebrate  before  tjie  invertebrate  life.  If  through  the  count- 
less ages  of  the  whole  Pliocene  and  Quaternary  eras  man  has 
not  changed,  how  are  we  to  accept  the  statement  that  the  camel, 
the  horse,  and  other  mammalian  forms,  have  been  undergoing 
modifications  and  developing  during  all  this  time  ? 

And  then,  again,  does  any  well-balanced  mind  believe  what 
these  scientific  gentlemen  tell  us  to  be  true  ?  Can  any  one  who 
knows  what  is  meant  by  geological  time,  give  his  consent  to  the 
fabrication  of  granite  and  diorite  dishes  and  mortars,  of  large 
dimensions,  in  the  early  Pliocene  epoch  ? 

Perhaps  there  is  some  other  explanation ;  though,  even  should 
this  fail  us,  we  cannot  accept  such  monstrous  conclusions,  even 
if  advanced  by  our  most  eminent  scientific  authorities.  Let  us 
scrutinize  the  facts:  1.  The  prevailing  objects  discovered  in 
these  California  gravels  are  the  morta/ra  and  pesUea,  2.  They 
are  invariably,  we  believe,  fownd  in  gold-bearing  grcuods. 
3.  They  have  been  almost  invariably  found  by  the  miners  in 
their  search  for  gold. 

Nothing  impressed  the  Spaniards  more  in  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury in  Mexico  than  the  abundance  and  lavish  ^employment  of 
the  precious  metals.  The  chroniclers  of  that  period  give  ex- 
travagant accounts  of  palaces  and  temples  resplendent  with 
gold.    Where  did  the  civilized  races  of  ancient  Mexico  pro- 


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1881.]  MwrCs  Place  m  Time.  229 

cure  their  gold  ?    The  question  is  answered  by  Dr.  Daniel  Wil- 
son, in  his  learned  work  on  the  archseology  of  America : 

The  metallurgic  arts  [he  tells  us]  were  carried  in  some  respects 
further  by  the  Mexicans  than  the  Peruvians.  Silver,  lead,  and 
tin  were  obtained  from  the  mines  of  Tasco,  and  copper  was 
wrought  in  the  mountains  of  Zacotollan  by  means  of  galleries 
and  shafts  opened  with  persevering  toil  where  the  metallic  veins 
were  imbedded  in  the  solid  rock. 

3tf r.  Bancroft,  in  the  "  Native  Eaces  sA  the  Pacific  States," 
gives  similar  testimony.  Both  gold  and  copper,  we  are  told, 
were  mined  in  Mexico  from  veins  in  the  solid  rock,  extensive 
galleries  being  opened  for  the  pui-pose.  (Vol.  ii,  274.)  They  car- 
ried their  excavations,  says  this  laborious  author,  to  the  depth 
of  two  hundred  feet  or  more,  to  procure  the  chalchinite,  so 
much  prized  as  an  ornament.  Obsidian  they  obtained  in  the 
same  way,  the  mines  at  the  Cerro  de  las  Navajas,  near  ]!d!onte 
Jacal,  being  described  as  opening  three  or  four  feet  in  diameter, 
and  penetrating  one  hundred  and  ten  to  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  horizontally,  with  side  drifts  as  occasion  might  require. 

We  cannot  doubt,  therefore,  that  the  ancient  population  of 
the  Pacific  coasts  were  seekers  after  gold,  and  that  they  pos- 
sessed the  ability  to  procure  it  even  several  hundred  feet  deep 
in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  The  ruder  races  of  the  East  and 
North  have  left  behind  them  traces  of  their  mining  operations 
in  the  mica  mines  of  North  Carolina  and  the  copper  mines  of 
Lake  Superior.  We  are  not,  however,  left  to  conjecture  on 
this  subject.  Here  is  a  specific  statement  published  years 
ago  without  reference  to  this  controversy  in  Schoolcraft's 
"  Archseology,"  vol.  i,  p.  105 : 

It  was  late  in  the  month  of  August,  in  1849,  that  the  gold-dig- 
gers at  one  of  the  mountain  diggings,  called  Murphy's,  [this  is 
m  Table  Mountain,  where  the  Calaveras  skull  was  found,]  were 
surprised,  in  examining  a  high  barren  district  of  mountain,  to  find 
the  abandoned  site  of  an  old  mine. 

"It  is  evidently,"  says  a  writer,  "the  work  of  ancient  times." 
The  shaft  discovered  is  two  hundred  and  ten  feet  deep.  Its 
mouth  is  situated  on  a  high  mountain.  It  was  several  days  be- 
fore preparations  could  be  completed  to  descend  and  explore  it. 
The*  bones  of  a  human  skeleton  were  found  at  the  bottom.  There 
were  also  found  an  altar  for  worship  and  other  evidences  of  an- 
cient labor.    No  evidence  has  been  aiscovered  to  denote  the  era 


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230  Methodist  Qicarterly  Review.  [April, 

of  this  ancient  work.  There  has  been  nothing  to  determine 
whether  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  remains  of  the  explorations 
of  the  first  Spanish  adventurers,  or  of  a  still  earlier  period. 
The  occurrence  of  the  remains  of  an  altar  looks  like  the  period  of 
Indian  worship. 

Bearing  on  the  same  subject,  the  following  item,  cut  from 
a  western  newspaper  in  November  last,  is  a  pertinent  illus- 
tration : 

An  old  mine,  supposed  to  have  been  worked  by  the  ancients, 
was  discovered  last  week  by  a  prospecting  party  in  the  Sangre 
de  Cristo  range  of  mountams,  Colorado.  In  the  mine  are  two 
large  chambers  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  high,  and  double  that 
number  of  feet  in  breadth.  Stones,  bones,  skulls,  and  gold  were 
found,  the  value  of  the  latter  being  about  nine  hundred  dollars. 
A  further  investigation  will  be  made. 

There  are  the  facts,  and  whether  Professors  Whitney, 
Marsh,  Dana,  and  Le  Conte  are  excusable  in  publishing 
to  the  world  that  man  lived  in  California  in  the  Pliocene 
epoch,  we  leave  to  the  readers  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly 
Review. 

It  is  corroborative  of  the  views  above  presented  that  Pro- 
fessor Whitney  states  in  his  Report,  (p.  280,)  that  no  finds 
similar  in  character  to  those  occurring  in  the  Sierra  Nevada 
have  ever  been  made  in  the  Coast  Range.  No  instance  of  the 
sort,  he  remarks,  so  far  as  he  is  informed,  has  ever  been  heard 
of.    He  states : 

The  soil  and  detritus  of  the  region  about  the  bay  of  San  Fran- 
cisco have  been  excavated  for  all  sorts  of  purposes,  and  in  a 
freat  many  localities  bones  and  teeth  of  extinct  animals  have 
een  found  in  abundance.  Never,  so  far  as  known,  have  any 
human  bones  or  works  of  human  hands  been  met  with  in  connec- 
tion with  these  remains,  while  they  are  common  enough  on  the 
surface. 

This  is,  indeed,  very  remarkable,  if  man  was  living  in  the 
neighboring  region  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  all  through  the  Plio- 
cene and  Quaternary  ages.  The  simple  explanation  is,  that 
there  was  no  gold  in  the  Coast  Range.  No  mining  was  car- 
ried on  there  by  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  the  Pacific 
Coast.  "  By  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  Coast  Range  grav- 
els may,  without  hesitation,  be  set  down  as  nearly  or  quite 
destitute  of  gold." — P.  299.     It  is  only  in  the  gold  country 


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1881.1  Mom's  Place  in  Time.  331 

that  the  mortars  are  found ;  it  is  only  in  the  auriferous  grav- 
els that  they  are  found ;  and  they  are  found  by  miners  seeking 
for  gold. 

Note. — Since  this  article  was  in  type  we  have  seen  Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace's 
new  book  entitled,  *'  Island  Life;  or,  The  Phenomena  and  Causes  of  Insular  Faunas 
and  Floras.**  In  this  work  Mr.  Wallace  takes  precisely  the  same  position  as  Dana 
and  Carpenter  with  regard  to  the  permanency  of  the  continents  and  ocean  basins, 
and,  referring  in  a  special  discussion  to  the  supposed  Lemurian  continent, 
rejects  it  as  contradicted  by  all  the  facts  of  geology. 

*'  Our  actual  continents,**  he  says,  page  92,  **  have  been  in  continuous  existence 
under  variously  modified  forms  during  the  whole  period  of  known  geological  his- 
tory,** and,  in  support  of  this  opinion,  he  quotes  from  Darwin  ("Origin  of  Species,** 
sixth  edition,  p.  288)  as  follows :  "  If,  then,  we  may  infer  any  thing  from  these 
facts,  we  may  infer  that  where  our  oceans  now  extend,  oceans  have  extended  from 
the  remotest  period  of  which  we  have  any  record.** 

As  to  "  Lemuria,**  he  says,  p.  888,  "The  supposed  *  Lemuria  *  must  have  existed, 
if  at  all,  at  so  remote  a  period  that  the  higher  animals  did  not  then  inhabit  either 
Africa  or  Southern  Asia,  and  it  must  have  been  partially  submerged  before  they 
reached  those  countries.**  But  he  assigns  a  number  of  reasons  why  the  supposed 
continent  could  never  have  existed  at  all,  and  says  that  the  hypothesis  was  only 
"provisional,**  and  has  been  proved  to  be  untenable.  He  thinks  that  certain 
shoals  and  coral  reefs  indicate  that  there  were  several  large  islands  between  Mada- 
gascar and  India,  but  these  reefs  and  shoals,  he  remarks,  are  all  separated  by  a 
very  deep  sea — two  thousand  five  himdred  fathoms. 


Abt.  U.— the    old    bibles,     the    HEBREW    BIBLE 
DISTINGUISHED  AMONG  THEM. 

"  And  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the  woman,  and 
between  thy  seed  and  her  seed;  it  shall  bruise  thy  head." 
G^n.  iii,  15. 

*^And  in  thee  shall  all  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 
Gen.  xii,  3. 

"  Let  the  nations  be  glad  and  sing  for  joy."    Psa.  Ixvii,  4. 

"  Sing,  O  barren,  thou  that  didst  not  bear ; .  .  .  for  more  are 
the  children  of  the  desolate  than  the  children  of  the  married 
wife,  saith  the  Lord.  .  .  .  For  thy  Maker  is  thine  husband ;  the 
Lord  of  hosts  is  his  name ;  and  thy  Redeemer,  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel."    Isa.  liv,  1-5. 

"  There  came  wise  men  from  the  east  to  Jerusalem,  saying. 
Where  is  he  that  is  bom  King  of  the  Jews  ?  for  we  have  seen 
his  star  in  the  east,  and  are  come  to  worship  him."  Matt,  ii,  1, 2. 


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Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

"  God  that  made  the  world  .  .  .  will  judge  the  world  ...  by 
that  man  whom  he  hath  ordained."   Acts  xvii,  24,  31. 

"  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  ...  in  every  nation  he  that 
f  eareth  him,  and  worketh  righteousness,  is  accepted  with  him." 
Acts  X,  34,  35. 

"  Because  that,  when  they  knew  God,  they  glorified  him  not 
as  God,  .  .  .  and  changed  the  glory  of  the  uncorruptible  God 
into  an  image."    Rom.  i,  21-23. 

"  Other -sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold."   John  x,  16. 

"  Many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west,  and  shall  sit  down 
with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
Matt,  viii,  11. 

These  are  remarkable  scriptures.  They  are  the  openings  of 
the  windows  of  heaven  toward  the  Gentiles. 

Isaiah,  in  the  chapter  preceding  that  from  which  we  quote, 
expresses  so  clearly  the  .Jewish  anticipation  of  a  Redeemer  that 
there  can  be  no  mistaking  it ;  and  in  this  (liv)  he  addresses  the 
Gentiles  in  such  a  way  as  implies  a  similar  anticipation  cher- 
ished among  them,  with  a  comforting  assurance  that  it  shall 
not  be  disappointed.  It  is  calculated,  we  should  think,  to  abate 
very  materially  the  conceit  of  the  Jews  that  they  are  the  only 
people  for  whom  God  has  any  regard — for  the  "  children  of  the 
desolate,"  it  is  said,  "are. more  than  the  children  of  the  married 
wife."  The  "  married  wife "  was  the  Hebrew  nation — taken 
into  a  specially  intimate  relation ;  the  "  desolate"  was  the  Gentile 
world  cast  off  by  God.  David  is  praying  for  the  enlargement 
of  God's  kingdom.  He  casts  his  eye  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  Israel,  taking  in  all  the  nations^  and  inviting  them  to  praise 
God  by  his  name  Jah,  or  Jehovah.  (Psa.  Ixviii.)  The  prom- 
ise to  Abraham  included  aU  the  families  of  the  earth.  We  find, 
as  a  matter  of  fact  which  is  not  usually  given  the  prominence 
it  deserves,  that  when  the  Redeemer  of  the  world  was  born 
his  star  appeared  and  was  recognized  in  the  far  east,  at  Persia, 
by  devout  souls  who  were  looking  for  the  "  consolation  of  Is- 
rael "  as  definitely  as  was  Simeon — and  Simeon  recognized  the 
Cliild  he  held  in  his  arms  as  "  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles." 
Luke  ii,  32.  It  dawned  on  Peter's  mind,  at  length,  that  "  in 
eoery  nation  he  that  feareth  him,  and  worketh  righteousness, 
is  accepted  with  him."  But  the  fact  that  there  were  some  such 
was  more  startling.     Paul,  in  his  address  to  the  Greeks,  intro- 


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1881.]  The  Hebrew  Bible  atid  its  Competitors,  233 

duces  the  "  unknown  God  "  as  the  "  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth ;" 
the  Father  of  men — one  of  their  own  poets  had  said,  "  For  we 
also  are  his  offspring;"  and  the  Judge  of  the  world  by  "that 
Man  whom  he  hath  ordai/ned^^ — ^the  basis  of  the  allusion  to 
THAT  Man  being  their  anticipation  of  One. 

With  reference  to  the  anticipation  of  the  Jews  and  their 
recognition  of  a  like  anticipation  among  other  peoples,  these 
scriptures  are  clear.  But  this  latter  idea  was  not  known  to  be 
in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  until  research  from  other  directions 
established  the  fact  that  in  all  the  great  Gentile  religious  sys- 
tems, in  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Vedas,  the  Tripitaka,  the  oldest 
Chinese  books,  and  in  all  the  old  mythologies,  the  Messianic 
idea  was  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas. 

We  do  not  deem  it  necessary  in  this  place  to  fortify  the 
statement  that  the  anticipation  of  a  Redeemer  is  found  as  a 
prominent  feature  in  all  religions.  It  is  implied  in  sacrifice, 
which  is  universal.  As  George  Smith  says,  ("Patriarchal  Age," 
p.  156,)  after  a  survey  of  the  whole  field,  "  In  these  mythologic 
traditions  aU  the  external  circumstances  of  the  subject  of  this 
promise  stand  out  in  bold  relief ;  a  son  of  a  God  is  bom  of  a 
woman,  and  is,  therefore,  mortal ;  he  is  engaged  in  some  des- 
perate warfare  with  a  malignant  spiritual  power,  which  gener- 
ally assumes  the  form  of  a  serpent ;  the  God-man  suffers,  some- 
times dies ;  yet  is  finally  victorious,  and  great  good  accrues  to 
others  (in  the  ethnic  religions  this  good  is  limited)  through  his 
triumph."    Let  this  suffice. 

We  have,  then,  first,  the  universal  anticipation  of  a  Redeemer; 
second,  the  recognition  of  this  anticipation  by  the  earliest  as 
well  as, latest  prophets  of  the  Hebrews,  and  by  Jesus  and  his 
apostles.  There  is  common  ground  between  these,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Gentiles  on  the  other ;  in  fact,  the  burden  of  the 
Old  Testament  prophecy  and  New  Testament  preaching  ad- 
dressed to  the  Gentiles  is  the  identification  of  the  "  Holy  One 
of  Israel "  as  "  He  that  should  come." 

It  is  further  established  by  comparison,  and  assumed  here, 
that  these  religions  and  the  Hebrew  have  the  same  historic  ba- 
sis. The  stories  of  creation,  the  garden,  the  flood,  and  the  dis- 
persion are  in  substantial  agreement,  so  close  as  to  preclude 
any  accounting  for  except  on  the  ground  of  identical  facts. 
This  circumstance  of  agreement  on  these  several  pointa^  be- 


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234  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

tween  these  reKgions  as  found  in  the  old  ethnic  Bibles  is  dwelt 
on  by  a  certain  class  of  writers  with  the  pnrpoee  of  shaking 
our  faith  in  the  Hebrew  Bible.  They  pnt  it  with  the  others 
in  a  catalogue  in  which  all  are  of  equal  value.  They  tell  us 
that  these  traditions,  and  the  God  idea,  and  the  Messianic  idea, 
came  into  the  Hebrew  religion  from  these  other  older  religions, 
and  that,  therefore,  their  claims  to  original  inspiration  (if,  in- 
deed, there  be  any  such  thing)  are  the  stronger  and  clearer. 

We  hold,  however,  that  to  mate  this  out  they  invert  and 
falsify  history,  and  overlook  the  most  striking  characteristic  of 
the  Hebrew  Bible.  By  way  of  reply  to  their  allegation  we 
shall,  in  the  first  place,  determine,  as  nearly  as  may  be  possible, 
the  chronology  of  these  religions,  and  the  fundamental  ideas  of 
each.  It  may  turn  out  as  the  result  of  our  investigation  that 
the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  and  these  other  religions  are 
branches  from  an  original  stalk,  or  that  this  is  the  topping  of 
the  stalk  from  which  the  others  are  branches.  If  so,  one  part 
of  the  allegation,  namely,  that  the  Hebrew  idea  is  derived 
from  them,  will  have  been  answered.  Then,  if  we  can  point 
out  a  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  that  will  jus- 
tify us  in  taking  it  out  of  the  catalogue,  we  shall  have  answered 
the  other  part.     To  these  points  we  direct  our  efforts. 

When  Abraham  left  Haran  he  traveled  westward,  separating 
himself  from  his  own  family  and  kindred.  He  was  of  the  family 
of  Shem.  He  went  out  with  a  monotheistic  idea  and  the  prom- 
ise of  a  Redeemer  in  the  line  of  his  seed.  While  his  descend- 
ants tarried  in  Canaan,  afterward  in  Egypt,  and  still  later  in 
Babylon,  they  did  not  imbibe  to  any  extent  the  religious  ideas 
of  their  neighbors  and  masters,  but  remained  peculiar,  and  were 
hated  on  account  of  their  peculiarity.  They  neither  absorbed 
nor  were  absorbed.  During  all  the  course  of  Jewish  history 
they  remained  peculiar  and  separate.  Occasionally,  before  the 
captivity,  .going  after  Baal  or  Moloch,  their  ancestral  religion 
still  distinguishes  them,  and  they  are  brought  back  to  it  by  one 
or  another  means.  Jewish  history,  in  fact,  is  the  history  of 
the  maintenance  and  development  of  the  i^eligious  ideas  with 
which  Abraliam  started— the  unity  of  God,  and  the  promise 
of  a  Redeemer  in  the  line  of  his  posterity.  It  tells  how 
these  people  came  in  contact  with  others  without  being  dena- 
tionalized, and  how  their  peculiar  religious  ideas  came  in  con- 


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1881.]  The  Hebrew  Bible  and  its  Competitors.  235 

tact  with  others  without  being  eclipsed  or  essentially  modified 
in  the  contact. 

Bnt  we  must  go  backward  beyond  Abraham.  We  must  go 
backward  to  the' time  when  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  speech 
and  one  language.  (Gen.  xi,  1.)  We  must  find  that  then,  when 
they  had  a  common  religion,  one  God,  and  one  hope  of  a  Re- 
deemer, were  its  fundamental  ideas.  We  must  trace  these  ideas 
that  are  common  and  fundamental  to  the  religions  of  the 
world  back  to  this  time  and  place  as  their  starting.  Criticism 
has  well  established  that  the  Book  of  Job  is  the  oldest  of  the 
Semitic  books.  Let  us  examine  it  first.  It  contains  these  ideas 
clearly,  the  unity  of  God  and  the  anticipation  of  a  Redeemer.  It 
contains  some  other  things  that  fix  its  date.  Job  mentions  four 
constellations  as  in  their  oppositions,  (xxxviii,  31-33,)  and  Presi- 
dent Gouget  (*' Origin  of  Laws,"  Edinburgh,  1761)  makes  a  cal- 
culation by  the  processional  cycle  which  fixes  the  date  at  2136 
B.  0.  Dr.  Brinkley,  of  Dublin,  repeats  the  calculation  and 
brings  it  out  six  years  later.  Hales  repeats  Brinkley's  calcula- 
tion, and  mentions  another  by  Decoutant,  which  makes  it  forty- 
two  years  later  still,  or  2088  B.  0.  Job  was  of  the  family  of 
Shem,  of  the  offshoot  of  Joktan,  and  not  in  the  Messianic  line. 
See  Gen.  xxvi,  29,  where  Job-ab  is  Job  with  the  title  of  digni- 
ty, ab.  Kolreiff  ("Chronologia  Sacra,"  Hamburgh,  1724,  cited 
by  Wolfius)  identifies  Job  with  Melchizedek,  King  of  Salem ; 
Shuckf ord  ("  Sacred  and  Profane  History,"  vol.  i,  pp.  263,  264) 
makes  Job  contemporary  with  Serug,  preceding  Abraham  in 
birth  by  perhaps  one  hundred  and  thirty  years.  He  also  iden- 
tifies Job  with  Cheops,  the  builder  of  the  great  Pyramid  in 
Egypt.  Joktan  resided  in  Arabia.  Thence  came  the  prince 
who  "  conquered  Egypt  without  a  battle  "  and  built  the  Pyra- 
mid. It  may  be,  and  there  are  strong  internal  evidences  in 
Job's  book  in  support  of  the  suggestion,  that  Job  was  that 
prince.  In  Egypt  he  may  have  endured  his  affliction,  after 
which  he  lived  one  hundred  and  forty  years,  and  thence  emi- 
grated to  Canaan,  where  he  founded  Salem. 

Dr.  Owen  ("Theologumen")  assigns  the  book  to  a  period  im- 
mediately preceding  Abraham.  Ewald  ("  History  of  Israel," 
vol,  i,  p.  231)  says,  "  It  is  clear  that  these  people,  who  had  very 
largely  displaced  the  old  Canaanites  in  Palestine,  were  of  the 
Semitic  race."    Wilkins  observes  that  Abraham,  "  on  his  arrival, 


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236  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [April, 

found  the  population  consisting  at  least  in  large  meaAure  of 
tribes  with  which  he  would  have  close  affinities  of  blood  and 
language.  .  .  .  We  find  him  conversing  with  Melchizedek,  ne- 
gotiating with  the  children  of  Heth,  and  making  a  treaty  with 
Abimelech  without  any  reference  to  an  interpreter,"  ("Phoeni- 
cia and  Israel,"  pp.  3-10.)  "  Probably  the  movement  from  the 
country  about  the  Persian  Gulf,  of  which  the  history  of  Abra- 
ham furnishes  an  instance,  had  been  going  on  for  some  time  be- 
fore he  quitted  Ur,  and  an  influx  of  emigrants  from  that  quar- 
ter had  made  Shemitism  already  predominant  in  Syria  and 
Palestine  at  the  date  of  his  arrival."  (Rawlinson's  "  Herodotus," 
vol.  i,  p.  537.)  The  biblical  account  of  Abraham's  visit  to  Mel- 
chizedek, the  king  and  priest  of  Salem,  is  familiar.  (Gen.  xiv, 
18 ;  Heb.  vii,  1.)  If  these  probabilities  be  worth  any  thing  we 
can  account  for  the  preservation  of  this  book  of  Job's  experi- 
ence in  the  family  of  Abraham,  and  its  introduction  into  the 
Sacred  Canon,  as  well  as  for  the  otherwise  unaccountable  di- 
gression of  the  historian  in  mentioning  the  family  of  Joktan  in 
Genesis  x. 

Abraham  had  but  just  located  himself  in  Canaan  when  Chedor- 
laomer.  King  of  Elam,  and  his.  confederates,  made  their  expe- 
dition of  war.  They  were  driven  back  by  him  with  the  loss 
of  their  captives  and  booty.  (G^n.  xiv.)  "  The  monumental 
records  of  Babylonia  bear  marks  of  an  interruption  in  the^ine 
of  native  kings  about  the  date  which  from  Scripture  we  should 
assign  to  Chedorlaomer,  and  point  to  Elymais  (or  Elam)  as  the 
country  from  whence  the  interruption  came.  We  have  men- 
tion of  a  king  whose  name  is  on  good  grounds  identified  with 
Chedorlaomer  as  paramount  in  Babylonia  at  this  time,  a  king 
apparently  of  Elamitic  origin,  and  he  bears  in  the  inscriptions 
the  unusual  and  significant  title  of  "  Ravager  of  the  West." 
Our  fragments  of  Berosus  give  us  no  names  at  this  period ;  but 
his  dynasties  exhibit  a  transition  at  about  the  date  required, 
which  is  in  accordance  with  the  breaks  indicated  by  the  monu- 
ments. We  thus  obtain  a  double  witness  to  the  remarkable 
fact  of  an  interruption  of  pure  Babylonian  supremacy  at  this 
time,  and  from  the  monuments  we  are  able  to  pronounce  that 
the  supremacy  was  transferred  to  Elam,  and  that  under  a  king, 
the  Semitic  form  of  whose  name  would  be  Chedorlaomer,  a 
great  expedition  was  organized,  which  proceeded  to  the  distant, 


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1881J         The  Hebrew  Bible  Wnd  its  Competitors.  237 

and  then  almost  unknown,  west,  and  returned  after  "  ravaging,** 
but  not  conquering,  those  regions.  (See  George  Rawlinson's 
"Evidences,"  pp.  73, 74,  and  notefe.)  Sir  H.  Kawlinson  ("Mon- 
archies," vol.  i,  p.  160)  says : 

A  king  whose  court  was  held  at  Susa  led,  in  the  year  B.  C. 
2286,  (or  a  little  earlier,)  an  expedition  against  the  cities  of  Chal- 
dea,  succeeded  in  carrying  all  oefore  him,  ravaged  the  country, 
took  the  towns,  plundered  the  temples,  and  bore  off  into  his  own 
country,  as  the  most  striking  evidence  of  victory,  the  deities 
which  the  Babylonians  especially  reverenced.  This  king's  name, 
which  was  Kudur-Nakhunta,  is  thought  to  be  the  exact  equiva- 
lent of  one  which  has  a  world-wide  celebrity,  to  wit,  Zoroas- 
ter. Now,  according  to  Polyhistor,  (who  here  certainly  repeats 
Berosus,)  Zoroaster  was  the  first  of  the  eight  Median  kmgs  who 
composed  the  second  dynasty  in  Chaldea,  and  occupied  the  throne 
from  about  B.  C.  2286  to  2052  .  .  .  after  which  we  hear  no  more  of 
the  Medes,  the  sovereignty,  it  would  seem,  being  recovered  by  the 
natives.  The  coincidences  of  the  conquest,  the  date,  the  for- 
eign dynasty,  and  the  name  Zoroaster,  tend  to  identify  the  Me- 
dian dynasty  of  Berosus  with  a  period  of  Susanian  supremacy 
which  the  monuments  show  to  have  been  established  in  Chaldea 
at  a  date  not  long  subsequent  to  the  reigns  of  Urukh  and  Ilgi, 
and  to  have  lasted  for  a  considerable  period. 

Without  adducing  any  thing  further,  we  have  these  points : 
1.  Zoroaster,  from  Elam,  overran  and  subdued  Chaldea ;  2.  Be- 
tween one  hundred  and  two  hundred  yea?^  afterward  Abraham 
got  out  from  Haran  into  the  land  which  God  had  promised 
him ;  3.  Chedorlaomer,  probably  the  last  successor  of  Zoroas- 
ter, in  attempting  to  extend  his  borders  westward,  encoun- 
tered and  was  repulsed  by  Abraham ;  and,  4.  After  about  two 
hundred  and  thirty-four  years  of  usurpation  the  Elamitic  su- 
premacy in  Chaldea  was  overcome  by  the  natives,  the  usurpers 
driven  eastward,  and  perhaps  thence  southeastward  down  the 
east  coast  of  the  Persian  Gulf  into  Persia.  Here  we  find  the 
religion  of  Zoroaster.  TVe  should  have  guessed  from  the  con- 
tempt with  which  he  treated  the  gods  of  the  Babylonians  that 
he  was  a  monotheist.  We  might  infer  the  same  from  the  re- 
moval of  Terah,  Abraham's  father,  who  could  not  enjoy  his 
household  gods  under  the  usurper.  But  we  shall  determine 
from  a  glance  at  the  direct  testimonies. 

Zoroaster,  in  person,  did  not  lead  the  migration  into  Persia. 
It  appears  upon  laying  together  facts  that  are  as  well  authen- 
ticated as  any  of  this  time  can  be,  that  this  movement  followed 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 16 

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238  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [April, 

soon  upon  the  overthrow  of  Elamitic  (Medo-Bactrian)  suprem- 
acy in  Chaldea.  Then  his  religion  was  not  introduced  there  by 
himself,  but  by  his  followers.  Duncker  gives  at  length  ("G^^ 
schichte  des  Alterthums^^  book  ii)  the  reasons  which  prove 
Zoroaster  and  the  Zend-Avesta  to  have  originated  in  Bactria. 
Haug  maintains  that  the  language  of  the  Zend-Avesta  is  Bac- 
trian.     Thalheimer  ("  Ancient  History,"  p.  61)  says : 

The  Persians  held  the  reformed  religion  taught  by  Zoroaster, 
a  great  lawgiver  and  prophet  who  appeared  in  the  Medo-Bac- 
trian kingdom  long  before  the  birth  of  Cyrus.  (In  his  time)  in 
every  part  of  the  East  the  belief  in  one  God  and  the  pure  and 
simple  worship  which  the  human  family  had  learned  in  its  orig- 
inal home  had  become  overlaid  with  false  mythologies  and  su- 
perstitious rites.  The  teachings  of  Zoroaster  divided  the  Aryan 
family  into  its  two  Asiatic  branches,  which  have  since  remained 
distinct.  The  Hindus  retained  their  sensuous  nature-worship,  of 
which  Indra,  Mithra,  V&-yu  Agni,  Armata,  and  Soma,  were  chief 
objects.  .  .  .  Zoroaster  taught  the  supremacy  of  a  living  Creator, 
a  person  and  not  merely  a  power,  whom  he  called  Ormazd.  .  .  . 
No  image  of  any  kind  was  seen  in  Persian  temples,  [after  this 
reformation.] 

Dr.  Martin  Haug,  the  most  competent  linguistic  critic,  sug- 
gests the  fifteenth  century  B.  C.  as  the  date  of  the  most  prim- 
itive Iranic  compositions,  which  form  the  chief  if  not  the  sole 
evidence  of  an  Iranic  cultivation ;  but  by  this  we  think  he 
means  that  then  the  Vedic  and  Zoroastrian,  and  perhaps 
other,  fragments  were  first  collated,  as  were  the  fragments  of 
Semitic  tradition  and  literature  by  Moses,  for  the  Vedic  hymns 
are  certainly  older.  They  began  to  be  written  possibly  three 
hundred  years  before  the  settlement  of  Zoroaster's  followers  in 
Persia. 

This  brings  us  very  near  the  time  we  seek,  and  in  these,  prob- 
ably the  oldest  compositions,  we  find  strongest  support  of  our 
position.  In  the  Vedas  the  principal  deity  is  Indra,  which 
name  expresses  the  idea  that  God  alone  exists  as  the  source  of 
all  being.  It  is  of  precisely  the  import  of  the  name  Jeho- 
vah gives  himself  in  the  burning  bush — I  am  the  I  am.  In- 
dra is  called  upon  as  the  "  God  of  the  fathers."  Colbrooke 
says,  "The  ancient  Hindu  religion  recognizes  but  one  God, 
•  not  yet  sufficiently  discriminating  the  creature  from  the  Cre- 
ator." In  one  hymn  of  the  Rig  Veda  it  is  said,  "  They  call 
Him  Indra,  Metra,  Varuna,  Agni.  .  .  .  That  which  is  One, 


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1881.]         The  Hebrew  Bible  and  its  Competitors.  289 

the  wise  call  it  many  ways.'*  In  another,  "  In  the  beginning 
there  arose  the  source  of  the  golden  light.  He  was  the  only 
bom  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He  established  the  earth  and  the 
sky."  Dr.  Gogerly,  regarded  as  tlie  best  living  Pali  scholar,  and 
other  trustworthy  critics,  are  agreed  that  the  ground  of  the 
Brahminic  religion  is  nionotheistic.  It  is  a  protest  against  na- 
ture worship,  a  reformation,  asserting  the  existence  of  a  single 
source  of  being  and  a  single  object  of  worship.  It  is  an  attempt 
to  return  to  the  religion  of  the  Vedic  and  Zoroastrian  age,  in 
the  face  of  Buddhism,  which  was  itself  a  revolt  against  panthe- 
ism. The  former  became  mystic,  the  latter  ritualistic.  Neither 
of  these  is  older  than  600  B.  C. 

Referring  now  to  Confucius,  authorities  fix  the  date  of  his 
living  at  550-480  B.C.  He  was  simply  a  moral  and  political 
reformer,  who  superadded  to  tli^  traditions  and  literature  of 
the  fathers  his  own  maxims.  (See  "  Life  of  Confucius,"  by 
Legge.)  With  this  mention  we  dismiss  him,  and  go  backward 
to  find  that  the  earliest  religion  of  the  Chinese  has  in  it  the 
same  fundamental  ideas  as  the  others.  Dr.  Legge  tells  us  that 
in  the  "  Five  King "  and  "  Four  Shoo,''  the  oldest  religious 
books,  the  name  of  God  is  "  Te,"  or  "  Shang-te,"  and  that  it 
represents  a  personal,  moral  governor.  But  the  best  author- 
ities do  not  date  these  books  earlier  than  2000  B.C.  Hoang-te 
was  the  first  emperor.  His  reign  succeeded  the  period  of  the 
dispersion,  and  may  be  dated  possibly  2600-2700  B.C.  Foo-he 
and  Shing-nong  were  probably  patriarchs  of  the  tribe  which 
first  migrated  from  Central  Asia  eastward — ^possibly  3000  B.C. 
Between  this  date  and  the  other  is  the  heroic  age  of  the  Chi- 
n^.  It  is  a  period  of  wandering,  in  which  most  likely  the 
second,  or  third,  or  even  fourth,  generation  was  involved. 
(See  "  Patriarchal  Age,"  p.  441,  et  aeq.)  They  carried  with 
them  the  learning  and  traditions  of  the  ancestral  home ;  and 
these  are  the  basis  of  the  religious  system  found  in  their 
oldest  books.  But  they  were  settled  in  China  perhaps  five 
hundred  years  before  Zoroaster  lived,  and  seven  hundred  be- 
fore Abraham.  Getting  nearer  the  time  of  "  one  speech  and 
one  language,"  we  do  not  get  farther  away  from  the  mono- 
theistic idea. 

Turning  to  Egypt,  we  find  in  the  coffins  of  the  mummies 
rolls  of  papyrus,  fragments  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  prob- 


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240  Methodist  QuaHierly  Beview,  [April, 

ably  of  1900  B.C.  Translated,  they  read :  "  I  am  the  Most 
Holy,  the  Creator  of  all  that  replenishes  the  earth,  and  of  the 
earth  itself,  the  habitation  of  mortals.  I  am  the  Prince  of  the 
infinite  ages.  I  am  the  great  and  mighty  God;  the  Most 
High,  shining  in  the  midst  of  the  careering  stars,  and  of  the 
armies  which  praise  me  above  thy  head,"  etc.  Rawlinson 
("Ancient  Monarchies,"  voL  ii,  p.  244)  says:  "The  Egyptians 
adopted  a  pantheism,  according  to  which  (while  the  belief  in 
one  supreme  God  was  taught  to  the  initiated)  the  attributes  of 
the  Deity  were  separated  under  various  heads,  as  'the  Creator,' 
-'Divine  Wisdom,'  the  'Generative,'  and  other  principles;  and 
even  created  things,  which  were  thought  to  partake  of  the  di- 
vine essence^  were  permitted  to  receive  divine  worship."  But 
this  pantheism  is  not  the  oldest  religion  of  the  Egyptians. 
Professor  Grimm,  of  Berlinj^ne  of  the  best-accredited  mythol- 
ogists  of  our  time,  writes :  "  The  monotheistic  form  appears 
most  ancient,  and  that  out  of  which  antiquity  formed  poly- 
theism. .  .  •  All  mythologies  lead  to  this  conclusion."  M. 
Adolphe  Pictet  says :  "  To  sum  up :  Primitive  monotheism,  of 
a  character  more  or  less  vague,  generally  passing  into  a  poly- 
theism, still  simple — such  appears  to  have  been  the  religion  of 
the  ancient  Aryans."  *  Tliis  last  remark  holds  equally  good 
of  the  Turanians,  under  which  name  are  included  the  Chaldeans 
and  Egyptians,  and  of  the  tribe  of  Assur  in  the  Semitic  stock. 
Polytheism,  wherever  we  find  it,  is  an  attempt  to  represent  and 
explain  the  diversity  of  manifestation  of  the  One  Supreme, 
as  Aristotle  says :  "  God,  though  he  is  one,  has  many  names, 
because  he  is  called  according  to  the  states  in  which  he  en- 
ters." Really  it  appears,  as  we  glance  over  the  field,  that  Abra- 
ham and  his  posterity  are  the  real  conservators  of  monotheism 
— the  "  topping  of  the  original  stalk,"  which  has  its  roots  in 
the  place  whence  the  families  dispersed. 

Now,  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  says,  in  the  "Journal  of  the  Asiatic 
Society,"  speaking  of  the  different  races  of  Western  Asia : 
"  It  is  a  pleasing  remark,  that  if  we  were  to  be  guided  by  the 
mere  intersection  of  linguistic  paths,  and,  independently  of  all 
reference  to  the  scriptural  record,  we  should  he  led  to  fix  on 
the  jslaims  of  Shvna/r  as  the  focus  from  which  the  va^ioics 

« Both  iheee  authorities  are  cited  from  the  Quarterly  Review,  January,  1876, 
page  43. 


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1881.]  TJie  Hebrew  Bible  and  its  Com^Utors.  241 

lines  had  radiatedP  And  we  say,  that,  standing  on  the  west- 
ern, southern,  or  eastern  shore  of  Asia,  under  the  shade  of  the 
Pyramids,  or  on  Mount  Zion,  and  running  our  eye  along  the 
lines  of  religious  development,  we  should  fix  upon  the  same 
point  as  that  of  theit  intersection.  From  this  point  the  fam- 
ilies of  the  sons  of  Noah  diverge,  each  carrying  the  traditions 
and  memories  of  the  old  home,  and  embodying  them  in  sacred 
books,  where  we  find  them — covered  deep  with  the  fancies  of 
vain  imaginations  and  the  conceits  of  unclean  lust,  to  be  sure ; 
but  there  they  are,  these  same  original  ideas  of  God  and  a  Ke- 
deemer  to  come,  like  gems  in  a  mine,  glittering  in  the  light 
thrown  down  upon  them  by  recent  research. 

What  shall  we  say,  then  ?  "  Shall  we,"  asks  a  recent  writer, 
"  push  aside  all  the  other  sacred  books  of  the  world :  the  Hin- 
du and  Persian  Bibles,  both  older  than  our  own ;  the  Buddhist 
Bible,  held  sacred  by  more  people  than  hold  to  the  Christian 
(Jewish)  Bible;  the  Chinese  Bibles,  ancient  and  venerable 
books ;  .  .  .  shall  we  push  all  these  aside,  and  say,  There  is  no 
voice  of  God  in  them  ?  For  one  I  dare  not  do  that ! "  We 
say,  also,  We  dare  not  do  that.  Nevertheless,  we  do  not  hold 
these  venerable  books  and  the  Jewish  Bible  on  the  same  ground 
— we  observe  a  difference.  We  find  in  them  4he  same  sub- 
stratum of  divine  revelation  and  historic  fact  as  in  it.  We  find 
truth  in  them,  and  we 

**  Seize  upon  truth  wherever  found, 

On  Christian  or  on  heathen  ground.  % 

«  «  «  •  « 

The  plant 's  divine  where'er  it  grows." 

We  can  account  for  the  truth  we  find  in  them — as  we  have 
done — and  we  are  supported  by  plain  allusions  in  our  Hebrew 
and  Christian  Bible  to  the  existence  of  this  truth  among  the 
Gentiles.  Isaiah  says,  in  chapter  liv,  last  verse,  "This  is 
the  heritage  of  the  servants  of  the  Lord,  and  their  righteous- 
ness is  of  me,  saith  the  Lord."  Paul  and  Barnabas,  in  their 
speech  to  the  enthusiastic  people  of  Lystra,  said,  "God  . . .  who 
in  times  past  suffered  all  nations  to  walk  in  their  own  ways 
.  .  .  left  not  himself  without  witness."  We  recall,  also,  the 
striking  remark  of  Jesus,  "  And  other  sheep  I  have,  which  are 
not  of  this  fold."  He  said  that  before  the  Gospel  had  been 
preached  to  the  Gentiles,  in  fact,  before  there  was  any  Gospel 


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242  Methodist  QuaHerly  Heview.  [April, 

to  preach,  for  he  had  not  yet  accomplished  his  mission  to  Je- 
rusalem. If  we  think  we  are  giving  a  wide  extension  to  our 
charity  when  we  include  other  Christian  denominations  in  the 
fold,  we  must  extend  it  still  more  to  include  these  "other 
sheep." 

We  have  said  that  the  basal  ideas  of  the  pre-Abramic  relig- 
'  ion  were  the  unity  of  God  and  the  anticipation  of  a  Kedeemer. 
In  so  far  as  these  ideas  are  retained  in  the  religions  that  have 
grown  from  that  stalk  they  are  true  and  divine  religions.  We 
do  not  know  where  to  draw  the  line  of  distinction  until  poly- 
theism creeps  in,  and  the  "  host  of  heaven "  begin  to  be  wor- 
shiped. But  in  Abraham's  time  polytheism  had  already  grown 
somewhat ;  Zoroaster  had  shown  his  contempt  for  the  deities 
of  the  Babylonians  by  carrying  them  off.  He  himself  was  a 
monotheist. 

Terah,  Abraham's  father,  was  an  idolater,  but  appears  to 
have  fallen  into  idolatry  after  having  been  a  monotheist.  At 
any  rate  neither  Abraham  nor  his  cousin  Lot,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Tenth's  household,  were  tinged  with  the  heresy.  In 
fact,  their  going  West  was  a  protest  against  the  polytheistic 
tendency  of  the  times  and  country.  It  was  just  the  fidelity 
and  tenacity  with  which  Abraham  held  this  cardinal  idea — the 
unity  of  God — ^that  fitted  him  for  the  call  he  received.  The 
other  idea — the  anticipation  of  a  Kedeemer — ^was  held  by  all  in 
the  midst  of  their  polytheism,  and  has  not  since  been  lost.  But 
Abraham  received  with  his  call  a  promise  that  it  should  be  in 
his  seed  that  aU  the  nations  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed,  that 
is,  in  the  line  of  his  posteri^  the  Redeemer  should  come.  This 
idea  he  held  alone,  and  it  became,  with  the  others,  a  funda- 
mental idea  in  his  religious  system.  These  three  ideas,  then, 
are  to  be  found  embodied  in  the  sacred  books  of  Abraham's 
posterity:  1.  The  unity  of  God;  2.  The  promise  of  a  Re- 
deemer; and,  3.  The  J^asedness  of  the  Redeemer  in  their  line 
of  descent.  The  first  two  may  be  found  in  other  sacred  books ; 
the  third  cannot. 

From  the  very  natm*e  of  the  case  God  must  have  selected 
some  one  family  from  which  the  promised  Redeemer  should 
come,  and  in  which  the  world's  common  hope  should  be 
realized,  or  the  world's  common  hope  must  have  been  disap- 
pointed.   Why  he  selected  Abraham  is  apparent.    The  correct- 


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1881.]         The  Hebrew  Bible  and  its  ConypeHtore.  243 

ne68  of  Abraham's  ideas  and  his  tested  fidelity  constituted  his 
special  fitness.  It  was  a  case  of  "  electing  love,"  based  on  rea- 
sons. God  loved  him  and  elected  him  becmcse  he  was  true^ 
and  because,  from^  the  nature  of  the  case,  cm  election  must  be 
Tnade.  It  was  not  an  election  of  exclusion  on  any  other  ground 
than  tmtrueness.  It  was  an  election  in  the  benefits  of  which  aU 
were  to  participate,  and  in  which  all  were  equally  interested. 

From  this  time  forward  this  idea  distinguishes  Abraham  and 
his  posterity,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  they  H/oed  to  it.  It 
develops  and  determines  them ;  they  are  what  they  are  because 
of  it.  Their  history,  as  we  have  it  in  the  Old  Testament,  is 
the  history  of  the  molding  and  unfolding  of  an  idea — ^not  the 
idea  of  God  the  Creator,  nor  of  the  unity  of  God,  nor  of  a  Ke- 
deemer  to  come,  for  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  are  not  solitary  in 
either  of  these  ideas — ^but  the  idea  of  a  Redeemer  ^/Kajd^  in  their 
own  line  of  descent.  In  this  they  are  solitary.  As  distinct 
conceptions  of  God  the  Creator,  (though  not  so  abundant  and 
unvaried,)  of  God  the  One,  of  a  promised  Redeemer,  and  as 
high  moi^  precept,  may  be  found  in  the  Zen^,  the  Tripitaka, 
the  Five  King,  or  the  old  mythologies,  as  in  the  Hebrew  Bible. 
We  concede  this  point,  but  we  assert  this  difference :  that  in 
none  of  them  is  the  line  of  the  Redeemer  fix^  as  it  is  in  the 
Hebrew  tradition  and  Scripture.  The  Chinese  Scriptures,  we 
are  told,  contain  prophecies  of  a  Chinese  Messiah,  and  the 
Hindu  Scriptures  contain  like  prophecies  of  a  Hindu  Messiah. 
But  these  prophecies  are  not  so  specific  as  to  give  precise  di- 
rection to  the  anticipation ;  they  are  not  so  specific  as  to  bar 
the  claims  of  one  coming  from  anjj  other  than  a  given  direction. 
The  point  of  divergence  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  from  these 
others,  is  the  point  where  the  former  begin  to  be  specific — 
when  Abraham  received  that  promise.  As  we  follow  this 
promise  on  down  we  observe  that  it  becomes  more  specific  as 
it  is  frequently  reiterated.  It  is  fixed  in  Isaac,  then  in  Jacob, 
then  in  Judah,  then  in  David,  in  Bethlehem,  and  in  Nazareth — 
in  a  point  of  time,  and  other  conditions  so  precise,  and  the  con- 
junction of  which  is  so  singular,  that  while  they  may  have  been 
miscalculated  beforehand  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  deter- 
mining them  after  the  event.  But  so  precise  were  these  con- 
ditions in  the  promise  that  we  actually  find  the  wise  and  pious 
among  the  Jews,  and  those  of  the  far  East. who  had  kept 


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244  Methodist  QuaHierly  Review.  [April, 

abreast  the  tmf  olding  of  the  idea  in  the  Hebrew  literature,  all 
looking  in  one  direction  at  the  same  time.  In  passing,  we  ob- 
serve that  the  separations  of  Jndah  and  of  David  and  of  Mary 
were  not  more  exclusive  of  the  other  tribes  and  families  and 
individuals  of  the  descendants  of  Abraham  than  was  the  sepa- 
ration of  Abraham  exclusive  of  other  nations — the  coming 
Redeemer  was  for  the  world. 

Now,  with  dl  the  unsettling  of  the  criticism  of  the  times, 
one  fact  has  been  left  untouched — that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
in  the  line  of  this  promise,  of  the  house  and  lineage  of  David, 
bom  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea,  at  a  point  of  time  when  the  pro- 
phetic dates  of  the  Hebrew  people  were  running  out.  The 
scepter  was  not  to  depart  from  Judah  "  till  Shiloh  (the  Sent) 
come.'' 

There  may  be  a  discrepancy  in  the  genealogical  tablej  but  not 
in  the  Uney  and  the  descent  of  Jesus  in  the  line  cannot  be  got- 
ten over ;  and,  make  just  what  we  please  of  it,  it  still  remains 
unchallenged,  that  Jesus  was  bom  at  Bethlehem.  But  it  is 
foreign  to  our  present  purpose  to  follow  out  the  conditions  of 
the  promise,  and  show  how  they  are  pi'ecisely  met  in  the  inci- 
dents of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  All  we  mean  to  say  is,  that,  think 
what  we  may  of  the  pretensions  of  Jesus  to  divinity,  or  of  his 
philosophy,  if  the  Jewish  anticipation  of  a  Redeemer,  the  an- 
ticipation raised  first  by  the  promise  in  the  garden,  fixed  in 
the  line  of  Abraham's  posterity,  and  defined  more  precisely  by 
the  later  prophets — ^if  this  anticipation  be  not  met  in  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  it  is  not  met  at  all  in  Jewish  history.  Jewish  his- 
tory is  sealed  with  aU  these  definite  promises  in  it,  and  to-day 
none  stands  before  the  world  claiming  to  have  met  them,  ex- 
cept Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Another  fact  must  be  looked  in  the  face,  namely,  neither  the 
Hindus,  nor  Chinese,  nor  any  other  religionists,  save  the  Chris- 
tians, have  a  New  Testament, — we  mean  a  book  filling  the 
place  in  their  system  that  the  New  Testament  fills  in  ours, — a 
literature  that  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  idea  that  the  promise  of 
a  Redeemer  has  been  mety  and  that  has  for  its  basis  the  story, 
and  for  its  central  idea  the  unfolding  of  his  life.  Furthermore, 
they  cannot  have  a  New  Testament.  Why  ?  Their  Bibles  are 
closed  without  any  such  precisely  defined  and  limited  promises 
concerning  the  Redeemer  as  are  found  in  the  Hebrew  Bible. 


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1881.]  The  nebrew  Bible  wnd  its  Corrvpetitora.  245 

The  anticipation  is  so  vagne  that  it  wonld  be  impossible  for 
any  character  to  meet  it  and  establish  his  claim.  Hence,  no 
character  among  them  pretends  to  meet  it.  Their  idea  does 
not  grow  into  a  Jesns  of  Nazareth,  and  they  have  no  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  and  no  niche  fitted  for  the  reception  of  such  a 
character.  In  their  traditions  and  literature  their  anticipation 
must  have  been  more  precisely  defined,  and  it  must  have  run 
until  one  arose  to  answer  to  it,  in  order  to  make  a  New  Testa- 
ment literature  possible.  The  significance  of  these  facts  is*that, 
if  the  world-wide  anticipation  of  a  Redeemer  do  not  issue  in 
the  Hebrew  line,  it  has  no  issue  ^^where,  and  if,  in  this  line, 
it  do  not  issue  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  it  has  no  issue  OT^ywhere. 
There  is  no  Redeemer  unless  in  Israel^  andnone  in  IsfraeLun- 
less  Jesus  of  Naza/reth. 

What  a  shallow  analysis  of  these  several  Bibles,  that  does  not 
discover  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  this  idea  developing  and  issuing 
that  does  not  develop  and  issue  in  the  others  1  If  we  take  it 
out  we  have  perhaps  only  what  the  Hindus  and  Chinese  have. 
But  this  one,  beginning  where  they  did,  with  the  undefined 
promise  of  a  Redeemer,  has  become  definite  and  developed  into 
Christianity,  while  those  have  no  development  at  aU.  This 
promise  Jkced  is  the  central  idea  of  the  Hebrew  literature ;  it  is 
the  idea  around  which  all  else  of  incident  in  the  history  of  that 
people  stands,  as  the  scaffolding  stands  around  the  cathedral 
tower  at  Cologne.  When  it  issues  complete  in  a  character  the 
scaffolding  is  removed  out  of  sight,  and  dlZ  the  world  directed 
to  look  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  fulfillment  of  its  hope. 
"  Thy  Itedeemer  is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel." 

We  draw  hence  a  practical  suggestion  with  reference  to  mis- 
sionary work.  The  Old  Bibles  we  find  are  only  incomplete ; 
our  New  Testament  is  supplemental  to  them.  Our  Jesus  is 
the  Redeemer  they  anticipate.  We  shall  not  dethrone  their 
conceptions,  but  enthrone  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Assuming  re- 
demption anticipated,  it  is  to  be  declared  a  fact.  Their  relig- 
ion is  not  aU  wrong.  It  will  be  righted,  as  is  the  imperfect 
religion  of  the  Hebrews,  by  the  story  of  the  Cross. 

**Waft,  waft,  ye  winds,  the  story, 

And  you,  ye  waters,  roll. 
Till,  like  a  sea  of  glory, 

It  spreads  from  pole  to  pole." 


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246  Methodist  Qaa/rterly  Review,  [April, 

We  understand  now,  as  we  never  did  before,  "  the  mystery 
which  has  been  hid  from  ages  and  from  generations,  but  now 
is  made  known  to  his  saints,  to  whom  God  would  make  known 
what  is  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  among  the  Gen- 
tiles ; "  and  we  gather  somewhat  of  the  meaning  and  force  of 
the  promises  to  hri7ig  bach  the  nations^  and  to  gather  together  in 
one  all  things  in  Christ.  We  begin  to  have  a  more  distinct 
idea  of  the  extent  of  Christ's  fold ;  and  yet  we  shall  doubtless 
be  surprised  when  he  brings  those  "  other  sheep  "  in,  to  see 
them  coming  up  from  every  nation  under  the  sun,  "  bringing 
their  glory  and  honor  into  it."  But  they  will  come,  more  of 
them  than  of  the  children  of  Abraham,  for  "  more  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  desolate  than  the  children  of  the  married  wife." 
Cutoff!  Excluded  by  the  election  I  No,  no!  "In  a  little 
wrath  I  hid  my  face  from  thee  for  a  moment ;  but  with  ever- 
lasting kindness  will  I  have  mercy  on  thee,  saith  the  Lord  thy 
Redeemer." 

Finally,  let  the  truth  stand  out  clearly,  that  God  has  kept 
his  word,  and,  of  the  richness  of  his  grace,  provided  for  the 
redemption,  not  only  of  Israel,  but  of  the  whole  world,  through 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  his  Christ ! 


Aet.   m.  — some    characteristics    of    ENGLISH 
THOUGHT  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

A  Bittory  of  England  in  the  Eighieenth  CerUuty.     By  Edward  Habtpoli  Lkokt. 

Two  volumes.     London.    1878. 
Religion  in  England  under  Queen  Anne  and  the  Georges,     By  John  Stouohton, 

D.D.    Two  volumes.    London.     1878. 
Hvftory  of  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.     By  Lbslu  Stephin.    Two 

volumes.     London.     1877. 
Voltaire^  Eotuaeau^  Diderot    By  John  Morlkt.    London.     1872-78. 
English  Men  of  Letters^  1877-80:  Hume,  by  Professor  Huzlit;  Defoe,  by  Arthur 

MiNTO ;  Johnson,  by  Leslie  Stephen. 
Religious  Thought  in  England,    By  Rev.  John  Hunt.    Three  volumes.    London. 

1871. 

"  The  withered,  nnbelieving,  second-hand  eighteenth  century." 
So  Mr.  Carlyle  calls  it,  and  repeats  the  estimate  with  infinite 
variety  of  emphatic  epithet  through  all  his  writings.  Some 
such  opinion  has  been,  until  lately,  the  common  one.  The  last 
century,  we  have  been  told,  was  not  an  age  of  faith,  of  virtue. 


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1881.]      English  Thought  in  the  Eigldeenth  Century.         21:7 

or  of  heroism.  Coleridge  has  taught  us  that  its  pliilosophy 
was  shallow  and  materialistic.  Wordsworth  and  De  Quincy 
have  pronounced  its  literature  cold  and  artificial,  and,  with 
something  of  contempt,  have  denied  to  Pope  and  his  school  the 
name  of  poet.  Men  differing  as  widely  in  creed  as  Newman, 
Maurice,  and  Martineau  have  alike  confessed  that  its  religion 
was  faithless  and  lifeless.  And  yet,  depreciate  the  last  century 
as  we  may,  it  is  certain  that  no  period  seems  to  be  of  greater 
interest  to  all  students  of  English  theught.  Even  Mr.  Carlyle, 
though  he  has  never  ceased  to  berate  it,  has  never  ceased  to 
study  it.  Such  recent  works  as  those  mentioned  at  the  head 
of  this  article  attest  the  present  attractiveness  of  the  century  to 
eminent  men  of  widely  different  schools  of  thought.  Nor  can 
any  careful  reader  have  failed  to  notice  that,  during  the  last 
fifteen  years,  the  popular  estimate  of  the  chai*acter  and  value  of 
eighteenth-century  thought  has  greatly  changed.  The  period 
of  reaction  which  began  with  Wesley  in  religion,  with  Cole- 
ridge in  philosophy,  and  with  Cowper  and  Burns  in  poetry, 
seems  to  be  nearly  at  an  end.  .  The  spirit  of  the  last  century 
is  again  returning  upon  us ;  and  we  may  notice  in  all  quarters 
an  increasing  sympathy  with  its  temper  and  its  methods.  It 
may  be  of  interest,  therefore,  to  inquire.  What  were  some  of  the 
characteristic  features  of  the  century  ?  It  will  be  the  purpose 
of  this  paper  to  point  out  two  or  three  of  them,  so  far  as  they 
may  be  discovered  by  a  rapid  glance  at  English  philosophy  and 
literature  of  the  period. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  at  the  outset,  that  most  of  the 
tendencies  in  thought  commonly  ascribed  to  the  eighteenth 
century  were  in  operation  somewhat  before  its  opening,  and 
culminated  somewhat  before  its  close.  Great  movements  in 
human  thought  are  not  sudden,  but  gradual,  and  cannot  be 
sharply  divided  into  periods ;  least  of  all  will  the  dividing-lines 
of  the  centuries  fitly  mark  such  periods.  In  reality,  what  is 
to  be  said  of  the  eighteenth  century  applies  with  more  exact- 
ness to  a  period  extending  from  about  1690  to  about  1790. 

No  reader  of  eighteenth-century  literature  can  fail  to  discern, 
as  a  first  characteristic  of  the  thought  of  the  age,  a  tendency 
to  exalt  the  logical  reason  at  the  expense  of  the  intuitions,  the 
imagination,  and  the  emotions.  There  was  a  universal  passion 
for  clearness  and  plausibility,  a  disposition  to  narrow  the  range 


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248  Methodist  Qv^rterly  Review.  [April, 

of  knowledge  in  order  to  obtain  within  that  limited  field 
greater  cleamess  of  vision.  The  sphere  of  exercise  for  the 
faculties  once  thus  sharply  defined,  the  thought  of  the  age  de- 
cided, with  convenient  assurance,  that  outside  those  limits 
there  is  nothing  to  be  known.  In  the  familiar  opening  passage 
of  his  treatise,  (which,  by  the  way,  although  "On  the  Hu- 
man Under stcmding^^^  pretends  to  cover  the  whole  of  our 
knowledge,)  Locke  says:  "I  thought  it  well  to  know  the 
range  of  our  own  powers,  that  we  might  be  cautious  in  med- 
dling with  things  beyond  our  apprehension,  and  sit  down  in 
quiet  ignorance  of  those  things  beyond  our  capacities."  The 
writers  of  the  time  of  Anne  and  the  early  Georges  are  con- 
stantly gratulating  themselves  upon  the  good  sense  of  their 
own  day.  "  Sense  and  wit,"  are  Pope's  cardinal  virtues.  "  I 
have  great  respect  for  Paul,"  said  Anthony  Collins ;  "  he  was 
a  man  of  sense  and  a  gentleman."  This  tyranny  of  the  under- 
standing is  evident  in  every  department  of  thought.  In  theol- 
ogy all  parties  were  content  to  assume  the  supremacy  of  rea- 
son ;  no  questions  were  discussed  or  even  entertained  save  on 
the  supposition  that  they  were  to  be  appreciated  and  adjudged 
by  the  unwarmed  reason  alone.  All  literature  was  measured, 
not  by  its  insight,  its  emotional  warmth,  or  imaginative  eleva- 
tion, but  by  its  conformity  to  those  rules  which  the  unaided  un- 
derstanding is  competent  to  impose.  In  practical  life,  likewise, 
it  is  curious  to  notice  the  same  ambition  for  a  reasoned  moder- 
ation, for  philosophical  regulation  of  life,  for  conduct  that 
could  not  be  charged  with  "folly."  There  was,  in  short,  a 
universal  impatience  of  any  thing  like  transcendentalism  in 
philosophy,  mysticism  in  theology,  enthusiasm  in  practical  re- 
ligion. The  two  texts,  it  is  said,*  on  which  most  sermons  were 
preached  in  England,  during  the  first  two  thirds  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  were,  "  Let  your  moderation  be  known  unto  all 
men,"  and  "  Be  not  righteous  over  much." 

A  second  characteristic,  and  one  naturally  growing  out  of 
that  just  mentioned,  is  a  certain  superficiality  and  thinness  in 
much  of  the  thinking  of  the  century.  Discussion  upon  all  sub- 
jects was  popular,  very  much  more  popular  than  ever  before. 
The  philosophy  of  the  age,  such  as  it  was,  descended  into  the 
street.    Every  question  that  was  thought  of  interest  at  all  was 

•Hunt*8  "History  of  Religious  Thought  in  England,"  vol.  iii,  p.  291. 


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1881.]     English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.         249 

debated  at  the  club,  in  the  coffee-house,  in  the  drawing-room. 
But  the  tone  of  discussion  was  such  as  befitted  those  places. 
There  was,  indeed,  not  merely  a  general  mental  activity,  but 
on  some  matters  a  fruitful  activity.  Physical  science  saw  some 
of  its  noblest  triumphs  during  the  century.  History  began  to 
be  studied  and  written  in  a  more  intelligent  way.  Something 
like  a  school  of  political  economy  was  founded.  In  short, 
wherever  the  activity  of  the  age  could  exert  itself  on  concrete 
facts  and  phenomena,  in  the  realm  of  science  as  opposed  to 
philosophy,  it  was  fruitful.  But  the  profound  and  ever-recur- 
ring questions  of  philosophy  which  demand  depth  as  well  as 
clearness  of  vision,  were  either  given  over  as  useless  and  per- 
plexing, or,  more  commonly,  received  easy  and  plausible  but 
not  satisfactory  answers.  This  disposition  to  give  shallow  and 
— ^if  I  may  borrow  a  word  of  that  time  more  expressive  than 
elegant — "  cock-sure  "  solutions  to  the  deepest  problems,  shows 
itself  perhaps  most  frequently  in  ethical  and  theological  dis- 
cussion. Readers  of  Butler  will  remember  the  natural  impa- 
tience with  which  he  speaks  of  the  "  loose  kind  of  deism  com- 
mon among  men  of  pretended  learning  and  wit."  In  Berkeley's 
"Alciphron,"  Lycicles,  the  young  freethinker,  is  made  to  say: 

Our  philosophers  are  of  a  very  different  kind  from  those  awk- 
ward students  who  think  to  come  at  knowledge  by  poring  on 
dead  languages  and  old  authors,  or  by  sequestering  tnemselves 
from  the  cares  of  the  world  to  meditate  in  solitude  and  retire- 
ment. ...  I  will  undertake  a  lad  of  fourteen,  bred  in  the  modem 
way,  shall  make  a  better  figure,  and  be  more  considered  in  any 
drawing-room,  or  any  assembly  of  polite  people,  than  one  at  four 
and  twenty  who  hath  lain  by  a  long  time  at  school  or  college. 
He  shall  say  better  things  in  a  better  manner,  and  be  more  liked 
by  good  judges.  Where  doth  he  pick  up  this  improvement? 
Where  our  grave  ancestors  would  never  have  looked  for  it — 
in  a  drawing-room,  a  coffee-house,  a  chocolate-house,  at  the  tav- 
ern or  groom-porter's.  In  these  and  the  like  fashionable  places 
of  resort,  it  is  the  custom  for  polite  people  to  speak  freely  on  all 
subjects,  religious,  moral,  or  political;  so  that  a  young  gentleman 
who  frequents  them  is  in  the  way  of  hearing  many  instructive 
lectures,  seasoned  with  wit  and  raillery,  and  uttered  with  spirit.* 

A  similar  disposition  shows  itself  in  political  discussion. 
The  old  high  traditional  notions  as  to  the  nature  of  govern- 
ment had  been  pretty  much  overturned  by  the  revolutions  of 

•  "Alciphron,"  Dialogue  I 


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250  Methodist  Qua/rterVy  Beoiew,  [April, 

the  previous  century.  By  the  unprecedented  changes  culmi- 
nating in  the  Kevolution  of  1688  the  whole  question  of  the 
nature  of  the  monarchy  and  the  relation  of  the  different 
branches  of  the  government  to  each  other  had  been  brought 
into  popular  and  reasoned  discussion.  The  divinity  that  doth 
hedge  a  king  was  unknown  in  England  after  1688.  An  im- 
mense increase  in  the  deference  paid  to  private  judgment  had 
rendered  political  traditions^  as  well  a^  aU  other  traditions,  of 
little  weight,  and  had  incited  a  freedom  of  speech  that  often 
passed  into  license.  Never  was  political  discussion  so  rife  in 
England  as  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century ;  and  never  be- 
fore or  since  was  it  so  rancorous,  so  shallow,  and  so  confident. 
England  was  fiUed  with  pamphlets ;  but  it  would  be  diflScult 
to  point  to  any  one  of  them  written  between  1700  and  1750 
that  shows  any  real  wisdom. 

It  is  to  be  further  noticed,  that  the  thought  of  the  age  was, 
for  the  most  part,  practical  rather  than  speculative.  It  was 
controlled  by  prudential  considerations,  and  aimed  at  imme- 
diate material  results.  This  disposition  shows  itself  in  many 
ways :  in  the  constant  intrusion  of  the  didactic  element  into 
polite  literature,  in  the  growth  of  a  utilitarian  ethics,  and,  per- 
haps more  strikingly  than  anywhere  else,  in  the  universal  tend- 
ency to  enforce  sound  belief  on  low  prudential  grounds.  "It's 
safer  to  believe  there  is  a  God,"  argued  the  timid  orthodoxy 
of  that  day,  "  because  at  all  events  there  may  be  one ;  and  if 
there  is,  he  will  damn  you  if  you  don't."  *  In  all  departments 
of  thought,  among  men  of  all  shades  of  belief,  the  century 
shows,  as  Mr.  Pattison  says,  "  human  attainment  leveled  to  the 
lowest  secular  model  of  prudence.  Practical  life  as  it  was,  was 
the  theme  of  the  pulpit,  the  press,  the  drawing-room."  f  Such 
a  spirit  in  no  wise  loses  its  reward.  Measured  by  its  material 
prosperity  only,  the  period  was  certainly  a  most  fortunate  one. 
Hallam  says  that  the  forty  years  following  the  peace  of  Utrecht 
(1714)  were  the  happiest  in  English  history.  It  is,  indeed,  just 
this  practical  tendency  which  a  certain  school  of  modem  think- 
ers most  admire.  "  Intellectually,"  says  Mr.  Morley,  in  his 
"Life  of  Diderot,"  "it  was  the  substitution  of   things  for 

*  See  this  motive  elaborated,  for  instance,  in  some  of  South's  sermons,  notably 
in  one  entitled  "  The  Practice  of  Religion  Enforced  by  Reason.'' 
t  "  Tendencies  of  Religious  Thought  in  England,''  **  Essays  and  Reyiews,"  p.  828. 


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1881.]      English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.         251 

"words."  But  it  seems  hardly  possible  for  any  one  to  read  the 
history  of  the  last  century  without  discovering  that  such  an 
interest  in  "  things ''  leads  to  a  subordination  of  all  higher  mat- 
ters to  lower,  to  selfislmess,  narrowness  of  vision,  and  raeager- 
ness  of  life. 

As  a  fourth  characteristic,  we  may  notice  that  the  thought 
of  the  century,  so  far  as  it  was  speculative  at  all,  was  critical 
and  destructive  rather  than  constructive.  It  seems  to  be  an 
inevitable  law  of  human  progress  that  the  advance  of  thought 
shall  not  be  constant  but  intermittent.  To  a  period  of  enthu- 
siasm, of  faith,  of  philosophic  insight,  is  sure  to  succeed  a 
longer  period  during  which  mental  activity  is  chiefly  directed 
to  the  criticism  of  accepted  beliefs.  The  acquisitions  of  the 
one  period  are  subjected  to  the  sifting  scrutiny  of  the  next. 
An  age  of  faith  is  followed  by  an  age  of  skepticism.  Now,  the 
first  three  fourths  of  the  last  century  aflford,  perhaps,  the  best 
example  in  modem  times  of  a  typical  age  of  skepticism.  Its 
work  was  to  prove  all  things,  in  the  narrowest  logical  sense  of 
that  phrase,  and  it  held  fast  nothing,  however  good,  that  would 
not  submit  itself  to  this  process.  Such  activity,  though  impor- 
tant, must  always  be  partial  and  one-sided,  and  its  results  only 
corrective.  The  eighteenth  century  afltords  no  exception  to 
this  rule.  Whatever  permanent  results  of  the  thought  of  the 
time  remain  will  be  found  to  be  almost  entirely  in  the  form 
of  negations  or  limitations. 

The  tendencies  thus  mentioned  may  be  illustrated  by  a  rapid 
survey  of  some  of  the  most  important  forms  of  English  thought. 
And,  first,  of  philosophy.  The  main  line  of  English  philo- 
sophic thought  during  the  century  is  easily  traced.  It  begms 
with  Locke,  who  is  the  father  of  modem  English  philosophy, 
as  indeed  of  English  politics,  and — ^it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
—of  English  theology  also.  Two  more  names  only  make  up 
the  succession.  Berkeley  follows  Locke,  and  Hume  follows 
Berkeley,  each  adopting  the  premises  of  his  predecessor,  and 
urging  them  to  further  and  very  different  conclusions.  The 
"Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding,"  the  "Principles  of 
Human  Knowledge,"  and  "  Dialogues  of  Hylas  and  Philonous," 
with  the  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  contain  all  that  is 
most  representative  and  influential  in  English  philosophical 
writing  for  a  hundred  years.    What  it  is  especially  to  our  pur- 


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252  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [April, 

pose  to  notice  here,  is  the  common  tendency  in  all  three  writ- 
ers to  simplicity,  to  a  purely  rational  method,  and  to  a  destruc- 
tive criticism. 

This  is  seen  at  the  outset  in  Locke.  He  will  get  rid  of 
fruitless  discussion  over  words,  and  bring  philosophy  to  the 
test  of  plain  facts  which  every  man  may  investigate  for  him- 
self. His  attempt  was  thought  in  his  own  time  singularly  suc- 
cessful. He  is  spoken  of  with  general  admiration  throughout 
the  century,  as  having  given  an  account  of  our  knowledge 
which  is  simple  and  intelligible.  Locke's  theory,  as  has  been 
so  often  shown,  if  consistently  carried  out,  makes  a  clean  sweep 
of  intuitive  ideas.  If  all  the  elements  of  our  knowledge  be  re- 
ducible at  last  to  sensations,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  no  room 
left  for  time,  space,  cause,  or  self.  Locke,  however,  is  not  en- 
tirely consistent.  The  knowledge  of  self  he  bases  on  an  "  in- 
tuitive belief ; "  the  knowledge  of  God,  on  an  irresistible  infer- 
ence, which  inference  seems  itself  to  rest  on  the  principle  of 
causation.*  For  the  principle  of  causation  there  is,  of  course, 
no  place  in  Locke's  system,  though  of  this  inconsistency  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  aware.  But  once  admit  it,  and  a 
further  question  inevitably  follows.  Our  knowledge  is  derived 
from  sensations;  but  what  causes  the  sensations?  Do  they  at- 
test a  substance?  Locke  vacillates  somewhat  in  his  answer, 
but  we  learn,  at  last,  that  our  sensations  are  caused  by  hody  or 
matter.  Of  this  matter  he  affirms  not'only  independent  exist- 
ence, but  two  kinds  of  qualities,  primary  and  secondary.f  Our 
conscious  existence,  then,  is  made  up  of  a  series  of  states  re- 
ducible in  the  last  analysis  to  sensations,  and  these  sensations 
are  themselves  caused  by  an  "  external  somewhat,"  unconscious, 
solid,  extended. 

Now  it  is  just  at  this  point  that  Berkeley  joins  issue.  Locke's 
philosophy,  in  this  phase,  it  was  evident,  led  direct  to  material- 
ism and  atheism.  It  was  eagerly  accepted,  not  only  in  En- 
gland, but  with  even  greater  avidity  in  France.  Fostered  by 
many  contemporary  tendencies,  notably  by  the  attention  given 
to  physical  science,  it  was  leading  men  to  believe  that  the  un- 
conscious somewhat  was  the  cause  of  all  thought,  and,  hence,  of 
all  conscious  mind  in  the  universe.    If  it  caused  sensations, 

*  Book  !▼,  chaps,  iz,  x.  ' 

f  Essay,  book  ii,  ohaps.  yiii,  xxi,  xziil,  xziy ;  also  book  iy,  chaps,  ii,  liL 


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1881.]      English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.         253 

and  sensations  summed  up  knowledge,  the  conclusion  was  short 
and  easy,  and  to  a  lazy  or  immoral  philosophizing  satisfactory 
enough.  It  was  to  such  reasonings  that  Berkeley  put  his 
great  question,  What  do  you  mean  by  the  existence  of  this  ex- 
ternal unconscious  somewhat  ?  In  what  sense  can  you  call  it 
real  f  When  you  apply  it  to  such  terms  as  power,  force,  cause, 
what  can  these  words  mean?  We  know  Berkeley's  answer. 
Material  substance,  as  commonly  understood,  he  denied.  When 
he  searched  his  own  consciousness  for  evidences  of  it,  he  found 
none;  sensations  he  found,  but  no  substratum.*  He  was,  indeed, 
careful  to  reiterate  that  he  believed  in  body  as  truly  as  any  one 
else  could,  in  the  only  intelligible  sense  in  which  the  word 
"  body  "  can  be  used ;  but  body,  meant  to  him  only  an  assem- 
blage of  sensations  in  consciousness.  The  idea  of  externality, 
which  is  always  a  part  of  our  conception  of  body,  he  explains 
by  the  potential  sensations ;  for  example,  the  possible  sensations 
•  of  touch  inevitably  brought  to  mind  by  sight  of  a  tree  yonder, 
and  by  the  permanence  in  the  relations  of  our  sensations,  which, 
as  it  evidently  does  not  depend  upon  us^  gives  am  idea  of  other- 
ness. These  two  elements,  according  to  Berkeley,  really  con- 
stitute our  idea  of  externality.  So  far  Berkeley's  philosophy 
is  destructive,  and  so  far  it  has  been  accepted  by  skeptical 
schools  of  thought  since.  But  it  has  a  constructive  side  as 
welL  In  fact,  the  whole  purpose  of  Berkeley's  work,  as  I  have 
hinted,  was  to  counteract  the  materialistic  tendencies  of  his  own 
times,  and  to  furnish  a  philosophic  basis  for  theism,  though,  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  temper  of  his  time,  this  part  of 
his  work  received  much  less  attention  than  the  destructive  part. 
His  theistic  conclusion  rests  on  two  arguments.  In  the  first 
place,  it  would  seem  that,  as  the  essence  of  things  consists  in 
their  being  perceived — esse  is  percipi^  as  Berkeley  puts  it — 
when  not  perceived  by  any  mind  the  things  must  cease  to  ex- 
ist ;  that  the  chair  I  saw  five  minutes  ago,  but  which  is  not  now 
seen  by  me  or  by  any  other  conscious  mind,  must  have  ceased  to 
exist  just  as  truly  as  the  toothache  I  had  a  year  ago.  And  so 
it  must,  Berkeley  admits.  And  yet  he  insists  we  do  know 
(though  on  what  warrant  he  does  not  clearly  show)  that  bodies 

*  Berkeley's  '*  Principlee',''  sections  8-S3.    See  also  Prof.  Eraser's  excellent  notes 
and  illustrations  in  his  edition  of  *'  Berkeley,"  and  in  the  **  Selections  **  of  the  Clar- 
endon Press  Series. 
FouBTH  Sebiks,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 17 

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264  Methodist  QiuxHerly  lieview.  [April, 

have  a  real  and  continuous  existence ;  hence,  they  must  exist 
in  the  thought  of  a  divine  and  omniscient  Mind,  having  there 
thsitpercipi  which  is  their  real  esse.  Thus,  we  come  direct  to  a 
refutation  of  atheism.*  And,  secondly,  we  come  to  the  same  goal 
by  another  road.  Berkeley  admits  direct  knowledge  of  self. 
We  know  ourselves,  too,  as  having  power,  but  we  see  that  a 
large  part  of  our  sensations  are  not  caused  by  our  power,  while 
yet  they  must  be  caused  by  some  power.  We  have  no  idea  of 
power  save  mind ;  they  must,  therefore,  be  produced  by  a  miiid, 
and  their  infinite  complexity  and  unvarying  order  demand  a 
divine  Mind.f 

This  argument  evidently  postulates  the  principle  of  causa- 
tion, and  the  knowledge  of  seV  and  cause.  Drop  these  postu- 
lates out,  deny  or  doubt  them,  and  the  coherency  of  the  system 
is  lost.  Now  this  was  the  point  at  which  Hume  took  up  Berke- 
ley's conclusions.  He  claimed  that  the  assumption  of  a  per- 
sonal self  and  of  a  principle  of  cause  are  equally  without  war- 
rant. The  same  cx)nsiderations  which  had  induced  Berkeley's 
denial  of  a  material  substance  he  urged  against  its  subjective 
antithesis,  a  mental  substance,  while  he  found  in  the  principle 
of  causation  nothing  but  a  customary  association  between  im- 
pressions and  ideas.  The  result  was,  of  course,  entire  and  thor- 
ough-going philosophical  skepticism.  It  need  not  be  said  that 
this  philosophy,  modified  somewhat  by  the  Hartleian  doctrine 
of  the  association  of  ideas,  is  consistently  carried  out  in  our 
own  century  by  the  teaching  of  the  two  Mills.  This  hasty  ret- 
rospect of  its  most  familiar  forms  is  given  only  as  illustititing 
those  tendencies  of  thought  above  mentioned  as  characteristic 
of  the  century,  the  desire  of  simplicity  and  clearness,  the  dispo- 
sition to  exclude  from  discussions  all  insoluble  problems,  and 
the  habit  of  destructive  criticism.  Very  much  the  same  might 
be  said  of  the  side  schools  of  thought — of  the  common-sense 
philosophy,  for  instance.  It  is  not  until  the  time  of  Coleridge 
that  we  get  a  form  of  thought  essentially  in  opposition  to  the 
temper  of  the  century. 

But  still  more  significant  of  the  practical  temper  of  the  age 
is  the  wide-spread  indifference  to  the  really  able  philosophy  of 

•  See  the  **  Principles  of  Human  Knowledge,"  sections  46, 48 ;  also  the  "  Hylas  and 
Philonous,"  and  the  SiriSy  punrn, 

f  "Principles  of  Human  Knowledge,"  sections  145-166. 


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1881.]     English  Thmght  m  the  Eighteenth  Century.         255 

the  day.  Berkeley  and  Hume  seem  to  have  had  no  wide  fol- 
lowing. Locke  was,  indeed,  studied  and  quoted  with  approba- 
tion throughout  the  century,  but  principally  because  of  his 
apparent  simplicity  and  his  opposition  to  abstruseness.  The 
truth  is,  the  whole  period  was  singularly  averse  to  profound 
speculation.  Its  typical  men  are  not  deep  thinkers  like  Locke 
and  Berkeley  and  Hume ;  but,  on  the  one  side  such  club-room 
philosophers  as  Shaftesbury  and  Bolingbroke,  masters  of  light, 
superficial  discussion,  and,  on  the  other  side,  minds  of  tougher 
fiber,  but  of  conservative  temper,  like  Swift  and  Johnson,  who 
refused  to  discuss  the  deeper  questions  of  philosophy,  or  to 
scrutinize  very  closely  the  rational  basis  of  the  beliefs  to  which 
they  held  so  obstinately.  Swift  argues  against  Collins  by  show- 
ing, in  a  masterly  piece  of  irony,  the  inconveniences  that  would 
result  if  the  Christian  religion  were  abolished.  Johnson,  as  is 
well  known,  bluntly  said  that  any  clown  might  refute  all  Berke- 
ley by  running  his  head  against  a  post ;  of  Hume  he  always 
spoke  with  undisguised  contempt,  and  Hume's  fruitless  philo- 
sophical speculations  he  termed,  with  more  force  than  elegance, 
an  attempt  "to  milk  the  bull; "  in  the  most  masterly  of  all  his 
essays,  he  brushes  away,  as  with  a  contemptuous  gesture,  the 
flimsy  conjectures  of  Soame  Jenyns  on  the  "  Origin  of  Evil ;" 
but  he  has  no  solution  of  his  own  for  the  problem,  and  is  man- 
ifestly irritated  by  the  foolish  efforts  after  one. 

The  same  tendencies  may  be  seen,  in  their  most  pronounced 
form,  in  those  theological  discussions  with  which  the  thought 
of  the  century  was  so  largely  concerned.  It  is,  indeed,  com- 
mon nowadays  to  speak  of  the  deistic  controversy  of  .the  early 
part  of  the  century  as  a  matter  of  little  interest  or  importance. 
Long  before  the  close  of  the  century  Burke  could  exclaim  con- 
temptuously, in  the  well-known  passage  in  the  "Keflections  oft 
the  French  Kevolution,"  "Who,  bom  within  the  last  forty 
years,  has  read  a  word  of  Collins,  or  Toland,  or  Tindal,  or 
Morgan,  or  the  whole  race  of  freethinkers  ?  Who  now  reads 
Bolingbroke  ?  Who  ever  read  him  through  ? "  No  one,  very 
likely.  And  yet  the  deistic  controversy,  though  the  noise 
of  it  soon  died  away,  was  very  significant  in  its  time,  and  its 
results  were  really  lasting.  It  illustrates  throughout  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  age  which  have  been  mentioned.  The  En^ 
glish  theology  of  the  previous  century — ^the  seventeenth — ^had, 


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Methodist  QuaHerly  R&oiew.  [April, 

in  all  its  greatest  specimens,  been  growing  more  and  more  ra- 
tional. The  Reformation  in  England,  though  perhaps  at  first 
a  civil  and  moral  rather  than  an  intellectual  revolt,  had  been, 
in  reality,  there  as  every-where  else,  an  appeal  to  reason  as 
against  authority.  Discarding  tradition,  religious  faith  and 
practice  must  base  themselves  on  the  authority  of  reason  and 
on  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  So  argues  Hooker  at  the  outset. 
Increasingly  through  that  century  do  we  find  growing  among 
the  ablest  thinkers  a  principle  of  toleration  based  on  a  free  ex- 
ercise of  the  individual  reason.  This  may  be  seen  in  Milton's 
"Areopagitica,"  in  Jeremy  Taylor's  "Liberty  of  Prophesying," 
in  Chillingworth's  "  Religion  of  Protestants,"  and  in  Stilling- 
fteet's  "  Irenicum."  *  But  an  appeal  to  reason  and  the  Bible  is 
virtually  an  appeal  to  reason,  since  the  claims  of  Scripture 
itself  are  to  be  adjudged  by  reason.  So  says  Chillingworth. 
"  The  Bible  is  to  be  accepted  as  authority  in  all  questions  save 
questions  where  its  authority  is  concerned."  This  is  the  po- 
sition of  Locke,  whose  treatise  on  "  The  Reasonableness  of 
Christianity  "  may  almost  be  said  to  have  been  the  text  for  all 
theological  discussion  for  seventy-five  years,  on  both  the  ortho- 
dox and  the  deist  side.  Grant  the  joint  authority  of  reason 
and  Scripture  when  they  do  not  conflict,  with  the  assumption 
that  Scripture  must  submit  to  the  arbitration  of  reason  when 
they  do ;  this  was  the  stand-point  of  all  religious  controversy 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Do  they  conflict  ?  was  a  ques- 
tion then  inevitable.  And  this  necessitates  the  further  question, 
What  does  reason  sanction  ?  What  are  those  reasoned  beliefs 
conformity  to  which  must  be  the  test  of  Scripture?  Men  differ 
hopelessly  on  many  points;  let  us  take  what  they  agree  on. 
We  shall  then  have  a  reasonable,  a  natural  religion  .f  In  this 
your  natural  religion  you  must  take,  said  the  deists,  only  axioms 
common  to  all  men.  Whatever  in  revelation  conforms  to  this 
can  be  admitted;  whatever  exceeds  or  transcends  it  must  be 
supported  by  very  strong  external  evidence ;  and  whatever 
contradicts  it  cannot  be  received  at  alL  The  deists  professed 
themselves  Christians — whether  sincerely  or  not  has  been  ques- 
tioned, though  there  seems  no  good  reason  to  doubt  it — and 

*  For  an  interesting  treatment  of  the  growth  of  this  principle,  see  Principal  Tol- 
loch*8  *'  Rational  Theology  in  the  Seventeenth  Century." 

t  Leslie  Stephen's  **  History  of  English  Thought,**  vol.  i,  p.  85. 


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1881.1     English  Thought  m  th£  Eighteenth  Centv/ry.         257 

their  object  was  not  widely  different  from  Locke's.  The  titles 
of  the  two  best  known  books,  Toland's  "  Christianity  not  Mys- 
terious," and  Tindal's  "  Christianity  as  Old  as  Creation,"  indi- 
cate the  range  and  purpose  of  their  work.  They  made  Chris- 
tianity substantially  a  republication  of  natural  religion,  and 
rejected  whatever  of  revelation  would  not  squM^  with  that 
account. 

The  deist  controversy  seems,  at  this  distance,  a  very  unequal 
one.  All  the  speculative  ability,  all  the  social  and  literary 
prominence,  were  on  the  orthodox  side.  On  that  side  were 
Locke,  Clarke,  and  Warburton ;  Bentley,  the  most  learned  and 
acute  of  critics,  Berkeley,  the  profoundest  English  thinker  of 
the  century,  and  Butler,  whose  "Analogy"  may- be  said  to  have 
closed  the  controversy.  Among  professed  men  of  letters  the 
orthodox  party  could  claim  Addison,  who  had  written  in  his 
youth  a  treatise  on  the  Evidences — and  it  must  be  confessed, 
as  Pepys  would  say,  a  "  mighty  weak  one" — and  who,  later  in 
life,  systematically  wrote  down  the  deists  in  the  "  Spectator," 
and  even  in  his  comedies ;  *  Dick  Steele,  who  contributed  to 
the  controversy  "  Christian  Hero ; "  Swift,  who  in  one  of  the 
very  finest  of  his  satirical  papers  covered  with  ridicule  the 
deist  Collins ;  and  other  names  only  a  little  less  eminent  than 
these.  On  the  deist  side  the  writers  were  men  now  forgotten, 
and,  it  would  seem,  not  deemed  of  very  great  ability  or  learn- 
ing in  their  own  day.  Some  of  them  confessed,  even  in  their 
criticisms  of  Scripture,  that  they  had  no  language  but  their 
mother  tongue.  Socially  they  were,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, unknown  men.  Their  little,  shriveled  books  are  now 
almost  unattainable ;  and  the  general  reader  is  forced  to  study 
them,  if  i&deed  he  care  to  study  them  at  all,  in  some  such  full 
abstract  as  that  given  by  Mr.  Hunt  in  his  "  History  of  Relig- 
ious Thought."  t  From  such  antagonists  it  may  seem  that  the 
defenders  of  orthodox  theology  should  have  had  little  to  fear ; 
and  we  are  apt  to  be  surprised  that  they  were  so  apprehensive. 
A  little  study,  however,  suffices  to  show  that  the  importance 
of  the  attack  cannot  be  measured  by  the  ability  manifest  in  the 
printed  works  of  those  deists  who  came  to  the  front,  nor  even 
by  the  ability  of  these  men  themselves.  The  danger  lay  in  the 
universal  diffusion  of  such  views.    They  were  in  the  air.    They 

•  In  "The  Drummer,**  for  instance.  t  Vol.  ii,  chaps,  ix,  xL 


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258  Methodist  Qy,a/rterVy  Review.  [April, 

gained,  perhaps,  no  very  able  defenders,  but  they  were  on 
every  body's  lips.  Every  body  understood  the  deist  questions ; 
every  body  asked  them.  Accordingly,  we  find  the  ablest  apol- 
ogists concerned  not  so  much  to  answer  any  particular  book  as 
to  check,  if  possible,  the  tide  of  fashionable  unbelief  and  indif- 
ference. It  is  the  "  loose  deism  now  current  in  fashionable 
circles"  that  frightens  Butler.  "It  has  come  to  be  taken  for 
granted  by  many  persons,"  he  says,  "that  Christianity  is  not 
so  much  a^  a  subject  of  inquiry,  but  that  it  has  at  last  been 
discovered  to  be  false."  Ajid  the  objections  of  the  deists,  it 
should  be  said,  were  real  ones,  and,  in  such  an  age,  all  the  more 
dangerous;  because  they  were  not  begotten  of  any  profound 
thought  or  critical  scholarship,  but  were  rather  the  suggestions 
of  men  of  very  mediocre  ability,  and  were  level  to  the  appre- 
hension of  the  meanest  capacity.  In  a  word,  they  were  pre- 
cisely in  harmony  with  the  practical,  reasoning,  destructive 
temper  of  the  time.  The  increasing  geographical  and  astro- 
nomical knowledge,  for  instance,  which  had  begun  to  filter 
down  among  the  middle  classes,  suggested  a  series  of  plausible 
questions,  so  often  since  repeated.  Christendom  is  a  fragment 
of  the  world,  and  the  world  a  fragment  of  the  universe.  Is  it, 
then,  conceivable  that  God  should  place  such  supreme  impor- 
•  tance  on  the  Christian  revelation?*  What  of  that  300,000,000 
of  Chinese — ^who  turn  up  in  all  the  deist  writings  from  Toland 
to  Tom  Paine — ^who  never  could  have  heard  of  Christianity  ? 
Are  they  damned?  And  if  they  are  not,  can  the  Christian 
revelation  be  the  one  absolutely  necessary  thing  in  this  world 
or  the  next  ?  The  first  chapters  of  Genesis  were  beginning  to 
provoke  dissent  even  before  the  birth  of  modem  geology. 
How  shall  we  explain  the  discrepancies  of  the  gospel^  the  ful- 
fillment of  prophecy,  the  vindictive  psalms  ?  It  was  precisely 
because  these  detached  objections  were  so  simple — so  puerile 
the  orthodoxy  of  to-day  may  perhaps  call  them — that  they  were 
readily  caught  up  and  diffused.  They  were  at  all  the  dinner- 
tables.  It  is  odd  to  read,  for  instance,  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  that  "  My  Lord  Bolingbroke  was 
seldom  in  her  ladyship's  company  without  discussing  some 
topic  beneficial  to  his  eternal  interests."  Manners  are,  fortu- 
nately, now  changed  in  this  particular. 

*  See  Leslie  Stephen's  *'  History  of  English  Thought,"  yol.  i,  chap.  ii. 


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1881.]     En-gUsh  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,         259 

Doubtless  such  objections  as  these  can  be  readily  answered, 
but  they  are  not  essentially  frivolous.  TJiey  are  real  objec- 
tions, and — which  is  the  consideration  here  to  be  specially 
noted — they  are  precisely  of  a  nature  to  commend  themselves 
readily  to  the  homely  common  sense  of  the  middle  class. 
Some  matters — transubstantiation,  for  instance — it  may  be  held 
that  this  horhely  common  sense  is  unable  to  comprehend;  but 
the  question  of.  the  literal  fulfillment  of  prophecy  in  the  Gos- 
pels, or  the  question  whether  there  was  one  beggar  or  two  at 
the  gate  of  Jericho,  common  sense  feels  itself  quite  competent 
to  ask.  The  great  difl&culty  was,  as  Butler  saw,  to  get  common 
sense  to  look  at  a  system  as  a  whole,  with  arguments  ^e>  and 
con^  and  not  content  itself  with  desultory  attack  and  reply.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  whole  deistic  controversy  was 
not  so  much  a  speculative  as  a  practical  one.  It  was  an  effort 
on  both  sides  professedly,  and  one  side  in  reality,  to  preserve  to 
society  and  morals  the  support  of  religion.  Nor  is  it  easy  to 
overestimate  the  value  of  the  results  flowing  from  the  con- 
troversy.* To  the  deist  attack  it  njay  be  said  that  we  owe  the 
work  of  Butler,  Paley,  and  Lardner.  A  whole  series  of  plausi- 
ble questions  were  answered  once  for  alL  And,  what  was  of 
perhaps  even  more  importance,  the  grounds  and  limits  of  a  ra- 
tional defense  of  Christianity  were  made  clear.  Apologists 
learned  not  to  waste  their  efforts  in  the  defense  of  what  is 
unessential. 

But  all  through  the  century  it  is  assumed  that  the  reason  is  • 
arbiter.  As  some  onehas  said, "  It  would  seem  that  Christianity 
existed  only  to  be  proved."  The  credibility  of  revelation  is 
the  constant  topic.  The  mode  of  defense  changed  somewhat, 
indeed,  after  the  middle  of  the  century.  As  the  deistic  con- 
troversy subsided  the  work  of  the  apologist  was  directed  not 
so  much  to  the  internal  evidences  as  to  the  external  The 
reason  of  the  change  is  obvious.  After  it  had  been  proved 
satisfactorily  that  there  is  no  inherent  improbability  in  the 
Scripture  narratives,  it  remained  to  prove  that  they  were  gen- 
uine and  authentic,  to  '^  put  the  apostles  on  trial  once  a  week 
for  forgery,"  as  Johnson  has  it.  The  a  posteriori  argv/ment 
naturally  followed  the  a  priori,  Paley  occupies  some  such 
position  in  summing  up  this  work  as  Butler  does  in  the  other. 
But  the  tone  and  the  methods  of  the  discussion  remain  the 


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260  Methodist  QtuiHerly  Bemew.  [April, 

same  througKout,  bo  that  the  revolt  against  the  evangelicjal  pre- 
tensions at  the  cloae  of  the  century  was  inevitable  and  very 
characteristic.  Believers  and  unbelievers  cried  out  together, 
"  Enthusiasm ! "  And  consistently.  For  both  parties  had 
been  drawing  Christianity  before  the  bar  of  reason,  and  agreed 
that  all  its  pretensions  should  be  settled  by  argument ;  but  here 
were  men  who  professed  to  have  a  belief,  or  knowledge,  or 
whatever  you  choose  to  call  it,  that  was  indepeudent  of  reason- 
ing or  argument  of  any  kind.  They  had  eoiyperiemced  the 
Christian  religion.  Such  pretensions  were  equally  fatal  to  both 
parties.  "  They  were,"  said  Bishop  Butler  to  Wesley,  "  a  hor- 
rid thing,  sir,  a  very  horrid  thing ! "  * 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  there  was  a  wide  differ- 
ence between  the  skepticism  of  the  last  century  and  that  of  our 
own,  and  a  difference  which  itself  indicates  the  wider  range  and 
deeper  insight  of  modem  doubt  as  well  as  of  modem  belief.  The 
deists  of  the  last  century  refused  to  receive  revelation  because  they 
found  it  contradictory  of  nature.  This  antagonism  between  na- 
ture and  revelation,  they  sajd,  necessitated  the  conclusion  that 
revelation  is  false.  When  they  attempted  to  explain  the  origin  of 
revelation  they  usually  had  recourse  to  the  ready  hypothesis  of 
imposture.  The  work  of  the  apologist,  therefore,  was  to  recon 
die  nature  and  revelation,  to  find  a  meeting-place  between  them, 
and  to  show  that  the  objections  good  against  the  latter  were 
equally  good  against  the  former.  But  the  skepticism  of  to-day, 
so  far  from  finding  any  contradiction  between  nature  and  rev- 
elation, finds  that  revelation  is  only  an  outgrowth  of  nature,  an 
item  in  the  intellectual  and  emotional  development  of  the  race. 
The  result  is,  of  course,  to  dissipate  all  its  ^tip^matural  preten- 
sions. So  that  the  apologist  of  to-day  has  to  reverse  the  work 
of  the  apologist  of  the  last  century.  He  has  to  show  that  there 
is  a  point  of  divergence  between  the  natural  and  the  revealed. 
The  apologist  of  the  last  century  labored  to  show  that  they 
are  consistent  and  harmonious;  the  apologist  of  to-day  must 
show  that  they  are  distinct,  and  that  the  one  cannot  be  a  mere 

*  His  precise  language  was :  "  Sir,  the  pretending  to  extraordinary  revelations 
and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  horrid  thing,  a  very  horrid  thing ! "  Wesley's 
"Works,"  xxii,  270.  See  also  Hunt's  "ffistory  of  Religious  Thought,"  iii,  289. 
It  should  be  said  that  the  good  Bishop's  opinion  of  Wesley  was  someyrhat  modified 
in  after  years. 


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1881.]     English  Thought  m  the  Eighteenth  Centv/ry.         261 

development  of  the  other.  The  last  century  apologist  argued 
against  deists,  but  deists  there  are  now  few  or  none.  Butler's 
"Analogy ''  was  the  book  for  that  day ;  the  book  for  our  day 
has  not  yet  been  written,  and  when  it  is  its  course  of  argu- 
ment will  be  the  opposite  of  Butler's.  This  difEerence  has,  of 
course,  often  been  stated  of  late ;  it  is  neatly  pointed  out  in  a 
recent  number  of  the  "  Contemporary  Review."  * 

The  characteristics  of  English  thought  during  the  century 
find  dear  exemplification  also  in  the  ethical  discussions.  In 
looking  at  that  most  interesting  of  questions,  the  bearing  of  the 
philosophic  and  religious  thought  of  the  ages  upon  its  practical 
life,  one  is  struck  first  by  the  rather  singular  fact  that  all  the 
skeptical  and  deistic  thought  of  the  early  part  of  the  century 
took  a  clearly  optimistic  direction.  It  assumed  as  a  part  of  its 
natural  religion,  a  moral  sense  and  a  moral  Governor  of  the 
universe.  That  done,  all  the  rest  was  easy  enough.  This  cx)m- 
placent  philosophy  is  seen  in  its  most  familiar  form  in  Pope's 
"  Essay  on '  Man,''  the  philosophy  of  which — so  far  as  such  a 
fragmentary  and  inconsistent  thing  can  be  said  to  have  any 
philosophy — must  be  said,  in  spite  of  Warburton's  bullying  de- 
fense, to  be  deistic.  It  was  inspired  by  Shaftesbury  and  Bo- 
lingbroke,  especially  by  the  latter.  And  here,  too,  the  skeptical 
thought  of  the  last  century  was  sharply  in  contrast  with  that 
of  our  own  time.  The  skepticism  of  the  previous  age  did  not, 
indeed,  realize  to  the  f  uU  the  meaning  of  the  prof  oundest  ques- 
tions of  life,  and  it  gave  them  no  satisfactory  solution,  but  it 
did  not  despair  of  any.  The  skeptics  had  a  firm  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  reason,  and  most  of  them  persuaded  themselves  into 
an  optimism  which,  if  not  logically  defensible  from  their  posi- 
tion, had  at  least  some  cheer  in  it.  The  thoroughly  practical 
character  of  their  thinking  made  it  almost  necessary  that  they 
should  do  so.  It  seemed  necessary  to  find  some  support  for 
the  struggle  of  life.  But  the  prevailing  form  of  nineteenth- 
century  skepticism  is  of  the  Positivist  type.  It  has  quite  given 
up  all  attempts  to  solve  any  questions  of  Why  and  Whence 
and  Whither.  These  it  dismisses  to  the  realm  of  the  unknow- 
able, where,  unfortunately,  are  nearly  all  those  things  we  most 
want  to  know.    Discarding  faith  altogether,  it  leaves  to  reason 

*"The  Originality  of  the  Cliaracter  of  C^irist,**  by  George Matheaon^  "Contem- 
porary Review,'*  for  Noyember,  1878. 


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262  MethocUst  Quarterly  Beview.  [April, 

only  the  field  of  positive  scientific  fact.  The  result,  of  course, 
is  pessimism.  It  is  seen  clearly  enough  in  any  of  the  writings 
of  our  most  popular  scientists — Huxley,  or  Tyndall,  or  Leslie 
Stephen,  or  Kingdon  Clifford.  But  here,  too,  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  modem  skepticism  is  the  more  logical  and  consistent.  In 
tnith,  it  is  evident  that  the  optimism  of  Pope  and  Shaftesbury 
and  Bolingbroke  is  a  very  shallow  thing.  It  was  seen  to  be 
such  by  the  ablest  thinkers,  even  of  that  age.  "  Gentlemen," 
said  Voltaire  to  a  circle  of  friends  in  England  after  Pope's 
"  Essay  on  Man  "  had  appeared,  "  I  beg  of  you  to  explain  to  me 
how  it  is  that  '  all  is  for  the  best,'  for  I  cannot  understand  it." 
Two  striking  works  of  fiction  near  the  close  of  the  century, 
though  written  by  men  who  cordially  hated  each  other,  are 
really  both  protests  against  the  easy-going  optimism  of  the  early 
part  of  the  century.  We  mean  Voltaire's  "  Candide "  and 
Johnson's  "Rasselas."  Pangloss  and  Candide,  who  travel 
around  the  world,  get  shipwrecked  at  Lisbon  just  before  the 
earthquake,  one  of  them  hung  by  the  Inquisition  and  the  other 
driven  an  outcast  over  the  earth,  and  Rasselas,  who  leaves  his 
Happy  Valley  to  find  happiness,  but  cannot  find  it  nor  discover 
any  one  who  has,  are  alike  protests  against  the  ready  assurance 
that  finds  every  thing  for  the  best  in  such  a  world  as  this. 

The  fundamental  mistake  of  the  deists  at  this  point  lay  in 
their  assumption  that  if  there  be  a  Supreme  Being  he  must  be 
good.  For  this  assumption  it  seems  more  than  doubtful 
whether  natural  religion  can  ever  find  any  suflicient  warrant. 
Our  philosophy,  if  it  be  consistent,  must^  indeed,  drive  us  to  a 
belief  in  a  God.  We  need  a  First  Cause,  and  we  can  form  no 
conception  of  its  nature  save  by  adopting  the  idea  of  a  personal 
Will ;  but  of  the  moral  nature  of  the  Cause  it  is  doubtful 
whether  reasoning  upon  the  phenomena  of  life  can  teach  us 
any  thing.  Those  phenomena,  alas !  afford  fully  as  much  war- 
rant for  supposing  that  the  Cause  at  the  spring  of  things  is  in- 
different or  malevolent.  Hence  the  very  curious  and  ineffect- 
ual reasoning  upon  such  things  in  the  "  Essay  on  Man."  Nat- 
ural religion  ought  to  be  pessimistic,  and,  when  it  has  the  cour- 
age to  be  really  independent  of  revelation,  it  is.  The  deists 
claimed  that,  in  this  "best  possible  of  all  worlds,"  whatever 
is,  is  right,  and  urged  that  all  ought,  therefore,  to  be  happy ; 
but  they  were  confronted  with  the  spectacle  of  tmiversal  dis- 


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1881.]     English  Thought  in  the  Eighiemth  Cmkbry.         263 

order,  unrest,  calamity.  The  facts  of  life  were  too  much  for 
their  philosophy,  and  all  Mr.  Pope's  fine  verses  never  could 
make  Mr.  Pope  a  happy  man. 

The  main  drift  of  ethical  speculation  throughout  the  century 
was  clearly  toward  utilitarianism.  Ethical  doctrines  were  not 
sharply  defined  until  about  the  end  of  the  period,  so  that  the 
writers  are  not  always  perfectly  consistent  with  themselves,  but 
the  general  tendency  is  plain  enough.  In  a  century  that  drew 
its  philosophy  mainly  from  the  head-watera  of  Locke,  it  could 
not  be  otherwise.  Locke,  indeed,  does  not  put  any  thing  in 
the  place  of  these  moral  intuitions  which  he  sets  aside,  and 
seems  inclined  to  make  morality  dependent  upon  the  arbitrary 
command  of  a  Ruler.  He  had,  however,  done  the  destructive 
work.  It  soon  became  evident  that  no  ethics  but  the  ethics  of 
pure  utility  can  consist  with  his  philosophy.  For  there  are  but 
three  answers,  one  of  which,  in  some  form  or  other,  must  be 
given  to  the  question,  Why  should  I  do  right  ?  You  may  re- 
ply, Because  it  is  for  my  interests  to  do  so,  either  for  my  own 
individual  interests  directly,  or  for  those  of  the  race,  in  which 
mine  are  involved ;  and  this  is  utilitarianism.  Or  you  may  say 
that  to  do  right  is  the  bidding  of  an  impulse,  conscience,  moral 
sense,  or  whatever  you  choose  to  -call  it,  an  impulse  which  de- 
fies analysis,  but  which  carries  in  itself  its  own  authority — and 
there  an  end  ;  and  this  is  intuitionism.  Or  you  may  say  that 
the  impulse  of  duty  is  to  be  obeyed  because  it  is  the  voice  of 
G6d.  The  moi'alists  of  the  last  century  almost  universally  gave 
to  the  question  the  first  or  the  third  of  these  answers.  But,  it 
is  to  be  noticed,  the  third  answer  really  resolves  itself  into  the 
other  two,  for  it  at  once  suggests  the  further  query.  Why  the 
voice  of  God  is  to  be  obeyed ;  and  the  final  answer  to  this 
question  must  be  either  an  intuitional  or  a  prudential  one. 
With  the  writers  of  the  last  century  it  was  almost  uniformly  a 
prudential  one.  This  may  be  seen,  for  instance,  in  the  con- 
stant tone  of  pulpit  discussion,  in  the  numerous  sermons  in 
which  it  was  argued  that  the  moral  unbeliever  is  a  fool,  since 
he  sacrifices  his  happiness  both  in  this  world  and  in  the  next — 
in  this  world  because  he  is  moral,  and  in  the  next  because  he 
is  an  unbeliever.* 

Near  the  close  of  the  century  these  two  phases  of  utili- 
*  This  is  the  drift  of  one  of  Bishop  Atterbury*s  best-known  sermons. 


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264  Methodist  Quanrterly  Review,  FApril, 

tarianism  toward  which  the  thought  of  the  age  had  been  so 
clearly  tending  found  embodiment  in  the  famous  work  of  Ben- 
tham,  on  the  one  hand,  for  the  purely  secular  utilitarianism,  and 
of  Paley  on  the  other,  for  the  theological  utilitarianism.  It  is 
plain  that  this  utilitarian  tendency,  this  laudation  of  a  "  rational 
self-love,"  as  the  phrase  went,  is  eminently  illustrative  of  that 
clearness  and  practicality  on  which  we  have  insisted  as  char- 
acteristic of  the  temper  of  the  age.  Whatever  be  the  nature 
of  virtue  and  vice,  men  said,  one  thing  is  certain :  men  wish  to 
be  happy  here,  and  hereafter,  too,  if  there  is  any  hereafter ;  a 
certain  line  of  conduct  tends  to  made  you  happy  here,  and  prob- 
ably will  have  the  same  results  anywhere  else.  That  seemed 
clear  and  practical. 

It  is  a  little  curious  to  find  that  while  many  of  the  orthodo5[ 
writers  held  to  a  substantially  utilitarian  theory  of  ethics,  many 
of  the  deists  held  in  a  loose  way  to  an  intuitional  theory.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  century  the  most  emphatic  statements  of 
an  original  unreasoned  moral  impulse  came  from  that  side. 
Exalting  reason,  discarding  revelation,  the  deists  needed  a 
basis  for  their  doctrines  in  something,  and  they  found  such  a 
basis  in  the  moral  intuitions.  The  very  phrase,  "  moral  sense," 
originated  with  Shaftesbury.'  This  rather  ill-considered  form 
of  intuitional  ethics,  with  the  flimsy  optimism  built  upon  it,  is 
best  seen  in  Shaftesbury's  "  Characteristics,"  or  in  Pope's  "  Es- 
say on  Man,"  which  is  only  a  rambling  comment  on  Shaftes- 
bury. The  moral  sense  of  Shaftesbury  is  a  kind  of  sentiment 
which  naturally  inclines  us  to  right  as  the  aesthetic  sense  in- 
clines to  beauty.  A  sound  theism,  he  claims,  can  follow  only 
from  a  sound  morality;  since  to  believe  in  God  is  well  or  ill 
according  as  the  God  believed  in  is  a  good  or  a  bad  one.  Mo- 
rality is  thus  always  prior  to  religion,  and  the  basis  of  all  relig- 
ion. The  theologians,  indeed,  often  debase  morality  by  making 
it  dependent  on  reward,  since  the  moment  an  action  is  performed 
from  motives  of  interest  it  is  virtuous  no  longer.  As  to  the  ques- 
tions arising  out  of  the  conflict  between  virtue  and  interest, 
Shaftesbury  meets  them  by  roundly  declaring  that  there  is  no 
such  conflict.  At  this  point  he  approaches  utilitarianism.  "  If 
any  one  should  ask  me,"  he  says,  "  why  I  should  avoid  a  nasty 
act  when  no  one  saw  me,  I  should  think  him  a  nasty  man  for 
asking  the  question;   but  if  he  insisted,  why,  I  should  say, 


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1881.]     English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.         266 

'  Because  I  have  a  nose.'  '  But  if  you  can't  smell  ? '  ^  ^^y,  I 
would  see  myself  nasty.'  '  But  if  it  is  in  the  dark  ? '  ^  Why, 
then  I  should  know  it ;  my  sense  of  the  matter  would  still  be 
the  same.'"* 

Similarly,  he  argues,  we  have  a  moral  sense  which  revolts 
against  a  wrong  action,  whether  the  action  have  any  conse- 
quences or  not,  and  whether  it  is  known  to  any  one  else  or  not. 
Of  course,  on  this  theory  virtue  ought  to  be  very  easy ;  the 
stubborn  fact  is,  it  is  not.  The  theory  is  pleasing,  but  we  must 
shut  our  eyes  to  believe  it.  Shaftesbury,  like  Bolingbroke  fits 
a  graceful,  optimistic,  natural  religion  upon  his  ethics  by  assum- 
ing tliat,  of  possible  systems, 

'*  Wisdom  infinite  must  form  the  beet,** 

and  deifying  universal  law,  to  which  he  seems  to  find  no  diflS- 
culty  in  sacrificing  the  individual. 

When  it  is  said  that  the  orthodox  theologians  of  the  century 
taught  a  utilitarian  ethics,  an  exception  to  the  statement  must 
be  made  in  the  case  of  Bishop  Butler.  Butler's  three  "  Ser- 
mons upon  Human  Nature "  are  perhaps  the  most  important 
contribution  of  the  century  to  ethical  discussion.  Indeed,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  intuitional  theory  has  ever  received  a 
more  clear  and  forcible  statement.  Butler  takes  up  the  "moral 
sense  "  of  Shaftesbury ;  but  it  now  becomes,  not  a  sentiment 
nor  an  impulse,  but  an  authority.  In  his  well-known  words, 
"  Had  it  power,  as  it  has  authority,  it  would  govern  the  world." 
Shaftesbury  had  given  it  a  supremacy  de  factOj  and  had  there- 
by brought  his  doctrine  sharply  into  conflict  with  the  facts  of 
experience.  Butler  gives  it  a  supremacy  dejurCy  which  is  a 
very  different  thing.  As  a  result,  Butler  shows  nothing  of  the 
flippant  optimism  of  Shaftesbury ;  he  has  rather  profound  seri- 
ousness and  melancholy. 

The  polite  literature  of  the  century,  as  a  mere  glance  may 
show,  exemplifies,  both  in  its  matter  and  its  manner,  that  su- 
premacy of  the  reason  and  that  practical  temper  so  character- 
istic of  the  age.  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Anne,  for 
the  first  time,  English  writers  had  a  really  large  and  varied 
audience.  There  had  grown  up  a  trading  middle-class  of  fair 
intelligence,  whose  influence  in  society  and  in  politics  was  every 

*  '*  Wit  and  Humor,"  part  iii,  section  4 ;  quoted  by  Stephen. 


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Methodist  Qv,a/y*terly  Heview.  [April, 

day  increasing.  It  was  evident  that  the  government  was  to 
pass  under  their  control.  Both  political  parties  were  bidding 
for  their  support,  and  both  parties  had  found  that  this  support 
could  be  gained  more  surely  by  the  press  than  by  any  other 
means.  Men  of  letters  gained  a  political  influence  such  as 
they  had  never  exerted  before  and  have  never  exerted  since. 
Then,  too,  the  enormous  growth  of  London  had  drawn  together 
an  immense  number  of  this  class  of  people  within  easy  reach 
of  the  writer.  In  the  days  of  Swift  and  Pope  one  tenth  of  the 
whole  population  of  England  and  Wales  lived  within  three 
miles  of  St.  Paul's.  And  the  population  was  more  nearly  ho- 
mogeneous then  than  now ;  social  extremes  were  at  a  less  dis- 
tance from  each  other.  It  is  probable  that  the  average  intelli- 
gence of  London  was  higher,  and  the  proportion  of  readers  to 
the  whole  population  greater,  during  the  first  half  of  the  last 
century,  than  it  has  ever  been  since.  When  a  large  portion  of 
the  reading  public,  and  that  the  most  intelligent  portion,  is 
thus  gathered  immediately  around  the  center  of  government 
and  of  society,  we 'have  the  most  favorable  condition  for  the 
growth  of  a  literature  which  shall  deal  in  brief,  rapid,  and  ef- 
fective fashion  with  the  passing  events  of  the  day.  The  pam- 
phlet of  Defoe  or  of  Swift,  or  the  "Spectator"  of  Mr.  Addison, 
would  be  well  nigh  a  week  old  before  it  could  reach  Chester  or 
York ;  but  it  could  be  laid  damp  from  the  press  on  a  hundred 
coflfee-house  fables  in  London,  and  be  read  before  night  by  a 
hundred  thousand  people.  Tliis  great  public  was  not  a  learned 
public.  It  knew  not  much  of  any  thing ;  but  it  knew  a  little 
of  every  thing.  It  was  shrewd,  busy,  curious.  It  had  no  imag- 
ination whatever,  but  it  had  a  deal  of  hard  common  sense.  To 
discuss  all  matters  in  a  brief,  lively  manner,  and  on  a  level  not 
above  the  understanding  of  such  a  public — this  was  the  demand 
made  of  the  man  of  letters.  Under  such  a  demand  good  prose 
was  produced.  For  the  first  time  we  have  a  racy,  idiomatic, 
flexible  prose  style,  not  varying  too  much  from  the  easy  grace 
of  conversation.  It  was  a  new  development  of  the  powers  of 
the  language ;  it  was  an  immense  gain.  In  prose,  indeed,  so 
far  as  manner  goes,  the  writing  of  such  men  as  Addison  and 
Swift  leaves  little  to  be  desired. 

With  poetry  the  case  was- very  different.     Without  imagina- 
tion, and  without  any  real  depth  of  feeling,  the  poetry  of  the 


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1881.]      English  Thought  m  the  Eighteenth  CenMry.         267 

age  has  left  to  it  only  the  field  of  argument  and  reason.  Hence, 
in  the  first  place,  its  matter  is  hardly  the  matter  of  poetry  at 
all,  but  only  a  metrical  version  of  current  political  or  philosoph- 
ical discussion.  In  its  manner,  too,  the  tyranny  of  the  under- 
standing is  evident.  Milton  or  Spenser  might  clothe  a  philo- 
sophical conception  in  glowing  imagery ;  but  the  cool  intellectual 
criticism  of  this  age  made  all  such  imagery  seem  incongruous. 
There  was  really  no  imagination  to  inform  or  inspire  it.  To- 
the  un warmed  understanding  any  pure  work  of  the  imagination 
presents,  of  course,  incongruities  enough.  The  "  Faerie  Queen," 
for  instance,  was  a  standing  offense  to  the  criticism  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.    Addison  says  of  it  complacently : 

**  But  now  the  mystic  tale  that  pleased  of  yore 
Can  charm  our  understanding  age  no  more." 

The  same  temper  which  excluded  so  carefully  every  thing  like 
mysticism  from  philosophy,  or  enthusiasm  from  religion,  ex- 
cluded also  from  poetry  all  irregularity  of  form  and  intemper- 
ance of  sentiment.  Neither  the  poet's  eye  nor  the  believer's 
must  roll  in  any  fine  frenzy. 

There  are,  however,  certain  literary  virtues  which  the  under- 
standing alone  can  appreciate.  They  may  be  called  the  geo- 
metrical excellences  of  style— symmetry  of  parts,  order,  arrange- 
ment, clearness,  careful  excision  of  all  irrelevant  matter.  By 
virtue  of  such  qualities  as  these  one  man,  and  only  one,  attained 
lasting  and  deserved  reputation  as  a  poet.  Alexander  Pope  had 
no  imagination,  he  had  neither  depth  nor  delicacy  of  feeling, 
lie  had  not  even  originality  or  breadth  of  view ;  but  he  had,  in 
lieu  of  these,  a  pretty  fancy,  a  severe  taste,  an  unerring  sense 
of  literary  proportion,  marvelous  felicity  of  expression,  a  quick 
eye  for  the  weak  points  of  an  adversary,  a  wit  as  cold  and  keen 
as  steel,  and  a  clearness  in  the  perception  of  detached  truths 
hardly  ever  equaled — of  detached  truths,  we  say,  for  Pope  had 
absolutely  no  logic  at  all.  For  the  life  of  him  he  never  could 
put  two  premises  together.  He  secreted  thought  as  an  oyster 
secretes  pearls.  Indeed,  it  is  evident  that  any  considerable 
logical  power  would  have  been  fatal  to  his  literary  skill.  For 
it  is  only  when  truths  are  drawn  from  their  connections  and 
set  up  in  isolation  that  they  can  be  stated  with  the  epigram- 
matic vigor  we  so  much  admire  in*  Pope's  couplets.   The  couplet 


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268  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April; 

itself,  as  Professor  Lowell  has  somewhere  said,  is  a  kind  of 
thought-coop.  Pope  has  given  us  more  proverbs  than  any 
other  English  poet ;  but  proverbs  are  always  half-truths.  It 
must  be  admitted,  however,  that  all  which  it  was  possible  to  do 
with  his  themes,  and  in  the  limitations  of  genius  under  which 
he  worked.  Pope  has  done.  One  may,  if  he  choose,  deny  to 
his  verses  the  name  of  poetry,  as  Coleridge  was  fain  to  do;  but 
one  cannot  deny  that  they  have  a  perennial  interest.  They  are 
the  highest  proof  our  literature  affords  of  the  supreme  value 
of  the  pure  art  of  expression.  But  Pope  stands  alone.  When 
men  of  equal  emotional  coldness,  but  not  of  equal  intellectual 
keenness,  attempted  to  poetize,  the  result  was  inexpressibly 
dreary.  Most  of  the  poetry  of  his  contemporaries  is  simply 
inflated  prose,  galvanized  into  a  kind  of  life  by  the  free  use  of 
capital  letters.  Their  muse  was  Prosopopoeia.  Pope  was  right 
in  putting  them  into  the  "  Dunciad." 

The  criticism  of  the  age  is  of  a  piece  with  its  poetry.  It  is 
evident  that  the  excellences  of  such  poetry  as  Pope's  are  mat- 
ters that  can  be  reduced  to  rule  and  neatly  expressed  in  max- 
ims. Accordingly,  we  find  the  critics  of  the  time  judging 
their  own  poetry  by  such  rules,  and  laboriously  trying  to  do 
the  same  thing  with  that  of  a  previous  age.  Addison,  who 
had  succeeded  in  writing  a  "  correct "  drama  which  nobody 
can  read,  criticises  the  "  Paradise  Lost "  with  infinity  of  plati- 
tude about  plot,  machinery,  and  such  jargon,  as  if  a  poem  were 
a  piece  of  mechanism.  Of  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  tender  of 
Shakespeare's  plays,  Samuel  Johnson  can  only  say:  "The play 
(Cymbeb'ne)  has  many  just  sentiments,  some  natural  dialogues, 
and  some  pleasing  scenes ;  but  they  are  obtained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  much  incongruity.  To  remark  the  folly  of  the  fic- 
tion, the  absurdity  of  the  conduct,  the  confusion  of  the  naHjes 
and  manners  of  different  times,  and  the  impossibility  of  tlie 
events  in  any  system  of  life,  were  to  waste  criticism  upon  un- 
resisting imbecility,  upon  faults  too  evident  for  detection,  and 
too  gross  for  aggravation."  Such  criticism  as  this,  it  is  clear, 
can  never  disclose  the  truth  or  power  of  poetry.  As  well  try 
to  measure  the  warmth  and  brightness  of  broad  sunlight  with  a 
two-foot  rule. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  the  tendencies  to  the  reaction 
which,  at  the  close  of  the  century,  worked  such  a  revolution  in 


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1881.]      English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.         269 

all  departments  of  thought,  made  their  appearance  in  literature 
earlier  than  anywhere  else.  Two  marks  of  this  reaction  may 
be  mentioned  in  closing  this  paper.  Alongside  of  the  hard, 
practical  sense  of  Pope,  Swift,  and  Addison,  this  sound  but 
narrow  judgment  expressing  itself  in  vigorous  English  without 
emotion  and  without  imagination,  we  may  discern,  quite  early 
in  the  century,  a  tendency  to  sentimentalism,  an  affectation  of 
sentiment  and  emotion  to  take  the  place  of  the  real ;  and  this 
in  all  kinds  of  literature  and  in  various  ways.  It  may  be  seen, 
for  instance,  in  Young's  poetry,  where,  without  a  ripple  of  real 
emotion,  there  is  a  constant  tumid  swell  and  roll  of  mere  dec- 
lamation, bigness  instead  of  greatness,  pompous  reflections  that 
are  utterly  dreary.  The  "Night  Thoughts"  is  at  once  the 
hoUowest  and  the  most  resonant  of  poems.  The  same  manner 
may  be  seen  a  little  later  in  the  frigid  academic  raptures  of  Dr. 
Blair's  sennons.  The  most  popular  religious  book  of  the  cent- 
ury— one  of  the  most  popular  religious  books  ever  written — 
was  Hervey's  "  Meditations  Among  the  Tombs."  *  Any  young 
readers  of  this  generation  who  have  chanced  to  look  into  it 
have  probably  been  surprised  to  find  it  one  of  the  most  florid 
of  books,  full  of  sophomoric  declamation  of  the  very  worst 
sort,  and  written  in  a  tone  of  unctuous  pathos  very  unedifying. 
In  fiction  a  similar  manner  may  be  seen.  Fielding  fairly  rep- 
resents the  sturdy  common  sense  of  the  age,  but  Richardson  is 
morbidly  sentimental,  and  Sterne  is  sentimentalism  incarnate. 
The  same  tendency  in  fiction,  as  the  century  drew  toward  its 
close,  produced,  on  the  one  hand,  the  now  forgotten  "  Rosa 
Matilda"  school  of  novels,  and,  on  the  other,  joined  to  a  rather 
dilettante  antiquarianism,  the  bugaboo  stories  of  Horace  Wal- 
pole  and  Mistress  Anne  Radcliffe.  With  the  more  healthy 
taste  of  our  century  the  one  was  replaced  by  such  novels  as 
those  of  Miss  Austin,  and  the  other  by  the  Scott  romances. 

The  other  mark  of  reaction  referred  to  above  is  a  growing 
dislike  for  the  stifling  air  and  the  cramping  conventionalities 
of  city  life.     In  the  first  quarter  of  the  century  one  may  already 

*  Lecky*8  "  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  vol.  ii,  p.  600.  No  less  than 
seventeen  editions  were  published  in  seventeen  years.  See  also  Tyerman*s  '*  Oxford 
Methodists."  Coleridge  says  the  book  was  vastly  popular  in  Germany  also.  Young's 
**  Night  Thoughts  "  and  Richardson's  "  Clarissa  Harlowe  "  were  significantly  its  ri- 
vals for  popular  favor  there. 

FouBTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 18 


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270  Methodist  QiujiHerh/  Beview.  [April, 

hear  some  first  words  of  that  new  gospel  of  natnre  so  soon  to  be 
preached  by  Rousseau.  It  is  odd  to  find  in  the  most  artificial 
poetry  of  the  time  a  fanciful  admiration  for  that  ideal  age  of 
nature  and  of  freedom  "  when  wild  in  woods  the  noble  savage 
ran,"  as  Pope  has  it.  Even  in  philosophy  the  same  sentiment 
often  shows  itself.  Those  who  have  read  Dugald  Stewart's 
"  Philosophy  of  the  Active  and  Moral  Powers  "  will  remember 
his  n(m)e  allusions  to  the  savage  state.  "  The  social  affections," 
he  thinks,  are  now  not  so  warm  *'  as  when  the  species  were 
wandering  wild  in  their  native  forests."  Pope,  who  succeeded 
in  writing  the  very  worst  nature-poetry  in  the  world,  was  only 
prevented  by  some  merciful  special  providence  from  attempt- 
ing "  Indian  Pastorals."  The  growth  of  this  sentiment  is  at 
tested  by  the  popularity  of  Thomson's  "  Seasons,"  and  by  the 
really  wide-spread  interest  excited  by  the  wretched  fustian  of 
the  Pseudo-Ossian.  At  the  close  of  the  century  it  finds  full 
expression  in  the  poetry  of  Cowper,  of  Bums,  and  of  that  great- 
est of  all  poets  of  nature — greatest  English  poet  since  Milton — 
William  Wordsworth. 


Art.  IV.— the  RELATIONS  OF  THE  CHURCHES  AND 
MR.  GARRISON  TO  THE  AMERICAN  ANTISLAVERY 
MOVEMENT.  ^^„^^^  ^^^ 

Several  misapprehensions  in  regard  to  the  great  American 
antislavery  movement,  floating  more  or  less  indefinitely  in  the 
public  mind,  deserve  correction.  By  many  it  is  supposed  to 
have  been  almost  entirely  a  humanitarian  evolution,  deriving 
its  inception,  organization,  leadership,  and  best  support  from 
humanitarian  sources ;  and  that  its  progress  and  final  triumph 
were  gained,  not  only  without  the  aid  of  the  Churches,  but  in 
spite  of  their  opposition.  In  this  false  light  Mr.  William  Lloyd 
Garrison's  name  is  made  to  eclipse  all  others,  as  the  founder  of 
the  antislavery  movement,  "  the  central  and  supreme  figure  in 
its  group  of  giants,"*  President  Lincoln  being  "  but  the  pen  in 
Mr.  Garrison's  hand  to  write  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipa- 

*  Rey.  William  J.  Potter,  of  New  Bedford,  in  Parker  Memorial  Hall,  Boston. 


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1881.]   Mr,  Oarrison^  the  Churches^  and  Abolitionism.       271 

tion/'  while  GairiBon  is  "  a  lofty  monolith,"  towering  above 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  "  engraved  with  titles  of  the  oldest, 
the  highest,  and  the  eternal.''  *  Nothing  is  more  absurd  than 
such  eulogies.  They  are  unsustained  by  any  definite  bases  of 
facts. 

Without  undervaluing  the  services  of  American  philantho- 
pists  and  statesmen,  the  object  of  this  paper  is  to  do  justice 
to  American  Christianity  in  its  relations  to  the  antislavery 
movement.  To  no  single  champion  are  exclusive  honors  due. 
Detracting  not  a  single  iota  from  Mr.  Garrison's  merits,  he  will 
be  introduced  in  his  own  time,  amid  his  surroundings,  as  con- 
spicuous among  many,  whose  uncompromising  spirit  gave  a 
sterner  type  to  the  struggle,  while  the  services  of  wiser  and 
broader  leaders  and  diflEerent  measures  determined  the  ulti- 
mate result. 

A  broad  survey  and  an  intelligent  analysis  of  the  field,  through 
the  entire  history  of  the  American  antislavery  movement,  will 
prepare  us  for  a  discriminating  verdict.  This  history  com- 
prises nearly  one  hundred  and  ninety  years,  and  is  divisible 
into  three  periods :  1.  The  period  of  irregula/r^  unorgomized 
agitation^  from  1675-1774 ;  2.  The  period  of  orgcmized  effort^ 
on  the  hasis  of  gradual  emancipation^  1774^-1832;  3.  The  period 
of  radical  organized  agitation^  1832-1863. 

We  shall  see  that  while  the  complex  ecclesiastical  relations 
of  the  Churches  sometimes  embarrassed  their  organic  action, 
and  exposed  it  to  criticism,  nevertheless  the  whole  movement 
sprang  out  of  the  religious  sentiment  of  the  people,  under  the 
individual  leadership  largely  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  often 
from  the  formal  action  of  the  Churches,  and,  throughout  all 
its  phases,  was  sustained  by  the  religious  life  of  the  Churches. 

I.  In  searching  through  the  first  period  of  irregular  and  un- 
organized agitation  (1675-1774)  we  find  the  earliest  Protestant 
apostle  to  the  Indians,  Eev.  John  Eliot,  in  the  year  1675,  me- 
morializing the  Governor  and  Council  of  Massachusetts  against 
selling  captured  Indians  into  slavery,  because  "  the  selling  of 
souls  is  dangerous  merchandise;"  and  also,  "with  a  bleeding  and 
burning  passion,"  says  Cotton  Mather,  remonstrating  against 
"  the  abject  condition  of  the  enslaved  Africans."  We  find  a 
body  of  German  Quakers,  in  Germantown,  Pa.,  as  early  as 

*  Rer.  C.  A.  Bartol,  D.D.,  Boston,  "  Discourse  on  the  Death  of  Mr. 


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272  Methodist  QaaTterly  Retnew,  FApril, 

1688,  presenting  a  protest  to  their  Yearly  Meeting  against 
"buying,  selling,  and  holding  men  in  slavery;"  and,  three  years 
later,  Mr.  George  Keith,  also  a  Pennsylvania  Quaker,  denounc- 
ing slavery  as  "contrary  to  the  religion  of  Christ,  the  rights  of 
man,"  etc. ;  and,  three  years  later  still,  the  Yearly  Meeting 
taking  formal  action  against  the  introduction  of  slaves.  We 
discover,  in  the  year  1700,  Samuel  Sewell,  Esq.,  subsequently 
Chief-Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  and  a 
deeply  religious  man,  publishing  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "  The 
Selling  of  Joseph,"  characterizing,  with  singular  boldness,  the 
system  of  slavery,  and  enunciating  "  the  primal  truths  of  hu- 
man equality  and  obligation."  In  1716  we  notice  the  Quakers, 
in  Dartmouth,  Mass.,  memorializing  the  Rhode  Island  Quar- 
terly Meeting  on  the  evil  of  sift  very ;  and  the  Nantucket  Society 
of  Friends  declaring  that  it  is  not  agreeable  to  the  truth  to 
purchase  and  hold  slaves;  and,  in  1729,  the  same  Society  send- 
ing a  serious  address  on  this  subject  to  the  Philadelphia  Yearly 
Meeting.  The  same  year  we  recognize  William  Burling,  in  the 
Yearly  Meeting  on  Long  Island,  bearing  faithful  testimony 
against  slavery ;  and  Elihu  Coleman  and  Ralph  Standifred 
publishing  pamphlets  condemning  the  institution  as  "iniqui- 
tous and  antichristian ; "  and,  eight  years  after,  Benjamin 
Lay,  another  Quaker,  pleading  the  cause  of  the  bondmen,  in 
a  volume  published  from  the  press  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  in 
Philadelphia. 

In  1736  we  find  Rev.  John  Wesley,  in  Georgia,  protesting 
against  slavery,  and  in  1739  Rev.  George  Whitefield  address- 
ing a  letter  to  the  Southern  Colonies,  sharply  denouncing  the 
system  and  its  barbarities — a  testimony  frequently  repeated  in 
subsequent  tours  in  America  during  thirty  years.  In  the  years 
1755,  1756,  and  1757  we  notice  Rev.  John  Wesley,  and  Rev. 
Samuel  Davis,  an  able  Presbyterian  minister  in  Virginia,  sub- 
sequently President  of  Princeton  College,  conducting  a  corre- 
spondence on  the  subject  of  slavery,  Mr.  Wesley  donating  to 
the  latter  books  for  the  benefit  of  the  colored  people. 

From  1746  to  1767  we  trace  Mr.  John  Woolson,  a  distin- 
guished Friend  in  New  Jersey,  traveling  extensively  through 
the  Middle  and  Southern  Colonies,  preaching  against  the  prac- 
tice of  holding  men  in  bondage.  In  the  latter  part  of  this 
period,  Anthony  Benezet,  a  man  of  practical  piety,  a  son  of 


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1881.]   Mr.  Garrison^  the  Churches^  amd  Abolitionism.      273 

Huguenot  parents,  appears  in  the  field,  toiling  for  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  oppressed. 

During  the  ten  years  preceding  the  Revolution,  a  desire  for 
emancipation  and  the  extinction  of  the  slave-trade  became  very 
general,  and  found  frequent  utterance  in  pulpits  and  pamphlets. 
Nor  were  these  efforts  without  apparent  fruit.  Many  towns 
passed  resolutions  praying  the  colonial  legislatures  to  take  ac- 
tion at  once  in  the  interests  of  humanity;  and  many  slave- 
masters,  who  subsequently  aided  in  inaugurating  the  Revolution 
and  in  fighting  its  battles,  became  hostile  to  the  slave-trade,  and 
even  to  the  existence  of  slavery  itself.  The  general  agitation 
of  questions  relating  to  the  rights  of  man,  and  particularly  the 
colonial  rights,  aided  this  movement,  and  made  the  sinfulness 
and  wrong  of  slavery  more  apparent. 

II.  The  period  of  organized  effort — 1774r-1832 — on  the  ba^ 
sis  of  gradual  emancipation — the  fruitage  of  the  abundant  seed^ 
sowing  of  the  previous  period— commenced  just  prior  to  the 
Revolution. 

The  "  Pennsylvania  Abolition  gociety  " — the  first  ever  formed 
in  America—entered  the  field  in  1774,  and,  after  a  suspension 
for  several  years,  during  the  war,  reappeared  in  1784.  Then 
followed  "  Abolition  "  Societies,  in  New  York,  in  1785 ;  in 
Rhode  Island,  in  1789 ;  in  Connecticut,  in  1790 ;  in  New  Jersey^ 
in  1792 ;  and,  soon  after,  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia. 
Annual  National  "Abolition"  Conventions,  comprising  dele- 
gates from  eight  States,  focalized  public  sentiment  from  1794  to 
1804,  and  contributed  largely  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
Northern  States.  Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  Jefferson,  and 
Mason,  in  Virginia ;  Franklin  and  Dr.  Rush,  in  Pennsylvania ; 
Hamilton  and  Jay,  in  New  York ;  Roger  Sherman,  in  Connecti- 
cut; and  many  others  of  the  strongest  statesmen,  the  ripest 
scholars,  and  purest  philanthropists  in  the  closing  quarter  of  the 
last  century,  were  pronounced  emancipationists,  participating  ac* 
tively  in  abolition  movements.  The  Pennsylvania  "Abolition  " 
Society  continued  in  active  operation  down  to  the  time  when 
emancipation  was  accomplished  under  the  Proclamation  of 
President  Lincoln.  Some  of  the  other  Societies  disappeared 
early  in  this  century,  and  for  fifteen  years  the  National  Con- 
ventions were  suspended,  but  subsequently  were  resumed  in 
1824,  1826, 1828,  and  1829. 


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274  Methodist  QaaHerVy  Beview.  lApril, 

With  no  other  exhibit  of  this  period,  it  might  be  supposed 
that  these  early  organizations,  and  the  results  achieved,  were 
due  to  the  influence  of  statesmen  and  philanthropists,  and  were 
purely  humanitarian  in  their  character.  But  such  a  view  would 
seriously  mistake  the  facts  and  overlook  the  prime  impulse  of 
the  movement.  Christian  laymen  and  divines  constituted  its 
best  leaders  and  also  its  rank  and  file,  furnishing  its  pabuljam 
and  its  inspiration. 

In  the  six  years  from  1770  to  1776,  in  the  midst  of  which 
the  period  now  under  consideration  opened,  the  antislavery 
efforts  of  several  Christian  gentlemen  attract  particuly  atten- 
tion. In  Pennsylvania,  that  sterling  Christian  nobleman,  An- 
thony Benezet,  is  still  in  the  midst  of  his  indefatigable  labors, 
"  few  men,"  according  to  Dr.  Rush,  "  ever  living  a  more  dis- 
interested life " — the  supreme  objects  of  his  enthusiastic  phi- 
lanthropy, the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  and  the  emancipa- 
tion and  instruction  of  the  negroes.  He  conducts  evening 
schools  in  Philadelphia  for  their  benefit,  and  writes,  publishes, 
and  distributes  throughout  th^  Colonies,  at  his  own  expense, 
tracts  against  slavery.  He  holds  correspondence  on  this  subject 
with  Wesley,  and  sends  letters  to  the  queens  of  England  and 
Portugal  to  enlist  their  infiuence  against  the  slave-trade.  His 
volume  on  "Guinea  and  the  Slave-trade"  enlightens  and  quick- 
ens the  youthful  mind  of  the  great  English  antislavery  re- 
former, Clarkson,  imparting  an  impulse  to  his  great  life-work. 
Assisted  by  George  Bryam,  Esq.,  in  1780,  the  Legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  is  persuaded  to  pass  an  act  of  emancipation — 
the  fitting  culmination  of  Benezet's  Christian  labors.  Dying 
soon  after,  his  valuable  estate  is  bequeathed  for  the  benefit  of 
the  negroes,  and  his  example  remains  a  beautiful  illustration  of 
the  Huguenot  spirit  he  had  inherited. 

In  1773  another  eminent  Philadelphian,  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush, 
conspicuous  as  a  Cliristian,  a  philanthropist,  and  a  statesman, 
in  whose  house  Asbury  and  other  early  Wesley  an  evangelists 
often  found  a  hospitable  home,  publishes  an  address  on  the  in- 
justice and  inhumanity  of  slavery.  The  following  year  the  first 
Continental  Congress,  while  laying  the  foundations  of  the  new 
nation,  solemnly  pledges  tliat  the  United  Colonies  shall  "neither 
import  nor  purchase  any  slaves,  and  will  wholly  discontinue  the 
slave-trade."      Soon  after  the  North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and 


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1881.]   Mr,  Garrison^  the  Churches^  wad  Abolitionism,      275 

Georgia  Conventions  pledge  their  "  utmost  endeavors  for  the 
manumission  of  the  slaves  in  their  Colonies."  On  April  6, 
1776,  Congress  resolves,  without  opposition,  that  "  no  slave  be 
imported  into  any  of  the  thirteen  United  Colonies."  All  these 
movements  are  largely  credited  to  the  influence  of  Dr.  Rush. 

But  one  of  the  most  decided  and  resolute  champions  of  anti- 
slavery,  at  the  opening  of  this  period,  appears  in  Newport, 
R.  I. — Rev.  Samuel  Hopkins,  D.D.,  famous  for  the  school  of 
theology  that  bore  his  name.  A  frequent  witness  of  the  land- 
ing of  slaves  from  Africa,  near  his  church  and  home,  he  be- 
comes deeply  stirred  with  the  abominations  of  the  system.  As 
early  as  1770  he  boldly  attacks  the  infamous  trade  in  his  own 
congregation,  (deeply  involved  in  the  guilt  of  slave-trading  and 
slave-holding,)  sharply  rebuking  the  sin,  and' pleading  the  cause 
of  its  victims.  Through  his  efforts,  in  1774  the  further  impor- 
tation of  negroes  is  prohibited  in  Rhode  Island.  In  1776  he 
publishes  his  famous  pamphlet  against  slavery — the  ablest  doc- 
ument that  had  then  appeared  on  the  subject— dedicated  to  the 
Continental  Congress,  urging  "the  duty  and  interest  of  the 
American  States  to  emancipate  all  their  African  slaves."  Ex- 
tensively circulated  among  the  statesmen  of  that  day,  and  sub- 
sequently republished  and  widely  scattered  by  the  New  York 
Abolition  Society,  after  its  organization  in  1785,  its  influence 
appears,  as  a  most  potential  factor  in  molding  the  public  senti- 
ment of  the  times.  As  further  fruits  of  Dr.  Hopkins'  labors, 
we  find  Rhode  Island  enacting  that  all  children  bom  in  slavery 
after  March,  1784,  shall  be  free,  and  the  Rhode  Island  Abo- 
lition Society  formed  in  his  house  in  the  same  year. 

Three  other  eminent  Congregationalists,  two  of  whom.  Rev. 
Ezra  Styles,  D.D.,  President  of  Yale  College,  and  Judge  Bald- 
win— a  divine  and  a  layman — were  leading  oflScers  in  the  first 
Connecticut  Abolition  Society,  and  the  other.  Rev.  Jonathan 
Edwards,  D.D.,  one  of  the  most  vigorous  preachers  of  the  time, 
enter  this  arena  of  conflict  for  human  rights,  the  latter  boldly 
proclaiming  the  most  radical  antislavery  doctrines,  actively 
participating  in  the  State  and  National  Abolition  Conventions, 
and,  in  1795,  writing  the  address  of  the  National  Convention 
to  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  other  Southern  States. 

Nor  have  the  Friends,  the  early  advocates  and  devoted  pio- 
neers of  abolition,  lost  any  of  their  antislavery  zeal  with  the 


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276  Methodist   Qua/rterly  Review.  TApril, 

lapse  of  years ;  but  at  their  Yearly  Meeting  in  Philadelphia, 
in  1774,  they  enact  regulations  against  slavery  more  strin- 
gent than  any  that  had  preceded ;  and,  in  1776,  resolve  that 
"  owners  of  slaves,  who  refuse  to  execute  proper  instruments 
for  giving  them  their  freedom,  shall  be  disowned."  A  few 
years  later  they  drive  all  slave-owners  from  their  communion 
— the  first  religious  body  to  purge  itself  wholly  from  this  great 
iniquity.  Then  they  closely  follow  Congress  with  memorials, 
the  most  prominent  of  which  were  in  1783,  1790,  and  1797, 
the  latter  provoking  from  Mr.  Macon,  of  North  Carolina,  the 
petulant  retort,  that  "  the  Quakers  instead  of  being  peace- 
makers are  war-makers,"  for  "  they  continually  stir  up  insur- 
rection among  the  negroes."  The  Moravians  co-operated  with 
the  Friends  in  these  early  movements. 

In  1774  Rev.  John  Wesley's  celebrated  tract,  "  Thoughts  on 
Slavery,"  subsequently  sown  broadcast  throughout  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  during  the  great  English  emancipation 
movement,  was  published  and  circulated  among  his  Societies  in 
America.  His  first  American  itinerants  were  active  dissemi- 
nators of  his  antislavery  views,  suffering  much  persecution  on 
account  of  them.  In  1780  the  Baltimore  Conference  declared 
slavery  to  be  "  contrary  to  the  law  of  God,  man,  and  nature, 
and  hurtful  to  society,"  required  the  traveling  preachers  hold- 
ing slaves  to  promise  to  set  them  free,  and  advised  their  peo- 
ple to  do  the  same.  The  disciplinary  lines  were  drawn  more 
closely  by  the  Conferences  in  1783  and  1784 ;  and  in  the  cele- 
brated "  Christmas  Conference,"  in  1784,  by  which  the  Meth- 
odist Societies  in  America  were  formally  organized  into  one 
Church,  very  stringent  regulations  were  adopted  requiring 
every  Methodist  holding  slaves  to  execute  an  instrument  of 
emancipation,  or  to  leave  the  Church  within  one  year,  and  al- 
lowing no  slave-holder  to  be  admitted  into  the  Church,  or  to 
the  Lord's  supper,  until  he  had  complied  with  this  requirement 
of  emancipation,  if  the  laws  of  the  State  admitted  of  freedom. 
The  buying,  selling,  or  giving  away  of  slaves,  except  to  free 
them,  was  forbidden  on  pain  of  expulsion.* 

*  These  rules  awakened  great  opposition,  but  Dr.  Coke  went  through  the  South 
with  characteristic  boldness,  expounding  and  defending  them  in  the  largest  gath- 
erings. Mobs  were  aroused,  and  on  one  occasion  '*  a  high-headed  lady  "  offered  to 
pay  the  rioters  fifty  pounds  "  if  they  would  giye  the  little  doctor  one  hundred  lashes.*' 


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1881.]   Mr.  Oa/rriaon^  the  Chv/rches^  cmd  Aholitianism,      277 

Under  Asbury  and  Coke  petitioiis  were  drawn  np  asking  the 
Legislatures  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  to  provide  for  im- 
mediate or  gradual  emancipation.  The  Methodist  preachers, 
with  few  exceptions,  were  decided  emancipationists.  Asbury, 
Coke,  O'Kelley,  M'Kendree,  and  others,  preached  flamingly 
against  slavery.  Emancipations  became  frequent  where  they 
were  allowed,  and  mobs  multiplied.  Asbury  and  Coke  shrank 
before  the  legal  difficulties  of  the  question  in  some  of  the 
States,  and  consented  to  the  suspension  of  the  stringent  rules 
which  had  been  adopted.  Subsequent  Conferences,  in  1786, 
1792,  and  1796,  modified  the  rules,  but  retained  the  emphatic 
declaration  against  the  slave  system.  The  rule  adopted  in  1800 
was  somewhat  stronger,  and  provision  was  made  for  memorial- 
izing the  State  Legislatures  on  the  subject  of  gradual  emanci- 
pation. In  carrying  out  this  action  some  of  the  preachers 
incurred  persecution,  one  of  whom.  Rev.  George  Dougharty, 
of  South  Carolina,  died  from  injuries  received  from  a  mob. 
The  Quarterly  and  Annual  Conferences,  in  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee, from  1806  to  1816,  took  decided  action,  and  many 
emancipations  were  effected. 

Each  successive  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  from  1800  to  1824,  took  some  action  in  regard 
to  slaveryj  sometimes  modifying  and  sometimes  strengthening 
previous  action.  The  section  adopted  in  1824,  which  remained 
unchanged  for  thirty -six  years,  declared  that  no  slave-holder 
should  be  eligible  to  any  official  station  in  the  Church,  where 
the  laws  of  the  State  in  which  he  lived  admitted  of  emancipa- 
tion and  permitted  the  liberated  slave  to  enjoy  freedom ;  and 
that  when  any  traveling  preacher  became  owner  of  slave  prop- 
erty he  should  forfeit  his  ministerial  character  in  the  Church,  un- 
less he  executed,  if  practicable,  a  legal  emancipation  of  his  slaves 
conformably  to  the  laws  of  the  State  in  which  he  lived.  The 
General  Rule  of  the  Church,  from  1792  to  the  present  day,  has 
prohibited  "  the  buying  and  selling  of  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren with  the  intention  to  enslave  them."  At  a  later  date,  as 
we  shall  see,  the  holding  of  persons  in  slavery  was  also  pro- 
hibited. 

Simultaneously  with  other  ecclesiastical  utterances  at  the 
opening  of  this  period,  was  the  declaration  of  antislavery  senti- 
ments, in  1774,  by  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of  New  York  and 


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278  Methodist  Qua/rterJy  Bevieto,  [April, 

Philadelphia.  Similar  action  was  taken  in  1780,  and  a  fuller 
expression,  though  more  cautiously  phrased  than  those  of  other 
religious  bodies,  was  proclaimed  in  1787,  recommending  their 
people  "  to  use  the  most  prudent  measures  consistent  with  the 
interest  and  state  of  civil  society,  to  procure,  eventually,  the 
final  abolition  of  slavery  in  America."  This  subject  came  be- 
fore the  General  Assembly  in  1793,  1795,  and  1815,  when  the 
expression  of  1787  was  re-afiirmed. 

In  Kentucky,  from  an  early  period,  a  decided  antislavery 
sentiment  manifested  itself  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Rev. 
David  Kice,  a  member  of  the  convention  that  framed  the  State 
Constitution  in  1791,  labored  hard  to  secure  in  that  instrument 
a  provision  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  published  a 
pamphlet  containing  the  views  he  had  advocated.  The  Pres- 
bytery of  Transylvania,  in  1794,  urged  its  people  to  prepare 
their  slaves  for  freedom.  Through  several  successive  years 
these  views  were  reiterated.  In  1805  two  young  ministers, 
graduates  from  Dickinson  College,  Robert  G.Wilson  and  James 
Gilliland,  found  it  necessary  to  leave  the  Carolinas  on  account 
of  their  pronounced  opinions  in  favor  of  emancipation.  They 
settled  in  Ohio,  whither  others  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
subsequently  fled,  and  became  promoters  of  positive  antislavery 
sentiments. 

In  1818  the  sale  of  a  slave,  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  a  committee,  of  which  Dr.  Ashbel  Green  was  chairman, 
reported  an  elaborate  preamble  containing  a  strong  indictment 
against  slavery,  and  recommending  all  Christians  "  to  use  their 
honest,  earnest,  unwearied  endeavors  to  correct  the  errors  of 
former  times,  and,  as  speedily  as  possible,  to  efface  this  blot 
from  our  holy  religion,  and  to  obtain  the  complete  abolition  of 
slavery  throughout  Christendom,  and,  if  possible,  throughout 
the  world."  They  also  warned  their  people  against  making  any 
unavoidable  delay  in  accomplishing  this  end  "  a  cover  for  the 
love  or  practice  of  slavery,  or  a  pretense  for  not  uaing  efforts 
that  are  lawful  and  practicable  to  extinguish  this  evil."  In 
1825  the  Assembly  say,  "  No  more  honored  name  can  be  con- 
ferred upon  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  than  that  of  Apostle  to 
the  American  slaves."  In  1826  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of 
Ohio,  by  a  large  majority,  strongly  condemned  slavery — an 


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1881.]   Mi\  Garrison^  the  Churches^  and  Abolitionism.      279 

utterance  subsequently  quoted  by  Mr.  Garrison,  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  "  Liberator." 

In  the  first  part  of  this  century,  the  invention  and  general 
introduction  of  the  cotton-gin  into  the  South,  the  rapid  increase 
of  cotton  manufacturing  and  the  growing  mercantile  and  com- 
mercial interests  connected  with  Southern  products,  all  com- 
bined to  make  slave  labor  more  profitable  than  formerly,  and 
to  deteriorate  the  moral  sentiment  in  regard  to  the  institution. 
Under  such  circumstances  a  determined  purpose  was  formed  to 
retain  slavery  where  it  already  existed  and  to  extend  its  domain 
in  the  territories.  Hence  laws  prohibiting  emancipation,  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  the  intense  excitement  attending  its 
adoption.  After  this  the  fires  of  agitation  declined,  a  general  con- 
dition of  stupor  followed,  the  public  conscience  was  clouded,  and 
Southern  Legislatures  repealed  the  more  humane  provisions  of 
the  slave-codes.  Large  numbers  of  all  classes  bowed  in  supple 
subserviency  to  the  slave  power,  and  treated  the  discussion  of 
slavery  as  dangerous  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  During 
this  period  the  radical  pro-slavery  theories,  for  the  advocacy  of 
which  Hon.  John  0.  Calhoun  was  noted,  were  echoed  by  many 
divines  and  statesmen,  and  became  a  common  sentiment  in  the 
South,  and  even  with  some  at  the  North.  It  was  contended 
that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution,  defensible  from  the  Bible, 
and  "  the  comer-stone  of  all  enduring  political  institutions." 
From  about  1805  to  1830  the  general  tendency  of  sentiment  in 
regard  to  slavery,  in  the  country  and  in  the  Churches,  deterio- 
rated. The  disciplinary  regulations  against  slavery  became 
more  or  less  a  dead-letter,  seldom  enforced,  and  perhaps  never 
in  large  sections;* and  the  advocacy  of  antislavery  principles 
was  often  severely  denounced.  In  the  North  many  sympa- 
thized with  the  South,  and  co-operated  with  them  in  every 
possible  way  in  the  legislative  councils  of  the  States  and  of  tlie 
Churches. 

But,  even  in  this  period  of  decadence,  strong  antislavery  sen- 
liments  burned  in  many  hearts.  Among  the  Quakers,  in  1814, 
Elias  Hicks  published  a  volume  on  slavery,  containing  the 
most  radical  principles  of  abolition.  About  1820,  in  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee,  some  ministers  proclaimed  with  great  clearness 
and  force  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  abolition.  Dwelling  in 
the  midst  of  pro-slavery  communities,  increasingly  intolerant 


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280  Methodist  Qua/rUrly  Review,  [April, 

toward  emancipation,  the  residence  of  these  ministers  became 
uncomfortable  and  unsafe.  Accordingly,  such  men  as  Rev. 
John  Eankin,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  others,  removed 
with  their  flocks  to  Ohio.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  the 
Methodist  itinerants  to  speak  freely,  in  public  and  in  private, 
against  slavery.  Rev.  Jacob  Gruber,  of  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference, was  especially  outspoken ;  and,  while  presiding  elder, 
in  1818,  at  a  camp-meeting,  preached  plainly  against  the  slave 
system,  for  which  he  was  arrested  and  tried  for  felony.  He 
was  defended  by  Roger  B.  Taney,  Esq.,  subsequently  Chief- 
Justice  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  and  acquitted.  In  his 
eloquent  plea,  Mr.  Taney  affirmed  that  "  the  Methodist  Church 
had  steadily  in  view  the  abolition  of  slavery,"  that  "  no  slave- 
holder was  allowed  to  be  a  minister  in  it,"  and  that  ''its  preach- 
ers were  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  injustice  and  oppression  of 
slavery." 

Several  other  active  antislavery  workers  appeared  between 
1815  and  1832.  Near  Wheeling,  Va.,  resided  a  man  of  stanch 
New  Jersey  Quaker  stock,  who  had  deep  convictions  of  the 
wrong  of  slavery,  and  clear  views  of  duty  in  regard  to  the 
great  evil.  Benjamin  Limdy  seized  the  trailing  banner  of 
antislavery,  and,  for  about  a  score  of  years,  was  a  conspicuous 
standard-bearer.  From  1815  to  1830  his  labors  were  immense, 
involving  great  personal  hardship  and  sacrifice,  placing  him  in 
advance  of  all  contemporaneous  abolitionists.  From  him  Mr. 
Garrison  derived  his  first  positive  antislavery  convictions. 

Residing  in  Wheeling,  a  great  thoroughfare  of  the  interstate 
slave-trade,  Mr.  Lundy  was  powerfully  stirred  by  the  atrocities 
of  the  slave  system,  and  could  obtain  no  peace  of  mind  until 
he  espoused  the  cause  of  the  oppressed.  In  his  own  house,  in 
1815,  he  organized  "The  Union  Humane  Society,"  which  soon 
numbered  five  hundred  members  in  that  region.  Auxiliaries 
were  formed  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee;  etc.,  and  appeals  were 
\^'idely  scattered.  Charles  Osborne,  Esq.,  soon  became  his  fel- 
low laborer,  the  two  publishing  "  The  Philanthropist,"  at  Mt. 
Pleasant,  Ohio,  in  1821.  Visiting  Illinois  and  Missouri,  Mr. 
Lundy  portrayed  the  evils  of  the  slave  system.  Returning,  be 
started  the  "  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,"  at  Steuben- 
vilje,  Ohio  —  destined  to  a  marked,  and  stormy  career — for 
about  ten  years  the  only  distinctive  antislavery  journal  in  the 


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1881.]    Mr,  Garrison^  the  ChnrcheSy  and  Abolitionism.      281 

conntry.  In  1822  he  boldly  removed  his  paper  to  Green- 
ville, Tenn.,  the  center  of  slavedom.  In  midwinter,  early  in 
1824,  he  traveled  on  horseback,  at  his  own  expense,  to  Phila- 
delphia to  attend  the  National  Abolition  Convention.  Return- 
ing, he  removed  his  paper  to  Baltimore.  Traveling  on  foot  in 
the  summer,  and  carrying  his  own  knapsack,  he  lectured  on 
slavery  through  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  and  organized  anti- 
slavery  societies,  which,  in  the  course  of  three  years,  comprised 
three  thousand  members.  He  was  received  in  Baltimore  "  civ- 
illy, but  coolly,"  even  by  antislavery  men,  with  only  words  of 
discouragement  for  his  paper.  In  1825  a  series  of  articles  on 
the  domestic  slave-trade  enraged  the  slave-dealere,  who  assaulted 
him  in  the  streets  and  compelled  the  removal  of  his  paper  to 
Washington.  He  visited  Hayti  and  Texas  in  the  interest  of  the 
slaves.  In  1826  a  National  Abolition  Convention  was  held  in 
Baltimore,  attended  by  delegates  from  eighty  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  Abolition  societies  in  the  country,  nearly  all  of 
which  traced  their  origin  to  Mr.  Lundy's  efforts. 

In  the  meantime  antislavery  sentiment  was  developing  in 
minds  destined  to  become  standard-bearers  in  the  great  reform. 
In  1816  Alvan  Stewart,  subsequently  an  able  lawyer  and  orator, 
in  New  York,  and  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  antislavery  agita- 
tion from  1830-1850,  visited  the  South,  witnessed  the  abomina- 
tions of  slavery,  and  became  an  ardent  abolitionist.  From  that 
time  he  was  accustomed  to  portray  the  horrors  of  slavery  in 
fervid  language,  and  rendered  effective  service  to  the  cause  of 
antislavery  in  the  days  of  its  weakness.  In  1822  to  1824  Mr. 
Theodore  D.  Weld,  a  candidate  for  the  Congregational  minis- 
try, visited  the  South,  traveling  extensively,  and  witnessing  the 
terrible  aspects  of  slavery.  Some  years  later  he  said,  "  On  this 
tour  I  saw  slavery  at. home,  and  became  a  radical  abolitionist." 
Before  Mr.  Garrison  published  the  "  Liberator,"  we  find  him 
exerting  his  influence  positively  against  slavery ;  and,  in  1831, 
in  Huntsville,  Alabama,  discussing  the  subject  of  slavery  with 
Rev.  Dr.  Allen,  a  Presbjrterian  minister,  who,  unable  to  answer 
his  cogent  arguments,  appealed  to  Mr.  James  G.  Bimey,  an 
elder  in  his  Church.  Several  interviews  followed,  in  which  Mr. 
Bimey  was  convinced  of  the  wrong  of  slavery,  and  entered 
upon  the  work,  first  of  colonization,  and  afterward  of  reform. 

Rev.  James  Dickey,  of  Kentucky,  in  1824,  became  deeply 


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282  Methodist  Quwrierly  Review.  [April, 

impressed  with  the  wrong  of  slavery,  and  published  his  views 
in  an  able  volume ;  and  in  the  same  year,  Eev.  John  Kankin, 
to  whom  reference  has  been  made,  published  a  series  of  letters, 
addressed  to  a  Virginia  slave-holder,  denouncing  slavery  as  "  a 
never-failing  fountain  of  grossest  immoralities,  and  one  of  the 
deepest  sources  of  human  misery."  From  this  volume,  Eev. 
Samuel  J.  May,  in  1824,  received  his  first  antislavery  impres- 
sions. It  took  strong  ground  in  favor  of  "  immediate  eman- 
cipation." *  Mr.  Rankin  was  untiring  in  his  antislavery  efforts, 
organizing  societies  in  Kentucky,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Ripleyj 
Ohio,  developing  around  him  a  strong  antislavery  sentiment. 
He  was  among  the  first  movers  in  the  antislavery  societies 
formed  under  Mr.  Garrison's  leadership,  always  declaring,  says 
Mr.  Wilson,  that  "  he  himself,  and  the  antislavery  societies  he 
had  organized,  believed  and  avowed  the  doctrine  of  immediate 
emancipation."  f 

In  the  spring  of  1828. Mr.  Lundy  visited  New  York  city 
and  the  New  England  States,  enlisting  new  laborers  in  the 
field.  The  Tappans,  in  New  York  city,  were  interested.  Then 
we  find  him  visiting  Rev.  Samuel  J.  May,  at  Brooklyn,  Conn., 
and  deeply  impressing  his  already  awakened  mind.  Thence 
he  went  to  Providence,  and  found  William  Goodell,  of  whom 
he  said,  "  I  endeavored  to  arouse  him,  but  he  was  slow  of 
speech  on  the  subject."  His  labors,  however,  were  not  in  vain. 
Mr.  Goodell's  mind  moved  surely  and  strongly,  and  his  paper, 
''The  Weekly  Investigator,"  started  the  previous  year,  de- 
voted to  moral  and  political  discussion,  thenceforth  gave  in- 
creasing prominence  to  temperance  and  slavery.  We  find  Mr. 
Goodell,  hand  in  hand  with  Mr.  Garrison,:}:  in  1829,  calling  upon 
prominent  Boston  ministers  to  secure  their  co-operation  in  the 
cause  of  antislavery,  and,  for  more  than  thirty  years,  a  sturdy 
champion  of  abolition. 

Mr.  Lundy  moved  on  to  Bo8ton,§  where  he  could  find  no 

»  See  **  Slavery  and  Antislavery,"  by  William  Goodell,  p.  490. 

t  **  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,"  vol.  i,  p.  178. 

X  "  Slavery  and  Antislavery,"  by  William  Goodell,  p.  401,  note. 

I  The  following  is  an  extract  from  Lundy^s  private  journal,  and  jnstifiee  the 
above  statement :  **  At  Boston  I  could  hear  of  no  abolitionist  resident  of  the  place. 
At  the  house  where  I  stayed  I  became  acquainted  with  William  L.  Garrison,  who 
was  a  boarder  there.  He  had  not  then  turned  his  attention  particularly  to  the 
slavery  question.    I  visited  the  Boston  clergy,  and  finally  got  together  eight  of 


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1881.]   Mr.  GarriaoTiy  the  Churches^  wnd  Abolitionism.      283 

abolitionists ;  but,  "  in  the  same  house  where  he  boarded,"  he 
met  Mr.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  then  editing  "  The  Philanthro- 
pist," a  temperance  paper,  not  having  particularly  tamed  his  at- 
tention to  the  subject  of  slavery.  Mr.  Lundy's  conversations 
awakened  Mr.  Garrison's  mind,*  and  became  the  connecting- 
link  between  the  earlier  and  later  antislavery  movements. 
After  visiting  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and  New 
York,  Mr.  Lundy  returned  to  Washington,  where  the  last  of 
the  Abolition  Conventions,  originated  in  1794,  was  held  in  1829. 

The  English  antislavery  movement,  directed  first  against 
the  slave-trade,  then  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of 
the  slaves,  and,  later  still,  for  gradual  emancipation,  rapidly 
assumed  a  more  radical  type,  and  the  reform  literature  abounded 
in  appeals  for  immediate  emancipation.  In  1825  Miss  Elizar 
beth  Herrick,  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  published 
a  pamphlet  entitled,  "Immediate,  not  Gradual,  Emancipation," 
which  soon  became  the  watch- word  of  the  reform. 

This  doctrine  had  been  urged  by  Rev.  Dr.  Hopkins  and  the 
younger  Edwards  in  the  last  century.  The  latter,  in  1791, 
proclaimed  that  "  every  man  who  cannot  show  that  his  negro 
hath,  by  his  voluntary  conduct,  forfeited  his  liberty,  is  obli- 
gated irrnnediatdy  to  rrujmurait  hira^'^  We  have  seen  Rev. 
John  Rankin  advocating  this  doctrine  in  1824,  and  Rev.  Sam- 
uel J.  May  imbibing  it  from  Mr.  Rankin's  book.  When  Mr. 
May  heard  Mr.  Garrison's  lecture,  in  Boston,  October,  1830, 
advocating  immediate  emancipation,  he  was  fully  with  him  in 
his  views,  for  he  declared  that  Mr.  Ghurison's  ideas  "  satisfied 

them,  belonging  to  various  ^cts.  Such  an  occurrence,  it  was  said,  was  seldom, 
if  ever,  before  known  in  that  town.  The  eight  clergymen  all  cordially  approved  of 
my  object,  and  each  of  them  cheerfully  subscribed  to  my  paper,  in  order  to  en- 
courage by  their  example,  members  of  their  several  congregations  to  take  it  Will- 
iam  L.  Garrison,  who  sat  in  the  room  and  witnessed  our  proceedings,  also  ex- 
pressed his  approbation  of  my  doctrines.  A  few  days  afterward  we  had  a  large 
meeting.  After  I  had  finished  my  lecture  several  clergymen  spoke.  William  L, 
Garrison  shortly  afterward  wrote  an  article  on  the  subject  for  one  of  the  daily 
papers." 

•  At  the  Anniversary  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society  in  New  York  city,  in 
1868,  Mr.  Garrison  said:  "Had  it  not  been  for  him,  I  know  not  where  I  should 
have  been  at  the  present  time.  My  eyes  might  have  been  sealed  for  my  whole 
life ;  and  possibly,  though  I  trust  in  (rod  I  should  not  have  been,  I  might  have 
been  led  in  some  direction  or  other  so  far  as  even  to  care  nothing  for  slavery  in 
my  country." 


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.  k 


284  Methodist  Qtuirterh/  Review.  [April, 

his  mind  and  heart."  Mr.  William  GcK)dell,*  also,  is  supposed 
to  have  antedated  Mr.  Garrison  in  adopting  this  radical  prin- 
ciple, and  in  early  conversations  to  have  led  him  to  adopt  it. 

Another  name  deserves  honorable  mention  as  a  pioneer  in 
antislavery  movements.  Rev.  George  Bourne,  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  was  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  antislavery 
men  of  this  period,  and  one  of  the  most  radical  and  uncompro- 
mising in  his  utterances,  far  in  advance  of  his  times.  While  ed- 
iting a  paper  in  Baltimore  (1805-1809)  he  wrote  freely  against 
the  slave-trade  and  the  slave-system.  As  pastor  of  Churches 
in  Virginia  (1809-1816)  he  delivered  powerful  antislavery  ut- 
terances, and  published  (Harrisonburgh,  Va.,  1812,  subsequently 
republished,  in  Philadelphia,  1816,)  a  volume,  "  The  Book  and 
Slavery  Irreconcilable,"  containing  the  doctrine  of  immediate 
emancipation.  Driven  from  Virginia  by  the  slave-holders,  in 
1816,  he  maintained  the  same  testimony,  as  pastor,  at  Ger- 
mantown.  Pa.  In  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  in  1818,  he  took  a  decided  part  in  the  great  debate  on 
slavery.  In  1830  he  edited  "  The  Protestant,"  (New  York 
city;)  in  1834  the  "Protestant  Vindicator;"  and,  later,  the 
"Christian  InteUigencer."  His  name  appears  as  an  active  par- 
ticipator in  the  organization  of  the  first  Antislavery  Societies 
(1833,  1834)  in  New  York  city  and  Philadelphia.  In  1833  he 
published,  (Middletown,  Conn.,)  "  Pictures  of  Slavery  in  the 
United  States,"  from  his  personal  observations  in  Virginia,  the 
volume  also  containing  the  former  book  enlarged.  In  1837 
this  was  republished  (Isaac  Knapp,  Boston)  with  an  addition — 
"Slavery  Illustrated  in  its  Effects  upon  Woman" — constituting 
one  of  the  strong  antislavery  documents  of  those  times,  (1833- 
1840.)     In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bourne's  son,  in  1858,  Mr.  Garrison 

•  Mr.  Goodell  commenced,  in  182'7,  the  editing  and  pablication  of  the  "  Weekly 
Inyestigator,*'  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  '*  devoted  to  moral  and  political  discussion, 
and  reformation  in  general,  including  temperance  and  antislavery.*'  Some  time  in 
1827  or  1828  Mr.  Garrison  came  to  fioston  to  assist  Rev.  William  Collier  (Baptist) 
in  editing  and  printing  "  The  National  Philanthropist,"  devoted  wholly  to  temper- 
ance. Late  in  1828  Mr.  Garrison  went  to  Bennington,  Vt ,  to  edit  "  The  Journal 
of  the  Times;''  and,  in  January,  1829,  Mr.  Goodell's  paper  was  merged  into  the 
**  National  Philanthropist,"  in  Boston,  Mr.  Collier  retiring.  In  July,  18S0,  it  was 
removed  to  New  York,  and  published,  by  W.  Goodell  and  P.  Crandall,  as  **  The 
Genius  of  Temperance,"  and  subsequently  discontinued,  Mr.  Goodell  then  taking 
charge  of  the  "  Emancipator." 


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1881.1   Mr.  Oa/rrison^  the  Churches^  wad  Abolitionism.      285^ 

said :  "  I  confess  my  early  and  large  indebtedness  to  him  for 
enabling  me  to  apprehend  with  irresistible  clearness  the  in- 
herent sinfulness  of  slavery  under  all  circumstances,  and  its 
utter  incompatibility  with  the  spirit  and  precepts  of  Christian- 
ity. I  felt,  and  was  inspired  by,  the  magnetism  of  his  lion- 
hearted  soul,  which  knew  nothing  of  fear,  and  trampled  upon 
all  compromises  with  oppression,  yet  was  full  of  womanly  gen- 
tleness and  susceptibility;  and  mightily  did  he  aid  the  anti- 
slavery  cause,  in  its  earliest  stages,  by  his  advocacy  of  the  doc- 
trine of  immediate  emancipation,  his  exposure  of  the  hypocrisy 
of  the  colonization  scheme,  and  his  reprobation  of  a  negro- 
hating,  slave-holding  religion." 

We  have  introduced  these  facts  to  show  that  Mr.  Garrison  is 
not  entitled  to  the  credit  of  originality — as  some  have  claimed 
— ^for  his  peculiar  views,  but  was  preceded  by  others,  and  even 
guided  by  them. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1828  Mr.  Garrison  went  to  Bennington, 
Vt.,  where  he  edited  "  The  Journal  of  the  Times,"  and  soon 
achieved  the  reputation  of  a  fanatic.  In  his  mind,  sharper  and 
intenser  than  Mr.  Lundy's,  antislavery  sentiments  assumed  a 
sterner  type  than  the  sturdy  Quaker  ever  dreamed  of,  and,  in 
the  midst  of  the  prevailing  stupor,  he  rang  out  the  astounding 
notes  of  immediate  emancipation.  Here  he  was  again  visited 
by  Mr.  Lundy,  whose  invitation  to  aid  him  in  editing  his  paper 
in  Baltimore  he  accepted ;  in  which  service  he  became  a  victim 
of  slave-holding  vengeance,  fully  determining  his  life  career. 
The  story  of  his  severe  attacks  upon  the  slave-system,  his 
arrest,  trial,  incarceration,  and  release  through  the  generosity 
of  Arthur  Tappan,  is  familiar  to  all.  He  returned  to  Boston, 
and  on  the  first  of  January,  1831,  commenced  the  publication 
of  "The  Liberator,"  a  redoubtable  knight-errant,  helmeted, 
greaved,  and  mounted  upon  a  fiery  charger,  the  hero  of  many 
a  desperate  tournament,  of  many  a  bloody  fray,  of  many  a 
fierce  encounter. 

Thus  far  the  leading  champions  of  antislavery  have  been 
chiefly  representatives  of  the  Churches;  and  tie  Churches 
have  uttered  emphatic  testimony,  and  enacted  stringent  disci- 
plinary regulations  against  slavery,  though  sometimes  hesitating 
and  hindered  because  of  the  complex  poUtical  environment  of 
the  institution.    The  field,  therefore,  was  not  an  uncultivated 

FouBxn  Sebies,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 19 

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286  Methodist  QaaH&rh/  Review.  [April, 

one,  nor  destitute  of  resolute,  experienced  workers,  when  Mr. 
Garrison  arose.  One  hundred  and  fifty-seven  years  of  anti- 
slavery  seed-sowing,  by  religious  men ;  fifty-eight  years  of  or- 
ganized movements,  by  societies  and  conventions,  composed 
chiefiy  of  members  of  the  Churches;  and  more  than  sixty  years 
of  legislation  against  slavery  by  ecclesiastical  bodies,  preceded 
the  advent  of  Mr.  Garrison  in  the  field,  who,  a  child  of  the 
Church,  and  originally  inspired  by  her  ministrations,  came  forth 
as  one  of  the  long  succession  of  apostles  of  antislavery. 

More  than  this :  At  the  time  when  Mr.  Garrison  came  before 
the  public  this  cause  was  gaining  prestige  from  the  culmination 
and  assured  speedy  triumph  of  British  emancipation,  incepted, 
championed,  and  sustained,  from  first  to  last,  by  the  best  rep- 
resentatives of  British  Christianity  in  and  out  of  Parliament. 
The  first  of  August,  1834,  witnessed  the  consummation ;  and 
the  example  of  that  sublime  achievement  stirred  the  world  with 
powerful  pulsations  of  universal  liberty. 


Art.  v.— the  PLACE   OF   CONGREGATIONALISM  IN 
HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE. 

The  ConaregaHonaiumi  of  the  Last  Three  Hundred  Yeart^  as  Seen  in  its  Literature: 
tnth  apecial  Beferenee  to  Certain  Recondite^  Negleded^  or  Disputed  Passaaes. 
In  Twelve  Lectures,  Delivered  on  the  Southworth  Foundation  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Andover,  Mass.,  1876-1879.  With  a  Bibliographical  Appendix.  By 
Hemrt  Harttn  Deztir.    New  York :  Harper  k  Brothers. 

Deeds  must  always  anticipate  elevated  and  fascinating  histori- 
ography. Even  poets  must  have  something  on  which  to  build 
their  shining  castles.  Byron,  in  his  boat  on  Lake  Geneva, 
could  never  write  without  first  getting  stirred  by  the  record 
of  men  in  the  glow  of  action.  Had  there  been  no  Achilles  or 
Agamemnon  there  had  never  been  an  Iliad.  The  Americans 
have  been  too  busy  at  creating  history  to  give  due  attention  to 
the  writing  of  it.  Our  period  of  repose  and  retrospection  has 
begun  to  dawn,  however,  and,  now  that  our  current  of  life  is 
getting  more  regular  and  methodical,  the  opportunity  is  com- 
ing for  a  calm  and  judicial  examination  of  the  great  factors 
that  have  entered  into  our  national  development.  The  period 
from  the  discovery  of  America,  in  1492,  down  to  the  Pilgrim 


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1881.1    Congregationalism  in,  History  omd  Literai/ure.       287 

landing  at  Plymouth,  in  1620,  had  little  bearing  on  the  later 
America.  It  was  the  time  of  pause  and  uncertainty,  when 
the  prospect  bade  fair  to  make  of  this  western  world  simply  a 
new  territory  which  should  compensate  Rome  for  her  Protes- 
tant losses  in  the  eastern.  The  color  of  that  century  and  a 
quarter,  so  far  as  the  rehgious  promise  of  this  continent  was 
concerned,  was  Jesuitical,  stationary,  revolutionary,  half  Span- 
ish, and  half  French.  But  when  the  colonists  on  the  "  May- 
flower" saw  before  them  the  shore-line  of  Plymouth,  on  that 
memorable  November  morning,  after  a  stormy  passage  of 
ninety-eight  days,  the  darker  star  disappeared  from  this  new 
sky,  and  a  brighter  one  came  in  sight  to  take  its  place.  Holmes 
has  struck  the  real  significance  of  the  westward  pilgrims : 

*'And  these  were  they  who  gave  us  birth, 

The  Pilgrims  of  the  sunset  wave ; 
Who  won  for  us  this  Tirgin  earth, 

And  freedom  with  the  soil  they  gare." 

Old  things  were  to  pass  away,  and  all  things  were  to  become 
new.  A  revolution  was  to  take  place.  From  that  time  for- 
ward this  part  of  the  Americln  continent  was  in  Protestant 
hands.  Events  transpired  in  their  natural  order.  The  immi- 
grations, the  colonial  regulations  for  local  government,  and  the 
small  educational  beginnings,  proved  clearly  enough  the  pres- 
ence here  of  a  force  that  meant  no  compromise  with  Rome,  but  a 
Protestant  commonwealth  for  all  the  coming  centuries.  Mexico, 
and  Central  and  South  America,  with  their  ebb  and  flow  of 
revolution,  their  incapacity  to  deal  with  the  aborigines,  their 
perpetual  borrowing  of  thought  and  method  and  faith  from 
the  corrupt  Latin  countries  of  Southern  Europe,  are  visible 
proof  of  what  the  United  States  would  have  been  without  the 
Protestant  and  Anglo-Saxon  element  in  that  critical,  plastic 
period  of  our  history.  We  have  made  mistakes.  Sometimes 
we  have  been  excessively  patient,  and  now  and  then  have  been 
over  hasty.  But  taking  1620  and  1880  as  the  termini  of  our 
positive  and  homogeneous  development,  no  Jiistorical  period  can 
show  more  rapid  growth,  a  keener  eye  for  real  exigencies,  and 
a  stronger  arm  to  serve  the  righteous  cause. 

To  Congregationalism  belongs  the  high  honor  of  being  the 
oldest  positively  religious  element  in  this  permanent  American 
life.    It  was  not  simply  a  protest  against  Rome,  but  against 


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288  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

the  economy  of  the  English  Establishment.  The  most  careful 
student  of  the  Brownists,  before  they  ever  dreamed  of  leaving 
England  for  Amsterdam  or  Leyden,  or  were  dignified  with  the 
name  of  Congregationalists,  will  fail  to  find  one  word  against 
Eomanism,  where  he*  will  find  ten  against  the  Protestant 
Church  of  England.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  protest 
against  Eome  was  implied  in  the  latter.  Indeed,  the  real, 
though  not  always  expressed,  ground  of  objection  to  episco- 
pacy and  other  elements  of  the  English  Protestant  system,  was 
that  the  Church  of  England  was  only  half  Protestant.  Here 
it  was  about  right.  Who  can  tell  whether  Eomanism  or  Prot- 
estantism predominated  in  the  Church  of  England  of  Henry 
VIII.  ?  But  for  the  younger  denominations  that  have  sprung 
from  the  loins  of  the  first  Church  of  England,  and  have  been 
teaching  it  lessons  ever  since,  the  difference  between  the  latter 
and  the  Clmrch  of  Eome  would  to-day  be  so  slight  that  either 
could  be  taken  as  a  substitute  for  the  other.  This  is  not  the 
first  historical  instance,  neither  will  it  be  the  last,  when  the 
most  of  a  parent's  wisdom  has  been  derived  from  the  lips  and 
example  of  his  children.  ' 

The  aim  which  Dr.  Dexter  has  in  view,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  title  of  his  work,  is  to  make  the  literature  of  Congre- 
gationalism tell  the  story  of  the  religious  body  itself.  What  is 
this  Church  t  To  answer  this  question,  he  would  ask.  What 
has  it  written?  His  book,  therefore,  is  the  literary  record  of 
the  denomination  of  which  he  is  an  honored  son  and  an  ardent 
student.  By  the  fruit  of  the  pen  he  would  show  what  manner 
of  tree  this  is  which  sprang  from  the  small  grain  in  calm  little 
Norwich  three  centuries  ago,  and  has  been  shooting  out  its 
branches  through  the  whole  period.  This  is  very  laudable, 
though  all  too  special  a  purpose  for  broad  and  full  historical 
writing*  It  judges  great  movements  by  data  often  obscure  and 
uncertain.  It  ignores  the  fact  that  generally  the  true  hero 
writes  but  little.  It  would  not  be  safe  to  test  the  Protectorate 
by  such  sprawling  general  orders  of  Cromwell  as  Carlyle  has 
furnished  us,  or,  going  further  back,  to  judge  Charlemagne's 
reign  by  any  record  which  the  hero  made,  save  through  the 
few  compact  pages  of  his  faithful  Eginhard.  The  result, 
however,  is  good,  for  it  follows  one  thread  of  development 
ixom.  the  banning.     It  absolutely  finishes  one  subject,  and 


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1881.]    Congregationalism  in  Sistory  and  Idterat^re.       289 

hands  it  over  to  the  general  Church  historian  for  incorporation 
in  his  woi:k  for  all  time  to  come.  The  Congregational  Church 
placed  firm  emphasis  on  the  power  of  the  pen  from  the  time 
when  it  was  only  a  floating  dream  in  the  brain  of  quaint,  bel- 
ligerent, uncompromising  Kobert  Browne.  Whether  still  iu 
England,  or  in  Holland,  or  as  a  fresh  colonist  on  the  shore  of 
Massachusetts,  it  used  the  printing-press  with  imtiring  zeal.  Its 
very  bibliography  reveals  a  marvel  of  literary  productiveness. 
Dr.  Dexter  had  already  written  largely  on  the  Church  of  his 
fellowship  and  love  before  he  came  to  this  crowning  point 
of  his  historical  studies,  for  which,  with  his  antiquarian  taste 
and  keen  eye,  he  has  searched  for  all  existing  literary  memo- 
rials of  the  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  in  the  libraries  and  small 
towns  of  New  England,  and  has  ransacked  the  collections  of 
England  and  Holland,  and  visited  the  Brownist  Meccas  on  both 
sides  of  the  ChanneL  He  pays  little  attention  to  style,  and 
now  and  then  lingers  too  long  on  minor  events;  but  these  are 
defects  of  such  small  weight  that  they  do  not  enter  into  our  es- 
timate of  the  general  finish  of  his  work. 

The  Congregational  place  in  literature  can  be  determined  but 
by  its  actual  achievement  in  life.  We  begin  with  the  fortunes  of 
Browne,  the  father  of  Congregationalism.  While  the  Church 
which  he  founded  has  always  claimed  a  settled  ministry,  Browne 
himself,  during  the  whole  of  that  part  of  his  life  which  bears  any 
relation  to  Congregationalism,  and  was  at  all  productive,  was 
one  of  the  princes  of  an  imwearied  itinerancy.  He  was  bom 
in  Totthorpe,  Eutlandshire,  England,  in  1550.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  attended  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge,  about 
a  year ;  became  chaplain  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk ;  began  to 
disseminate  his  doctrines  of  independency  while  in  this  posi- 
tion, but  was  aided  by  the  duke  in  refusing  to  respond  to  the 
summons  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners ;  afterward  went 
to  Southwark,  where  he  taught  three  years ;  lectured  to  scat- 
tered companies  on  Sundays  in  a  gravel  pit  in  Islington,  near 
London ;  returned  to  his  father's  home,  because  of  the  plague  in 
London;  re-appeared  as  a  student  at  Cambridge;  preached  six 
months  in  a  pulpit  of  the  city,  and  sent  back  the  money  he  was 
entitled  to ;  began  to  harangue  against  the  bishops ;  was  pro- 
hibited by  them  from  further  preaching ;  went  to  Norwich, 
where  he  organized  a  little  Church  of  sympathizers ;  on  ac- 


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290  Methodist  Qicarterly  Review.  [April, 

count  of  persecution  he  and  hie  flock  emigrated  to  Middlebury, 
Holland  ;  tjirongh  lack  of  hannony,  he  and  four  or  ^ve  fami- 
lies left  for  Scotland ;  was  soon  cited  before  the  Kirk  of  Edin- 
burgh; returned  to  his  father's  house  in  England;  went  to 
Stamford ;  preached  his  doctrines  at  Northampton ;  was  cited 
before  Bishop  Linsell,  but,  on  refusing  to  appear,  was  excom- 
municated ;  afterward  became  reconciled,  made  concessions,  and 
was  re-admitted  to  the  Church  of  England  ;  became  master  of 
St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  on  agreeing  not  to  keep  any  conventi- 
cles, or  confer  with  suspected  or  disorderly  persons,  but  to  ac- 
company the  children  to  sermons  and  lectures  in  the  Church, 
to  conform  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  use 
the  regular  Catechism  in  the  school,  and  to  take  communion  in 
the  parish ;  received  from  his  kinsman.  Lord  Burghley,  the  liv- 
ing of  Achurch ;  occupied  it  full  forty  years ;  and  died  at  last 
in  Northampton  jail. 

Browne  had  few  co-workers.  He  held  a  busy  pen,  and  was 
an  original  in  thought  and  expression.  The  work  which  he 
did  was  finished  when  he  ceased  his  wanderings  and  re-entered 
the  Church  of  England.  His  last  forty  years  count  for  noth- 
ing in  making  an  estimate  of  his  life.  He  had  expressed  his 
opinions  of  dissent  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  after 
practically  giving  the  denial  to  this  first  antagonistic  part  of  his 
life  by  his  long  service  within  the  fold  from  which  he  had  been 
driven,  there  were  others  who  took  up  the  cause  which  he  re- 
nounced, appealed,  and  with  justice,  to  his  writings  as  their  au- 
thority, developed  his  .forsaken  cause  in  a  careful  and  method- 
ical way,  and  in  time  gave  birth  to  a  posterity  which  carried  on 
still  further  their  cause  of  independency.  To  the  words  of 
Browne,  the  protesting  and  unreconciled,  therefore,  we  must 
look  for  the  doctrinal  warrant  for  the  Congregational  move- 
ment. The  key-note  to  this  whole  opposition  to  the  Church 
of  England  was  the  ungodliness  of  its  members.  The  entire 
historical  basis  of  the  Brownism  of  the  latter  part  of  the  six- 
teenth and  the  former  half  of  the  seventeenth,  and  of  the  Con- 
gregationalism of  the  two  succeeding  centuries,  can  be  put  into 
a  single  line — the  unchristian  life  of  the  average  parishioner 
of  the  Church  of  England..  If  men  of  unholy  life  could  be 
members  of  the  Church,  and  share  in  its  sacraments,  and  control 
its  destinies,  Browne  had  no  faith  in  such  a  Church.     Dr.  Dex- 


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1881.]    Gongrega4AonaUmi  m  History  cmd  LUeratm^e.       291 

ter  puts  the  case  thus :  "  Not  merely  the  worldliest,  and  the 
most  selfish  and  greedy  people,  but  unbelievers  and  those  of 
scandalous  lives,  might  legally,  if  in  point  of  fact  they  did  not 
habitually,  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper,  without  protest  or 
distinction,  side  by  side  with  the  very  elect  and  anointed  of 
God."  Browne  saw  this  with  his  own  eyes,  and  he  did  not  hes- 
itate to  fulminate  against  this  mixture  of  Christ  and  Belial  in 
the  Church  of  England  as  little  better  than  that  of  Eome.  He 
spoke  on  this  wise : 

No  man  can  serve  two  contrary  masters,  saith  Christ,  (Matt,  vi,) 
neither  can  they  be  the  Lord's  people  without  his  staff  of  beauty 
and  bands,  (Zech.  xi,  7 ;)  that  is,  without  the  Lord's  government, 
for  his  covenant  is  disannulled,  as  it  followeth  in  the  10th  verse. 
Now  his  government  and  scepter  cannot  be  there  where  much 
open  wickedness  is  incurable.  For  if  open  wickedness  must 
needs  be  suffered,  it  is  suffered  in  those  which  are  without;  as 
Paul  saith.  What  have  I  to  do  to  judge  them  which  are  without? 
(1  Cor.  V,  12.)  And  again  he  saith,  even  of  these  later  times, 
that  men  shall  be  lovers  of  themselves,  covetous,  boasters,  proud, 
cursed  thinkers,  disobedient  to  parents,  unthankful,  unholy,  with- 
out natural  affection,  truce-breakers,  false  accusers,  intemperate, 
fierce,  despisers  of  them  which  are  good,  traitors,  heady,  high- 
minded,  lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God,  having  a 
show  of  godliness,  but  having  denied  the  power  thereof.  From 
such  we  must  turn  away,  as  f*aul  wameth,  (2  Tim.  iii,  2  ;)  that 
is,  we  must  count  them  none  of  the  Church,  and  leave  them, 
whether  in  all  these  or  in  some  of  them  they  be  openly  so  faulty 
as  that  they  be  incurable.  Also,  if  any  be  forced  by  laws,  pen- 
alties, and  persecutions,  as  in  those  parishes,  to  join  with  any 
such  persons  either  in  the  sacraments,  or  in  the  service  and  wor- 
ship of  God,  they  ought  utterly  to  forsake  them  and  avoid  such 
wickedness.  For  the  abomination  is  set  up,  antichrist  is  got  into 
his  throne,  and  who  ought  to  abide  it  ?  yea,  who  ought  not  to  seek 
from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  land  to  land,  as  it  is  written,  (Amos 
viii,  12,)  to  have  the  word  and  the  sacraments  better  adminis- 
tered, and  his  service  and  worship  in  better  manner  ? 

The  true  Christian  is  justified  in  withdrawing  from  a  fallen, 
or  never  risen.  Church,  such  as  Browne  conceived  the  Church 
of  England.    This  is  his  argument  for  separation : 

Not  that  we  can  keep  its  commandments  without  all  breach  or 
offense,  for  we  are  not  Donatists,  as  the  adversaries  slander  us, 
that  we  should  say  we  may  be  without  sin,  or  that  the  Church 
may  be  without  public  offenses,  or  \&  there  fall  out  some  sort  of 
OTosser  sins  that  therefore  it  should  cease  to  be  the  Church  of 
God;  we  teach  no  such  doctrine;  but  if  in  any  Church  such  gross 


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292  MetTvodist  Qucurterly  Heview.  [April, 

sins  be  incurable,  and  tlie  Church  hath  not  power  to  redress 
them,  or  rebelliously  refuseth  to  redress  them,  then  it  ceaseth  to 
be  the  Church  of  God,  and  so  remaineth  till  it  repent  and  take 
better  order. 

The  difference  between  the  estimate  of  the  proper  relation 
of  the  godly  member  of  the  Church  of  England  to  his  Church 
by  the  founder  of  Congregationalism  and  the  founder  of  Meth- 
odism, is  very  clear.  Bl*owne  believed  in  separation,  and 
advocated  it  with  all  his  power.  Wesley,  coming  after  the 
chill  and  formalism  which  the  long  reign  of  Deism  had  inflict- 
ed on  the  Establishment,  found  himself  a  preacher  within  its 
fold,  and  set  to  work  to  check  the  evil  and  introduce  a  pure 
and  fervent  practical  life.  His  care  for  the  Church  was  not 
to  leave  it,  but  to  work  with  his  full  might  within  it.  With  all 
his  radical  plans,  he  was  too  much  of  a  conservative  to  advo- 
cate separation.  The  founding  of  a  new  reform  organization 
was  not  originally  in  his  thought.  He  hoped  to  so  revive  the 
spirit  of  the  Church  of  England  that  the  leaven  might  finally 
permeate  the  mass.  He  strove  for  a  regeneration  from  within, 
by  the  introduction  of  the  great  descent  of  divine  power.  It 
was  only  when  the  movement  became  so  strong,  and  the  num- 
bers so  large,  and  the  spirit  on  the  part  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland so  hostile,  that  his  Societies  were  compelled  to  a  separate 
religious  body.  The  hand  of  Providence  compelled  them  to  a 
strong  ecclesiastical  autonomy.  There  was  no  formal  declara- 
tion of  secession.  There  was  no  long  list  of  charges  giving  a 
reason  for  withdrawal,  made  by  the  first  generation  of  Meth- 
odists against  the  Church  of  England.  They  simply  held  their 
annual  meetings,  arranged  their  work  for  the  new  year,  built 
their  chapels,  sent  their  missionaries  west  to  America  and  east 
to  India,  constructed  a  great  pastoral  net-work  over  the  Brit- 
ish islands,  and  formed  themselves  into  a  Church  in  the  script- 
ural and  apostolic  sense.  They  grew  into  independency.  Con- 
gregationalism, on  the  other  hand,  started  out  with  the  idea  of 
separation  from  the  Church  of  England.  It  was  the  first  note 
which  Browne  sounded,  and  it  never  ceased  to  be  heard  until, 
wearied  and  exhausted  by  his  long  warfare,  he  came  back  to 
the  old  hearth-stone.  Tl^^  two  thoughts — intentional  separa- 
tion and  tmdesigned  independency — ^lie  at  the  root  of  the 
whole  development  of  Protestant  ecclesiastical  life.    Each  had 


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1881.]    CimgregaticmaUsm  in  History  cmd  Ziterahire.       293 

its  advantages,  its  dangers,  its  peculiar  triumphs.  The  one  is 
better  adapted  to  one  age,  the  other  to  a  different  one.  Browne 
could  never  have  said  what  he  did  without  prompt  excision,  or 
a  steady  march  to  the  stake.  Wesley  could  never  have  multi- 
plied his  followers,  and  carried  on  his  marvelous  work  of  or- 
ganization and  evangelization,  if  he  had  adopted  Browne's  plan 
of  declaring  secession  with  his  first  breath.  Both  movements, 
however,  were  directed  by  the  sam6  Hand,  and  the  world  has 
not  yet  seen  the  full,  ripe  harvest-field  from  either. 

The  part  which  satire  has  taken  in  religious  controversy,  and 
even  in  the  great  work  of  the  Reformation,  is  usually  one  of  the 
overlooked  chapters  in  ecclesiastical  historiography.  There 
are  always  sober  minds  who  disapprove  of  the  introduction  of 
this  element,  even  when  advocating  their  cause,  on  the  ground 
that  it  indicates  a  reliance  on  an  unserious  agent.  Neverthe- 
less, there  is  a  place  for  even  the  satirist ;  a  public  which  only 
his  pen  can  reach ;  a  world  of  abuses  which  it  is  his  function 
to  reveal  and  hold  up  to  just  contempt.  The  search  for  the 
philosopher's  stone  in  Germany  had  called  forth  many  a  learned 
volume,  but  it  was  reserved  for  the  caustic  pen  of  John  Valen- 
tine Andrea  to  prove  its  absolute  folly,  and  make  it  the  laugh- 
ing-stock of  his  generation.  The  "Praise  of  Folly,"  by  the 
quiet  and  scholarly  Erasmus,  written  by  snatches  while  making 
a  journey  from  Basel  to  Rotterdam,  and  illustrated  by  the  pen- 
cil of  Hans  Holbein,  did  more  to  expose  the  superstitions  and 
abominations  of  Romanism  to  popular  contempt  than  the  works 
of  all  the  Reformers  besides.  The  work  of  repudiating  the 
errors  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  Browne  began,  was 
very  serious  business.  There  would  seem  to  have  been  no  place 
for  any  but  straightforward  writing,  and  the  use  of  the  most 
reverent  language.  But  suddenly  there  appeared  a  thin,  black- 
letter  pamphlet,  bearing  as  impudent  and  unecclesiastical  a  title 
as  ever  printer  put  into  type.*    It  was  in  the  interest  of  the 

*  Thus  runB  the  rare  title :  "  Oh,  read  over  D.  John  Bridges,  for  it  is  a  worthy 
Work :  or,  An  Epitome  of  the  first  Book  of  that  right  worsliipf ul  volume,  written 
against  the  Puritans,  in  defense  of  the  noble  clergy,  by  as  worshipful  a  priest, 
John  Bridges,  Presbyter,  Priest,  or  Elder,  doctor  of  divillity,  and  D^  of  Sarum. 
Wherein  the  arguments  of  the  puritans  are  wisely  prevented,  that  when  they  come 
to  answer  M.  Doctor,  they  must  needs  say  something  that  hath  been  spoken.  Com- 
piled for  the  behoof  and  overthrow  of  the  parsons,  vicars,  and  curates,  that  have 
learnt  their  catechisms,  and  are  past  grace.    By  the  reverend  and  worthy  Martin 


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294  Methodist  QiutHerly  R&oiew.  [April, 

Brownist  movement,  and  was  calculated  to  do  infinite  damage 
to  the  Establishment.  It  consisted  simply  of  Browne's  doc- 
trines, thrown  into  the  keenest  satire.  The  corruption  of  the 
general  clergy,  the  pride  and  vanity  of  the  bishops,  the  repress- 
ive measures  of  the  whole  ecclesiastical  government  of  Great 
Britain,  and  the  corrupt  life  in  the  parishes,  are  dwelt  upon 
without  mercy.  The  books  written  against  the  Puritans  by 
preachers  of  the  Establishment  had  been  carefully  read  by  this 
Martin  Marprelate,  and  their  ignorance  was  now  exposed  with 
a  cleaving  force  which  excited  universal  interest.  The  pamphlet 
spared  no  man  or  thing  which  stood  in  its  way.  It  shot  out 
puns  from  its  savage  muzzle  which  made  many  a  bishop  fairly 
dance  with  rage.  For  example,  the  dignified  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  is  called  "j>aZ^'-politan,"  "  his  greuielessness,  John 
Cant^."  The  Bishops  are  described  as  "proud,  popish,  pre- 
sumptuous, profane,  paltry,  pestilent,  and  pernicious  prelates, 
cogging  and  cozening  knaves,"  and  "homed  masters  of  the 
Convocation  House."  John,  Bishop  of  London,  has  a  "notable 
brazen  face,"  and  is  "  dumb  dunstical  John ; "  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester  "  is  not  able  to  say  bo  to  a  goose ; "  and  the  Dean 
of  Sarum  deserves  "a  caudal  of  hempseed  and  a  plaster  of 
neck-weed,  as  well  as  some  of  your  brothers  the  papists." 

Martin  had  thoroughly  acquainted  himself  with  the  life  of 
the  men  whom  he  attacked.  He  charged  John  of  London 
with  swearing  "  like  a  lewd  swag,"  with  playing  bowls  on  the 
Sabbath,  with  making  a  preacher  out  of  his  porter  at  the  gate, 
with  practically  stealing  some  cloth,  with  refusing  to  pay  his 
honest  debts,  with  making  hay  on  the  Sabbath,  with  cutting 
down  and  selling  the  noble  old  elms  of  Fulham  which  did  not 
belong  to  him  personally,  and  with  cheating  a  poor  shepherd 
out  of  a  legacy.  Serious  charges  these,  but  they  would  not 
have  been  made  without  ground.  *  He  gives  incidents  of  priest- 
ly immorality,  openly  naming  his  men,  and  tnakes  the  follow- 
ing broad  declaration  :  "  Those  who  are  petty  popes  and  petty 
antichrists  ought  not  to  be  maintained  in  any  commonwealth. 

Marprelate,  gentleman,  and  dedicated  to  the  Convocation  House.  The  Epitome 
is  not  yet  published,  but  it  shall  be  when  the  Bishops  are  at  conyenient  leisure  to 
yiew  the  same.  In  the  meantime  let  them  be  content  with  this  learned  epistle. 
Printed  Oversea,  in  Europe,  within  two  furlongs  of  a  Bouncing  Priest,  at  the  cost 
and  charges  of  M.  Marprelate,  gentleman." 


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1881.]    Ccmgregaticynalism  in  History  cmd  IMeratu/re,       295 

Eat  my  Lord  B.  in  England  ...  all  the  Bishops  in  England, 
Wales,  and  Ireland  are  petty  popes  and  petty  antichrists. 
Therefore  no  Lord  Bishop  is  to  be  tolerated  in  any  Christian 
commonwealth."  Still,  Martin  is  willing  to  have  peace.  But, 
to  do  so,  the  Bishops  mnst  promise :  1.  To  labor  to  promote  the 
preaching  of  the  word  in  all  parts  of  the  land ;  2.  To  make  min- 
isters of  only  godly  men ;  3.  To  punish  nobody  for  refusing  to 
wear  popish  garments,  or  omitting  corruptions  from  the  Prayer 
Book,  or  not  kneeling  at  the  communion ;  to  leave  oflE  private 
excommunication  and  allow  public  fasts;  and  molest  nobody 
for  this  book.  Such  is  Martin's  tdttmahmij  and  he  closes  it 
thus :  "  These  be  the  conditions  which  you  brother  Bishops 
shall  be  bound  to  keep  inviolably  on  your  behalf.  And  I  your 
Brother  Martin,  on  the  other  side,  do  faithfully  promise  upon 
the  performance  of  the  promises  by  you,  never  to  make  any 
more  of  your  knavery  known  unto  the  world." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  add  that  Martinis  terms  were  not  ac- 
cepted. His  little  book  went  throughout  England.  The  Earl  of 
Essex  presented  one  to  the  Queen;  the  students  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  read  it  secretly ;  the  four  Bishops  chiefly  attacked 
met  and  took  counsel  together,  saying  that  the  enemy  must  be 
banished  and  his  charges  answered.  The  Queen  gave  special 
orders  for  the  arrest  of  the  author,  wherever  found.  While 
the  search  was  going  on  Martin  thrust  out  another  pamphlet, 
the  promised  "  Epitome,"  which  had  as  keen  an  edge  as  the 
first  battle-ax.  Take  as  specimens  two  of  the  JErrata  appended 
to  it:  "Wheresoever  the  prelates  are  called  my  Lords,  take  that 
for  a  fault ; "  and  "  There  is  nothing  spoken  at  all  of  that  nota- 
ble hypocrite,  Scambler,  Bishop  of  Norwich.  Take  it  for  a  great 
fault,  but  unless  he  leave  his  close  dealing  against  the  truth,  I'll 
bestow  a  whole  book  of  him."  The  answer  of  the  Bishops  came 
out  in  due  time — ^a  quarto  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  "An 
Admonition  to  the  People  of  England."  Time  was  not  given 
by  Martin  to  read  this  ponderous  effusion.  It  had  hardly  be- 
gun even  its  limited  circulation  before  a  third  satire  came  out, 
and  then  a  fourth,  until  there  were  seven,  all  of  them  issued 
within  the  short  space  of  as  many  months.  The  pen  of  satire 
was. employed  to  correct  him,  but  then,  as  ever,  people  would 
laugh  at  only  one  side  of  the  disputation.  /The  effort  to  find 
out  who  was  the  real  Martin  Marprelate  was  continued  with 


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296  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [April, 

desperation.  He  was  wanted  for  the  scaffold.  His  pamphlets 
had  been  printed  in  first  one  place,  then  another;  the  copy  was 
furnished  in  scraps,  which  women  aided  in  printing,  and  the 
pamphlets,  when  ready,  were  smuggled  to  the  public  by  being 
hidden  in  personal  apparel  or  wrapped  in  the  middle  of  rolls 
of  leather  and  delivered  by  the  common  carriers.  He  accom- 
plished his  task  thoroughly ;  and  his  real  name,  like  that  of 
"Junius,"  still  stands  under  the  rose.  The  publisher  was  found 
out  to  be  John  Penry,  and,  while  many  believed  he  was  the 
author  of  the  Marprelate  tracts,  there  was  lacking  just  the  final 
evidence  needed  to  hang  him  for  it.  The  whole  controversy 
was  a  sign  of  the  times.  A  great  issue  was  at  stake,  and  there 
was  a  conscience  underlying  the  Brownist  cause  which  had 
spoken  out  in  homely  phrase  against  the  crooked  and  repress- 
ive ways  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Elizabeth's  day.  Many 
people  became  convinced  that  there  was  just  ground  for  com- 
plaint, and  a  broad  sympathy  was  felt  for  the  non-conforming 
element  of  English  Christians  which  had  not  existed  before. 
The  wit  of  Martin  had  penetrated  every  part  of  the  British 
islands,  and  from  that  day  onward  there  never  struck  an  hour 
when  the  Puritans  of  England  were  without  friends  in  every 
social  circle  of  the  land.  No  man  can  tell  how  far  the  satire  of 
Marprelate,  which  startled  the  country  in  the  latter  half  of 
1588  and  the  former  half  of  1689,  contributed  to  gain  adher- 
ents to  the  Puritan  cause  through  the  whole  time  down  to  the 
landing  at  Plymouth,  and,  later  on,  to  supply  the  first  emigrants 
with  a  steady  current  of  re-enforcement  for  New  England  colo- 
nization. In  all  literary  history  it  is  not  likely  that  satire  has 
ever  played  a  more  important  pai^t,  and  worked  farther  into 
the  future,  than  did  these  grotesque  black-letter  pamphlets  of 
the  first  Brownist  generation. 

We  now  come  to  the  most  important  step  in  this  whole 
period  of  early  Congregational  history — the  fiight  to  Holland. 

England  was  no  place  for  these  radicals.  There  was  no 
safety  for  them  in  the  north,  and  still  less  in  the  south.  Public 
martyrdoms  were  not  preferred  by  Queen  Bess'  churchly  over- 
seers, but  if  nothing  less,  or  else,  would  do,  then  by  all  means 
the  block  and  the  fagot  must  be  invoked.  The  favorite  mode 
of  serving  death  to  the  average  Separatist  was  to  let  him  lie  in 
prison  until  he  was  forgotten,  and  to  be  kept  there  until  he 


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1881.]    CongregationalUm  in  Huiory  and  LUeraiure.       297 

died.  Only  the  rare  crimiBals  were  pnt  to  de«th  in  the  old, 
gross  style.  Of  course  there  was  eveiy  reason  why  they  should 
be  executed,  or,  as  blunt  John  Weaver  put  it : 

"The  WelcfaiDan  b  hsnged. 
Who  It  one  Kirk  flanged. 
And  It  her  sute  banged, 

And  hewed  are  hb  boks. 
And  thoa^  he  be  hanged. 
Yet  he  is  not  wranged ; 
The  dell  has  him  f  anged 

In  his  kroked  klaks.*" 

Dennis,  Copping,  and  many  others,  were  executed  without 
much  delay.  Fifty-two  of  these  Separatist  Protestants  were 
parceled  out  for  personal  labor  to  forty-three  clergymen  of  the 
Establishment.  Pity  that  there  were  not  at  least  two  apiece 
for  the  Burpliced  gentry  I  Fifty-nine  were  known  to  die  in 
prison  within  a  very  short  time.  But,  with  all  possible  oppo- 
sition, a  Brownist  congregation  was  organized  in  London.  Its 
life  was  precarious  and  feeble.  It  was  not  safe  an  hour.  The 
leaders  felt  this,  and  began  to  think  of  the  best  way  of  getting 
out  of  the  country.  Holland  was  the  nearest  Protestant  shore, 
and  so  the  Brownists  in  Lincolnshire  and  elsewhere  began  to 
betake  themselves  thither.  The  congregation  which  was  or- 
ganized in  London  in  1592  broke  up  the  following  year.  Some 
went  at  first  to  the  obscure  places  in  the  Netherlands,  such 
as  Campen  and  Naarden,  but  they  soon  gained  courage,  and 
settled  in  Amsterdam,  with  Henry  Ainsworth  as  their  teacher. 
Controversies  arose  among  them,  but  there  was  a  general 
growth,  and  always  a  wonderful  literary  activity.  These  Sep- 
aratists were  full  of  the  literary  spirit  from  the  very  beginning, 
and  wherever  they  went  they  sharpened  their  pens  and  went 
to  writing  treatises  on  Church  government,  biblical  interpreta- 
tions, and  doctrines  of  faith.  When  once  in  Holland  they  were 
not  watched,  and  they  sent  back  their  books  to  England  with 
amazing  industry.  The  wonder  was  how  they  managed  to  get 
money  enough  to  print  and  publish.  When  James  I.  ascend- 
ed the  throne  it  was  hoped  the  Separatists  might  breathe  more 
freely.  But  here  they  were  mistaken.  There  was  as  little 
hope  as  ever,  and  the  Amsterdam  Society  was  re-enforced  by 
the  best  Brownist  blood,  John  Robinson  and  his  company,  from 


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298  MetJiodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

Scrooby.  After  a  time  Robinson  and  his  associates  left  for 
Leyden,  and  there  formed  a  Church,  which  became  progressive 
and  united,  and  developed  into  the  Plymouth  Colony. 

The  strongest  and  best-balanced  mind  produced  by  the  whole 
Brownist  protest  was  this  same  John  Robinson.  He  was  clear 
in  his  convictions,  skillful  in  management  of  men,  and  far- 
seeing  of  dangers  that  lie  in  any  State-Church  system.  Of 
his  birthplace,  childhood,  and  youth  but  little  is  laaown.  He 
studied  at  Cambridge,  the  only  English  university  where  there 
was  any  freedom  of  thought,  and  while  there  he  came  under 
the  influence  of  Perkins,  and  formed  such  opinions  of  eccle- 
siastical and  personal  independence  as  gave  character  to  his 
whole  life.  He  preached  near  and  in  Norwich  four  years  as  a 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  But  there  was  a  silent 
protest  in  his  soul  all  the  time.  He  was  stupg  by  a  sense  of 
bondage.  He  went  to  Gainesborough,  separated  from  the 
Establishment,  and  united  with  the  feeble  Separatist  Society 
in  that  place.  He  afterward  went  to  Scrooby,  became  pastor 
of  the  little  Church  there,  and  in  a  short  time  he  and  his  flock 
emigrated  to  Leyden.  At  that  time  Leyden  was  the  Dutch 
center  of  learning.     It  was  the  Athens  of  the  North. 

Robinson,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as  pastor,  matriculated, 
busied  himseH.  in  the  great  library,  soon  became  involved 
in  the  controversies  of  the  hour,  and  entered  the  lists  against 
the  Arminians.  He  had  been  so  hardly  dealt  with  by  hu- 
man sovereignty  that  he  took  refuge  in  an  extreme  emphasis 
on  the  doctrine  of  divine  sovereignty.  The  excitements  of  the 
Synod  of  Dort  took  firm  hold  on  him,  and,  while  he  had  felt 
the  sting  of  persecution  in  England,  and  the  very  presence  of 
himself  and  his  Church  in  Holland  was  a  proof  of  the  crime  of 
persecution,  he  failed  to  see  that  the  persecution  of  the  Dutch 
Arminians  by  their  enemies  was  as  sinful  and  unjustifiable 
as  the  persecution  of  the  Separatists  by  Elizabeth  and  James. 
He  defended  the  conclusions  of  Dort  as  the  final  grasping  and 
grouping  of  the  truth,  the  one  point  beyond  which  it  was  im- 
possible for  theology  to  make  any  further  progress.  His  Church 
grew  to  a  membership  of  three  hundred,  and  far  surpassed  the 
parent  congregation  of  English  Separatists  in  Amsterdam. 

But  John  Robinson  and  Elder  Brewster  could  see  that 
Holland  was  not  the  proper  place  for  a  permanent  home  for 


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1881.]    CongregoMonalism  m  History  cmd  Literai/ure.       299 

English  protesting  Cliristians.  Their  families  could  not  grow 
into  firm  and  progressive  citizenship.  They  entered  into  cor- 
respondence with  James  I.,  asking  permission  to  return  to  En- 
gland. But  that  ruler  was  not  willing  to  renew  his  acquaint- 
ance with  them,  and  a  portion  of  them  resolved  to  try  their 
fortwftes  iA  the  New  World,  It  was  a  sad  hour  when  that 
company  of  brave  spirits  stood  on  the  quay  at  Delftshaven,  a 
part  to  cross  the  sea  and  a  part  to  remain,  their  pastor  among 
them,  to  welcome  home  again  the  outgoers  should  they  be. 
driven  back  by  any  force  whatever.  Those  who  remained  be- 
hind were  as  willing  to  be  the  emigrants  as  any  others.  It  was 
a  mutual  arrangement  for  the  common  good.  Kobinson  had 
been  the  guide  of  the  little  group  in  Leyden,  and  was  now  their 
inspiration  as  they  left  him  on  the  dyke : 

'* The  pastor  spoke,  and  thus  he  said: 

"  *  Men,  brethren;  sisters,  children  dear, 
God  calls  you  hence  from  sea ; 
Te  may  not  build  by  Haarlem  Meer, 
Nor  yet  along  the  Zuyder  Zee. 

"  *  Ye  go  to  bear  the  saving  word 

To  tribes  unnamed,  and  shores  untrod ; 
Heed  well  the  lessons  ye  have  heard 
From  those  old  teachers  taught  of  God. 

"  *  Tet  think  not  unto  them  was  lent 
All  light  for  all  the  coming  dajrs. 
And  Heayen's  eternal  wisdom  spent 
In  making  straight  the  andent  ways. 

"• '  The  liying  fountain  oyerflows 

For  every  flock,  for  evejy  lamb ; 
Nor  heeds,  though  angry  creeds  oppose 
With  Luther's  dyke,  or  Oalvin^s  dam.' " 

Robinson  continued  to  be  the  shepherd  of  the  fragment  of  his 
flock.  He  had  some  domestic  afflictions,  and  in  five  years  his 
weary  body  was  laid  away  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Peter's  Church. 
He  had  been  a  devout  Christian,  and  had  spent  his  life  for  his 
cause.  His  theological  writings  were  numerous.  His  opinions 
harmonized  in  the  main  with  Browne,  though  in  learning  and 
method  of  statement  he  was  far  in  advance  of  that  pioneer  in 
Separatism.  His  definition  of  a  Church  was  more  reverential, 
but  not  more  elastic,  than  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon's  definition  of 
Congregationalism:  "Let  every  man  do  as  he  pleases,  and  if  he 


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300  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [April, 

wont  do  it,  make  him."  Robinson  says  that  a  Chnrch  is  "a 
company,  consisting  thongh  but  of  two  or  three,  separated  from 
the  world,  either  Christian  or  unchristian,  and  gathered  into  the 
name  of  Christ  by  a  covenant  made  to  walk  in  all  the  ways  of 
God  known  unto  them,  and  so  hath  the  whole  power  of  Cluist." 

On  the  personal  duty  of  separating  from  a  fallen  Church, 
such  as  he  claims  the  Establishment  to  be,  he  says :  "  But 
this  I  hold,  that  if  iniquity  be  committed  in  the  Church,  and 
complaint  and  proof  accordingly  made,  and  that  the  Church 
will  not  reform,  or  reject  the  party  opposing,  but  will,  on  the 
contrary,  maintain  presumptuously,  and  abet  such  impiety,  that 
then,  by  abetting  that  party  and  his  sin,  she  makes  it  her  own 
by  imputation,  and  enwraps  herself  in  the  same  guilt  with  the 
sinner.  And  remaining  irreformable,  either  by  such  members 
of  the  same  Church  as  are  faithful,  (if  there  be  any,)  or  by 
other  sister  Churches,  wipeth  herself  out  the  Lord's  Church-roll, 
and  now  ceaseth  to  be  any  longer  the  true  Church  of  Christ. 
And  whatsoever  truths  or  ordinances  of  Christ  this  rebellious 
rout  still  retains,  it  but  usurps  the  same,  without  right  unto 
them,  or  possession  of  blessing  upon  them,  both  the  persons 
and  sacrifices  are  abominable  unto  the  Lord." 

But  Robinson  was  willing  to  admit  the  non-separating  to 
communion  with  him  and  his  fellow-believers :  "  He  who  pre- 
fers a  separation  from  the  English,  national,  provincial,  dio- 
cesan, and  parochial  Church,  and  Churches,  in  the  whole  form, 
state,  and  order  thereof,  may,  notwithstanding,  lawfully  com- 
municate in  private  prayer  and  other  the  like  holy  exercises, 
(not  performed  in  their  Church  communion,  nor  by  their 
Church  power  and  ministry)  with  the  godly  among  them, 
though  tiie  said  godly  are  remaining,  of  infirmity,  members 
of  the  same  Church,  or  Churches,  except  some  other  extra- 
ordinary bar  come  in  the  way  between  them  and  us." 

These  declarations  of  Robinson  entered  into  the  substance  of 
the  Congregationalism  of  the  future.  Their  spirit  came  with  the 
Pilgrims  to  Plymouth,  and  has  not  left  their  posterity.  Tenacity 
of  opposition  to  formalism  and  proscription  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  readiness  for  fraternization  with  all  evangelical  believers 
on  the  other,  are  very  discernible  in  the  general  history  of  that 
Church.  Now  and  then  there  have  been  exceptions,  and  nota- 
bly in  certain  darker  hours  in  the  colonial  period ;  but  in  the 


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1881.]    Congregationalism  in  History  and  Literature.       301 

main  tliere  has  been  a  fair  equilibrium  between  law  and  liberty 
in  the  Congregational  structure. 

It  was  a  very  serious  question,  and  one  likely  to  have  an  im- 
portant bearing  upon  the  whole  religious  development  of  this 
Western  Continent :  Would  the  successors  of  the  first  Pilgrims 
be  of  like  creed  and  spirit  with  the  men  of  the  "  Mayflower  ? '' 
Kobinson  might  be  regarded  as  a  very  wise  Church  teacher,  and 
yet  there  was  danger  that  the  blasts  of  winter,  and  all  the  hard- 
ships that  came  of  the  new  life  in  the  wilderness,  might  heal  this 
Separatist  ailment,  and  thrust  those  adventurous  spirits  back 
to  the  embrace  of  the  Mother  Church.  It  was  not  unlikely 
that  the  little  divisions  which  cropped  out  in  Holland  might 
be  repeated  in  the  New  World,  and  that  the  Pilgrims  might 
lose  their  sense  of  united  independence  in  the  warmer  passion 
of  self-assertion.  The  "  Mayflower  "  needed  other  vessels  to  fol- 
low in  her  crooked  and  tedious  wake.  The  men  who  scrambled 
ashore  from  her  deck  over  the  icy  rocks  of  Garnet  Point  would 
soon  be  lost  in  the  forest  if  there  were  no  brothers  to  come 
later  into  near  companionship  with  them.  And  when  new  re- 
enforcements  might  arrive,  was  it  likely  that,  coming  as  they 
would  from  England,  and  not  from  Robinson's  teachings  in 
Holland,  there  could  be  harmony  in  ecclesiastical  rule  ? 

Let  us  see  what  took  place.  The  first  ten  yeai-s  of  the  Pil- 
grims produced  but  five  new  Congregational  Churches ;  the  first 
twenty  years,  only  thirty-five.  During  the  first  nine  years  of 
their  stay  there  was  complete  homogeneousness ;  but  in  1629, 
when  a  new  band  arrived  at  Salem,  there  appeared  the  first 
sign  of  diversity.  The  Salem  people  were  Non-conformists, 
but  at  the  same  time  were  not  Separatists,  like  the  Leyden 
Brownists  and  Robinsonians.  They  were  drawn  to  Plymouth 
rather  than  to  the  James  River  region  because  they  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  Church  of  England.  Yet  they  frowned 
not  a  little  on  the  emigrants  from  Leyden,  and  evidently  had 
but  little  desire  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  such  a  feeble  folk. 
Higginson  thus  expressed  the  position  of  his  Salem  company 
as  related  to  their  predecessors  at  Plymouth :  "  We  will  not 
say,  as  the  Separatists  were  wont  to  say  at  their  leaving  of  En- 
gland, *  Farewell,  Babylon ;  farewell,  Rome  1'  But  we  will  say, 
'  Farewell,  dear  England ;  farewell,  the  Church  of  God  in  En- 
gland, and  all  the  Christian  friends  there ! '    We  do  not  go  to 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIH,— 20 

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302  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

New  England  as  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  England; 
though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the  corruptions  in  it.  But 
we  go  to  practice  the  primitive  part  of  Church  reformation, 
and  propagate  the  Gospel  in  America."  There  was  no  little 
side-glancing  between  the  Salem  and  the  Plymouth  colonists. 
Each  looked  with  doubt  upon  the  other,  and  yet  each  felt  that 
they  had  more  interests  in  common  than  otherwise.  An  inci- 
dent brought  them  into  brotherly  relations.  The  Salem  men 
were  suffering  from  scurvy,  and,  sending  over  to  Plymouth  for 
a  physician,  Dr.  Samuel  Fuller  was  deputed  to  attend  them. 
Fuller  had  been  a  Leyden  deacon,  and,  through  his  representa- 
tions, Endicott  was  led  to  say  of  the  Plymouth  colonists,  that 
their  position  as  a  Church  was  "far  from  the  common  report 
that  hath  been  spread  of  you  touching  that  particular."  So, 
when  the  Salem  company  organized  them6elves  into  a  Church, 
and  elected  and  ordained  their  pastor,  Plymouth  sent  Governor 
Bradford  and  others  as  delegates,  who  gave  the  new  Church 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship. 

There  was  a  recognition  of  pleasant  relations,  but  there  was 
a  doubt  as  to  the  future.  The  Pljmouth  men  had  the  right. 
They  called  themselves  "  Separatists,"  because  that  is  just 
what  they  were.  The  Salem  men  were  also  Separatists,  but 
they  were  not  willing  to  acknowledge  it  They  did  not  like 
the  Brownist  odium,  and  were  unwilling  to  fraternize  with 
the  men  who  called  Browne  their  spiritual  father.  These  two 
classes  of  protesting  Christians,  both  of  whom  were  represent- 
ed in  the  very  first  decade  of  the  colonization  of  New  England, 
are  types  of  all  the  later  generations  of  Dissenters  from  the 
English  Establishment.  One  class  have  always  been  decided, 
and  have  been  ready  to  acknowledge  their  divergence  total  and 
final.  The  other  have  been  decided  in  conviction,  and  yet  have 
looked  with  no  little  longing  for  a  probable  return  to  the  State 
Church.  They  have  been  in  the  wilderness,  but  could  not 
forget  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt.  They  have  now  and  then  been 
willing  to  pay  tithes,  and  submit  to  the  University  Tests,  and 
hoped  that  the  future  would  bring  about  perfect  equality.  Far 
nobler  and  stronger  have  those  been  who  recognized  their  own 
independence,  and  were  willing  to  say  a  long  farewell  to  the 
Church  from  which  they  had  departed.  History  has  pro- 
nounced its  verdict  on  the  trimming  Church,  and  it  is  this  • 


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1881.]    Congregationalism  i/n  History  ami  Literature.       303 

Whenever  a  Church  halts  between  its  convictions  and  its  first 
fold,  it  deserves  to  lose  public  confidence  and  support.  Eeason 
enough :  Only  the  positive  and  candid  can  attract. 

The  later  comers  to  New  England,  such  as  Winthrop  in  1630, 
were  of  the  Salem  type ;  but  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
name  "Separatist"  gradually  disappeared,  because  the  antipo- 
dal force  did  not  exist  in  New  England  as  yet.  In  due  time 
those  who  repudiated  fellowship  with  the  Brownist  and  Eob- 
insonian  Dissenters  forgot  their  grievances,  and  became  ab- 
8orJ)ed  in  the  general  Congregational  Hfe.  Plymouth  led.  She 
had  a  right  to  do  it  She  had  seen  farther  into  the  future  than 
any  others,  and  was  on  her  pilgrimage  to  the  broad,  clear 
hght  of  the  better  days.  To  her  belongs  aU  honor  for  a  steady 
grasp  of  the  right. 

But  we  are  now  confronted  with  the  great  historical  objec- 
tion to  the  first  civil  test  made  in  New  England  on  a  religious 
basis.  In  1631  the  General  Court  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony 
declared  who  should  be  members  of  its  body  politic  in  these 
words:  "No  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  body 
politic  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  Churches  within 
the  limits  of  the  same."  Carpers  and  freethinkers,  who  have 
called  themselves  historians,  have,  for  two  centuries,  been  find- 
ing fault  with  this  condition  of  colonial  citizenship.  They 
have  called  it  fanatical  and  intolerant,  and  have  held  it  up  ta 
public  scorn.  The  German  critics,  who  have  never  understood 
American  Church  life,  and  of  whom  there  is  little  hope  that 
they  ever  will,  until  an  evangelical  faith  prevails  in  Germany 
as  it  does  in  the  United  States,  have  never  wearied  of  stigmar 
tizing  it  as  a  piece  of  oppressive  legislatign.  What  wrong,  we 
reply,  in  making  Church  membership  a  condition  of  participar 
tion  in  civil  rule?  The  colonists  were  a  religious  people;  they 
were  a  Church,  or,  rather,  a  group  of  Churches,  eoclesiolw  in 
ecclesia.  They  had  the  right,  as  they  passed  over  into  the 
civil  stage  of  their  career,  to  see  that  this  civil  life  did  not 
become  secularized  by  worldly  and  unworthy  camp-followers. 
It  ill  becomes  writers  who  were  bom  in  the  State-Church 
system,  and  whose  infancy  and  youth  have  been  spent  in 
the  same  bondage,  and  whose  maturity  has  been  employed  in 
feeding  at  its  crib,  while  they  have  maligned  the  very  doc? 
trines  that  have  created  our  Christian  civilization,  to  take 


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304  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

offense  at  a  neceBsary  precautionary  measure  for  the  exercise 
of  the  very  rights  which  our  fathers  crossed  the  sea  to  secure  ? 
Away  with  this  indignation  at  the  strong  position  which  the 
colonists  took  to  give  a  Christian  character  to  their  incipient 
civil  polity  1  The  time  will  come  when  this  abuse  of  the  New 
England  heroes  will  pass  away.  It  does  not  help  the  matter 
to  add  the  charge  of  belief  in  witches,  and  other  abnormalities. 
The  colonial  superstitions  are  largely  the  creation  of  a  later 
day,  and  were  propagated  chiefly  by  Church-of-England  writ- 
ers, who  came  over  to  New  England  so  late  that  they  found 
the  ground  occupied  by  stronger  minds,  and  took  in  hand  the 
poor  revenge  of  representing  the  northern  colonies  as  far  gone 
in  wild  beliefs. 

The  first  Congregationalists  had  to  feel  their  way  carefully 
toward  an  ord6r  of  Church  service,  for,  through  fear  of  falling 
into  footsteps  of  the  ritualism  which  had  been  a  large  factor  in 
driving  them  from  the  Establishment,  they  leaned  too  far  the 
other  way.  Their  usages  in  Holland  could  hardly  be  adopted 
now,  for  in  that  country  the  Church  life  was  necessarily  that 
of  small,  dispersed  congregations,  in  the  midst  of  a  strange  lan- 
guage and  of  those  strong,  overshadowing  Protestant  Churches, 
which  had  received  them  as  brotherly  guests.  But  the  colonists 
had  to  regulate  for  the  future,  and  without  such  examples  of 
dissenting  service  in  England  as  conld  give  them  best  aid  for 
organization  in  their  new  home. 

One  will  smile  a  little  as  he  goes  over  their  arrangements  for 
worship.  These  were  primitive  enough,  but  we  must  remem- 
ber that  all  their  work  was  initial,  and  the  wonder  is  that  they 
succeeded  as  well  as  they  did.  Sabbath  morning  service  began 
at  nine  o'clock.  In  Boston,  where  advancement  was  most 
rapid,  the  people  were  called  together  by  the  ringing  of  a  bell, 
but  usually  the  congregation  received  notice  of  the  time  of 
worship  by  the  beating  of  a  drum,  the  blowing  of  a  shell  or 
horn,  or  the  hoisting  of  a  flag.  In  West  Springfield  the  drum 
was  used  until  1743.  In  South  Hadley,  in  1749,  a  conch-shell 
was  procured  for  calling  the  people  together  for  worship,  and 
John  Lane  was  paid  for  blowing  it.  In  1759  Montague  paid 
thirty  shillings  (English)  for  a  conch-shell,  and  twenty  shillings 
for  blowing  it  for  a  year.  In  1652  the  Haverhill  Church  em- 
ployed Abraham  Tyler  to  "  blow  his  horn  in  the  most  conven- 


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1881.]    Congregationalism  in,  History  amd  Literature.       305 

lent  place  every  Lord's  day,  about  half  an  hour  before  the 
meeting  begins,  and  also  on  lecture  days ;  for  the  which  he  is 
to  have  one  peck  of  com  from  every  family  for  the  year  ensu- 
ing." In  1720  the  Sunderland  Church  voted  twenty  shillings 
for  sweeping  the  meeting-house  and  "tending  the  flag"  at  all 
public  meetings  the  year  ensuing.  The  pastor  opened  the 
meeting  with  prayer  lasting  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  after 
which  the  teacher  read  and  expounded  a  chapter  of  the  Bible. 
Then  one  of  the  ruling  elders  lined  off  a  psalm,  which  was  sung 
by  the  congregation.  The  pajstor  then  preached,  after  which 
the  teacher  concluded  with  prayer  and  the  blessing.  The  serv- 
ices were  sometimes  very  protracted.  One  hearer  reports 
that  he  stayed  so  long  that  the  hour-glass  was  turned  up  twice ; 
while  Rev.  Mr.  Syms,  on  the  occasion  of  the  formation  of  the 
Wobum  Church,  continued  "  in  preaching  and  prayer  about 
the  space  of  four  or  five  hours."  The  Lord's  supper  was  usu^ 
ally  administered  once  a  month,  at  the  close  of  the  reading 
service.     Lechf ord  thus  reports  the  order : 

Then  one  of  the  teaching  elders  prayes  before,  and  blesseth, 
and  consecrates  the  bread  and  wine,  according  to  the  words  of 
institution;  the  other  prayes  after  the  receiving  of  all  the  mem- 
bers, and  next  communion  they  change  tumes;  he  that  began  at 
the  end,  ends  at  this;  and  the  ministers  deliver  the  bread  in  a 
charger  to  some  of  the  chiefs,  and  peradventure  give  to  a  few 
the  bread  in  their  hands,  and  they  deliver  the  charger  from  one 
to  another,  till  all  have  eat6n;  in  like  manner  the  cup,  till  all  have 
dranke,  goes  from  one  to  another.  Then  a  psalme  is  sung,  and 
with  a  short  blessing  the  congregation  is  dismissed. 

The  most  scrupulous  arrangements  were  made  for  the  seat- 
ing of  the  congregation.  The  ruling  elders  sat  in  front  of 
the  pulpit,  though  a  little  lower  down ;  the  deacons  sat  on  a 
still  lower  seat,  all  facing  the  congregation.  The  men  sat  on 
one  side  of  the  church,  and  the  women  on  the  other.  But 
there  was  a  certain  order  of  civil  and  social  dignity,  which  was 
changed  from  year  to  year,  according  to  the  changes  in  the 
dignity  of  the  auditors.  The  children  were  placed  by  them- 
selves, under  the  care  of  a  tithing  man.  The  Church  was  sup- 
ported by  voluntary  gifts  handed  in  at  the  public  service. 
Lechford  thus  describes  the  method  of  receiving  these  contri- 
butions : 


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306  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [April, 

Tlie  magistrates  and  chief  gentlemen  first,  and  then  the  elders, 
and  all  the  congregation  of  men  and  women  in  the  absence  of 
their  husbands,  come  up  one  after  another  one  way,  and  bring 
their  offerings  to  the  deacon  at  his  seate,  and  put  it  into  a  box  of 
wood  for  the  purpose,  if  it  bee  money  or  papers;  and  if  it  bee 
any  other  chattel,  they  set  it  or  lay  it  downe  before  the  deacons, 
and  so  passe  another  way  to  their  seates  again.  This  contribu- 
tion is  of  money,  or  papers  promising  so  much  money.  I  have 
seen  a  faire  gilt  cup  with  a  cover,  offered  there  by  one,  which  is 
still  used  at  the  communion.  Which  money  and  goods  the  dea- 
cons disburse  towards  the  maintenance  of  tne  ministers,  and  the 
poore  of  the  Church,  and  the  Church  occasions,  without  making 
account,  ordinarily. 

The  full  details  of  all  these  arrangements  for  public  service, 
the  growth  of  the  thanksgiving  occasion,  and  especially  the 
relative  functions  of  the  various  Church  officers,  are  given  by 
Dr.  Dexter  with  great  fullness.  His  utilization  of  Felt,  Pal- 
frey, and  other  historians  of  the  New  England  Church,  is 
itdrairable,  while  his  gleaning  from  those  excellent  local  his- 
tories of  New  England  towns  and  Churches,  which  are  our  best 
treasury  for  the  genesis  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  this 
country,  is  thorough  and  fair.  Not  only  to  his  text  must  we 
commend  the  reader  for  such  detailed  information  of  this  char- 
acter as  we  can  ffnd  nowhere  else  in  a  single  volume,  but  to  his 
rich  and  full  annotations,  which  have,  without  question,  c6st 
him  more  time  and  exhaustive  labor  than  the  body  of  his  work. 

The  later  history  of  Congregationalism  is  more  familiar  to 
the  general  student  than  the  complicated  and  disturbed  begin- 
«iings  which  have  thus  far  occupied  our  attention.  With  all 
the  freedom  which  the  Pilgrims  and  their  early  successors  en- 
joyed to  develop  their  ecclesiastical  life,  the  future  brought  its 
dark  clouds  of  doctrinal  differences.  We  refer  to  the  Half-way 
Covenant.  Away  back  in  Leyden  lay  the  germ  of  the  great 
Congregational  rupture  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Because  of 
small  numbers  and  little  growth  this  element  of  division  could 
not  assert  itself.  But,  later  on,  when  the  Congregational  terri- 
tory was  vastly  broadened,  there  came  the  necessity  for  dealing 
with  it.  Shall  unregenerate  persons  be  granted  access  to  the 
Lord's  supper? — this  was  the  fundamental  question  which 
Congregationalism  was  now  compelled  to  confront.  In  Con- 
necticut there  was  a  strong  party  which  favored  the  admittance 
of  All  persons  of  regular  life  to  full  communion  in  the  Churches. 


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1881.]    Congregationdlimi  m  History  and  Literature.       307 

Men  who  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  Gospel,  and  yet  had 
no  voice  in  calling  the  pastor,  and  were  denied  "  the  honors 
and  privileges  of  Church  membership  for  themselves  and  bap- 
tism for  their  children,"  protested  against  this  severe  condition. 
The  Connecticut  magistrates  called  a  council,  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts Court,  desiring  the  co-operation  of  the  Confederate 
Colonies,  afterward  ordered  a  council  of  thirteen  of  its  own  rul- 
ing elders.  Connecticut  was  suspicious  of  results,  but  sent  a 
limited  representation.  The  meeting  took  place  in  Boston,  in 
1657,  and  concluded  that  it  was  the  duty  of  adults  who  had 
been  baptized  when  children,  "though  not  yet  fit  for  the  Lord's 
supper,  to  own  the  covenant  they  made  with  their  parents  by 
entering  thereinto  in  their  own  persons;"  and  that  in  case 
such  parents  "  understand  the  grounds  of  religion,  and  are  not 
scandalous,  and  solemnly  own  the  covenant  in  their  own  per- 
son," there  can  be  no  sufficient  cause  to  deny  baptism  to  their 
children. 

This  action,  instead  of  promoting  peace,  made  the  breach 
wider.  Accordingly  a  Synod  was  called  in  Massachusetts, 
which  met  in  1662,  and  reached  the  conclusion  allowing  "bap- 
tized persons  of  moral  life  and  orthodox  belief  to  belong  to  the 
Church  so  far  as  to  receive  baptism  for  their  children,  and  all 
privileges  but  that  of  the  Lord's  supper."  The  Connecticut 
Church,  with  Channing,  Davenport,  and  others  at  its  head, 
stubbornly  opposed  this  resolution.  They  claimed  that  such  a 
difference  in  Church  membership  was  only  technical,  and  that 
the  granting  of  the  privileges  of  membership  to  any  but  regen- 
erate persons  would  fill  the  Church  with  a  worldly  and  unsafe 
element.  The  Boston  people  adopted  a  strategic  measure.  When 
John  Wilson,  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  died,  in  1667,  John 
Davenport,  the  champion  of  Connecticut  orthodoxy,  was  in- 
vited to  succeed  him.  Twenty-eight  male  members  seceded, 
and  formed  the  historic  "  Old  South  "  Church.  But  this  inci- 
dent did  not  arrest  the  Half-way  Covenant  in  Boston  and  other 
parts  of  New  England  north  and  east  of  Connecticut.  In  fact, 
it  gained  strength  in  the  latter  colony  also,  after  the  first  gen- 
eration of  opposers  had  passed  away.  In  1700  the  action  of  the 
Massachusetts  Synod  received  its  completion  in  the  theory  of 
Solomon  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  that  "  the  Lord's  supper 
is  constituted  to  be  a  means  of  regeneration,"  and  that  men 


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308  Methodist  Qitarterly  Reoiew.  [April, 

"  may,  and  ought  to,  come  to  it,  though  they  know  themselves 
to  be  in  a  natural  condition."  Here  was  consistency,  at  least. 
Many  of  the  younger  men  adopted  Stoddard's  lax  view,  and 
this  became  the  prevailing  tendency  of  the  Churches.  The 
new  liberty  in  the  admission  of  members  brought  wealth  and 
social  position,  but  also  a  decided  moral  decline.  Increase 
Mather  called  it  an  apostasy,  and  made  the  following  prophecy: 
"  If  the  begun  apostasy  should  proceed  as  fast  the  next  thirty 
years  as  it  has  done  these  last,  surely  it  will  come  to  that  in 
New  England  (except  the  Gospel  itself  depart  with  the  order 
of  it)  that  the  most  conscientious  people  therein  will  think 
themselves  concerned  to  gather  Churches  out  of  Churches.'* 
The  elders  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  called  a  Synod  in  Sep- 
tember, 1679,  to  take  into  consideration  the  best  methods  to 
avert  the  numerous  calamities  that  were  now  multiplying  on  sea 
and  land,  which,  as  the  more  pious  believed,  were  judgments 
inflicted  for  the  growing  irreUgiousness  of  the  people.  Dr, 
Dexter  names  some  of  these  divine  visitations : 

A  French  and  Indian  war;  the  old  Charter  gone;  Governor 
Andros  come,  and  a  Church  of  England  service  forcibly  in- 
truded into  the  South  meeting-house ;  privateers  infesting  the 
coast ;  fires,  hurricanes,  very  extraordinary  hail-storms,  floods 
whose  violence  damaged  the  channels  of  rivers;  ministers'  houses 
struck  with  lightning;  news  of  a  tremendous  earthquake  swal- 
lowing two  thousand  victims,  followed  by  a  pestilence  sweeping 
away  three  thousand  more,  in  Jamaica ;  the  small-pox  raging  in 
New  Hampshire,  and  again  in  the  Carolinas;  great  losses  of  cattle; 
a  scarcity  of  food,  bringing  the  price  of  food  up  to  the  highest 
price  ever  known;  the  coldest  weather  in  the  winter  since  the 
country  was  settled;  and  the  heavy  cloud  of  the  witchcraft  delu- 
sion settling  like  a  pall  over  some  of  the  best  places  and  best 
people  of  Jmissachusetts. 

The  Synod,  interpreting  these  calamities  as  judgments,  enu- 
merated thirteen  classes  of  sins  that  had  invoked  them,  and 
recommended  twelve  classes  of  duties  as  a  means  of  averting 
thenu     Of  the  result,  says  Dr.  Dexter  again : 

This  action  of  the  Synod  produced  a  good  effect.  Faithful 
ministers  were  much  strengthened  by  it  in  laboring  with  their 

Seople,  and  devout  Christians  provoked  to  a  more  earnest  piety, 
lany  Churches  made  solemn  renewal  of  their  covenant  with 
God.  And  the  other  Colonies,  particularly  those  of  Plymouth 
and  Connecticut,  to  a  considerable  extent  followed  the  lead  of 
Massachusetts. 


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1881.]    CongregaMonalism  m  History  a/nd  Literaimre,       30> 

There  was  not  suflScient  reformation,  however,  in  either 
Massachusetts  or  Connecticut  to  satisfy  the  more  spiritual  mem- 
bers of  the  Congregational  Church.  Hence,  in  the  first  decade 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  two  efforts  were  made  in  favor  of  a 
stricter  life^-one  in  Massachusetts  in  1705,  and  the  other  in 
Connecticut  in  1708.  The  Synod  of  the  latter,  consisting  of 
twelve  ministers  and  four  laymen,  assembled  in  Saybrook,  and 
adopted  fifteen  articles.  The  Boston  Association,  which  had 
met  in  1705,  adopted  certain  proposals,  which  were  regarded 
as  too  strongly  Presbyterian  for  the  body  of  Congregationalists. 
Both  these  conventions  had  less  bearing  on  the  religious  life  of 
the  people  than  on  the  polity  of  the  Church,  and  there  was  no 
positive  and  wide-spread  spiritual  revival  until  the  Great 
Awakening,  under  Whitefield  and  his  co-adjutors,  in  1734-1742. 
Dr.  Dexter  thus  summarizes  the  efforts  of  that  remarkable  re- 
vival :  "  It  had  a  twofold  influence.  It  added  from  forty  to 
fifty  thousand  members  to  the  Churches  of  New  England; 
struck  a  death-blow  at  the  Half-way  Covenant,  and  its  introduc- 
tion of  unconverted  men  to  the  communion  table,  if  not  to  the 
pulpit;  gave  a  mighty  impulse  to  Christian  education;  re- 
invigorated  Christian  missions,  and  founded  the  Monthly  Con- 
cert for  the  conversion  of  the  world." 

The  great  division  of  the  Congregational  Church  by  the 
Unitarian  movement — a  subject  too  extensive  for  treatment 
here — ^was  a  catastrophe  such  as  few  Churches  have  had  to 
suffer,  and  constitutes  a  distinct  chapter  in  our  American  ec- 
clesiastical history.  While  the  issue  was  met  wisely  and  calm- 
ly, had  Congregationalism  been  possessed  of  a  strong,  central, 
and  connectional  power,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  rupture  would 
have  been  as  broad  as  it  was.  A  Church  government  with  less 
latitude  to  the  individual  congregation,  has  great  advantage 
over  any  other  when  schismatic  forces  threaten  the  doctrinal 
structure.  The  separate  Churches  are  then  in  large  measure 
within  the  control  of  the  whole  governing  system,  and  Church 
property  does  not  become  alienated  by  the  doctrinal  vagaries 
of  few  or  many  congregations. 

The  recent  history  of  Congregationalism,  both  in  the  United 
States  and  England,  abounds  in  proof  of  a  thorough  comprehen- 
sion of  the  vital  questions  of  the  times  and  a  capacity  and  cour- 
age in  meeting  them.     Its  missionary  spirit  is  worthy  of  all 


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310  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Heview.  [April, 

praise.  One  has  only  to  observe  the  work  it  is  now  doing  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  newer  parts  of  our  country  to  be  con- 
vinced that  the  spirit  of  the  Pilgrims  has  not  left  their  descend- 
ants. Where  would  Kansas  be  to-day,  but  for  its  rescue  from 
the  grasp  of  the  slave-holder  by  the  Congregational  sons  of  New 
England  ?  And  the  wrong  of  Kansajs  was  the  one  thing  which 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  nation  to  the  magnitude  of  the  crime  of 
slavery,  and  its  ready  daring  to  occupy  all  our  new  fields. 

In  the  study  of  ecclesiastical  history  one  has  frequent  re- 
minders of  a  certain  parallelism  that  seems  to  pervade  whole 
periods  and  embrace  large  religious  bodies.  The  humble  be- 
ginnings of  Congregationalism  and  Methodism  furnish  us  a 
beautiful  illustration  of  this  principle.  They  began  within  a 
few  miles  of  each  other,  in  Eastern  England.  The  whole  of 
that  part  of  England  where  these  two  bodies  arose  has  fur- 
nished the  land  with  the  most  of  its  brains  and  heroism  from 
the  time  when  it  first  emei^d  from  its  Druid  darkness 
down  to  the  present  time.  The  German,  Danish,  and  Nor- 
wegian elements  occupied  it,  and  they  carried  on  savage  strife 
for  many  a  century.  By  and  by,  though  the  Norman  became 
ruler,  this  eastern  shore  of  England  was  always  fond  of  its  old 
liberty,  and  knew  when  to  strike  its  blows  for  independence. 
Cambridge  became  its  school  of  advanced  thinking  and  warm 
feeling.  All  the  first  teachers  of  Brownism,  with  Browne  at  the 
head,  were  Cambridge  students.  The  first  immigrant  preach- 
ers of  the  Congregational  Church  here  had  breathed  the  free 
air  of  Cambridge,  and  were  ready  for  the  fight  for  freedom 
here.  The  old  Norse  spirit  has  never  left  the  flats  around 
Cambridge  and  Ely ;  and  while  Cardinal  Wolsey  was  founding 
his  new  college  at  Oxford,  and  having  his  kitchen  big  enough 
for  cooking  whole  oxen  at  once,  on  which  his  courtiers  might 
fatten,  the  Cambridge  students  were  living  on  scanty  commons, 
and  meditating  what  next  to  do,  and  where  next  to  go  for  a 
larger  breathing-place. 

The  wonder  is  that  John  Wesley  did  not  go  to  Cambridge. 
Not  all  his  family  were  Tories,  but  there  was  just  enough  of 
the  Whig  and  the  Liberal  element  in  it  to  save  him  from  ab- 
sorption by  it.  Though  his  father  did  send  him  to  Oxford,  he 
never  got  rid  of  his  eastern  Viking  blood,  and  when  he  was 
through  with  Tory  Oidord,  his  liberal  spirit  asserted  itself,  and 


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1881.]    Congregationalism  in  History  and  Literature.       311 

lie  made  the  world  his  parish  and  posterity  his  friend.  Meth- 
odism started  from  the  humble  Epworth  rectory.  But  just  a 
little  way  from  it  there  had  gone  one  day  a  little  vessel  that 
struck  straight  for  the  Dutch  coast.  This  place  was  humble 
Scrooby,  and  the  Brownists  were  on  their  way  to  Leyden.  Ep- 
worth and  Scrooby  1  Two  little  towns  still,  arid  never  to  be  much 
larger,  they  have  sent  out  currents  that  will  never  be  stayed. 
They  have  done  their  work  well  in  plowing  deep  channels 
for  the  great  waters  of  the  future.  Not  many  stood  at  the 
dock  to  see  the  Brownists  leave  home,  and,  later,  John  Wes- 
ley was  compelled  to  make  a  pulpit  of  his  father's  tombstone. 
But  what  of  that  ?  Those  were  only  such  unfriendly  incidents 
as  were  needed  to  bring  the  steel  of  great  souls  into  vigorous  play. 
There  was  no  seer  at  hand  to  tell  what  should  be  the  influence 
of  two  Epworth  boys  on  the  wprld,  the  one  in  its  song  and  the 
other  in  its  soul ;  nor,  over  a  century  earlier,  in  1607,  to  tell 
what  was  the  true  weight  of  William  Brewster,  John  Robin- 
son, and  the  rest  of  the  passenger  list  in  the  Scrooby  boat  for 
Holland.  But  the  liberty  and  evangelization  of  the  western 
hemisphere  were  to  be  wrought  out  by  these  feeble  initiatives. 
The  heroes  of  both  Scrooby  and  Epworth  may  not  have  had 
any  clear  thought  as  to  what  should  be  the  issue  of  their  work, 
but  we  suspect  that,  away  down  in  the  deep  calms  of  their 
faith,  there  was  an  expectation  that  great  results  would  come 
to  distant  lands  from  the  labors  to  which  they  were  impelled 
by  the  persecution  of  the  unloving  Church  of  England. 

The  part  that  Holland  took  in  the  Congregational  and 
Methodist  movements  gives  us  another  picture  of  the  uncon- 
scious parallels  of  historical  sequence.  No  Protestant  battle 
was  more  bravely  fought  than  that  of  Holland  against  Spain 
and  her  cruel  Alva.  When  freedom  came  that  little  land 
spread  her  wings  of  commerce  over  every  sea,  and  welcomed 
to  her  dykes  the  oppressed  of  all  countries.  Arminius  tau<yht 
in  Leyden  the  theology  that  produced  the  Methodism  of  the 
later  day,  and  the  name  Leyden  warmed  the  chilled  colony 
from  Scrooby  for  their  long  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  and 
their  long  battle  for  freedom  in  this  new  land.  Did  not  hum- 
ble Leyden  do  her  work  well  ?  Little  did  her  people  dream, 
as  Arminius  and  Episcopius  walked  along  her  sleepy  canals 
and  crossed  her  curious  bridges  to  their  lecture  rooms,  that  the 


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312  Methodist  QtLO/rterly  Heview.  [April, 

words  spoken  there  would  reverberate  through  all  coming  times; 
and  they  thought  as  little,  too,  that  the  Brownist  guests  from 
Scrooby  were  destined  to  be  pioneers  for  freedom  in  Church 
and  State  throughout  new  America.  But  these  parallels  will 
never  cease.  God  has  his  own  way  of  leading  his  trusting 
children  into  the  upward  pathways,  and  those  children  cannot 
afford  to  forget  that  no  mountain  of  sin  is  safe  in  its  place  if 
their  faith  be  as  the  grain  of  mustard  seed. 


Art.  VI.— HERMANN   LOTZE. 

In  Germany  Hegelianism  is  out  of  fashion.  In  England,  Italy, 
and  America  &  few  thinkers,  tired  of  their  intellectual  naked- 
ness, and  unable  to  weave  a  philosophical  robe  of  their  own, 
have  seized  upon  and  donned  the  cast-off  garments  of  the  Ger- 
mans, and  now  parade  the  streets  and  by-ways  of  philosophy 
with  all  the  peculiar  Hegelian  complacency  and  arrogance. 
The  Germans  enjoy  the  spectacle,  and  occasionally  remark  that 
foreign  countries  are  fifty  years  behind  Germany  in  their 
thought-development.  The  grains  of  truth  in  this  quiet  hint 
are  just  numerous  enough  to  make  it  incisive  and  biting.  To 
trace  the  causes  of  the  fall  of  the  great  philosophical  system 
that  dominated  German  thought  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
first  half  of  the  century  is  not  our  purpose.  Apart  from  its 
rotten  foundations  and  paper  buttresses,  which  eventually  would 
have  made  it  a  mass  of  ruins,  it  had  a  vigorous  and  implaca- 
ble enemy.  Against  pantheistic  idealism,  the  blind  worship  of 
logical  forms,  the  factitious  deduction  of  the  world  with  its  va- 
ried life  out  of  the  necessary  development  of  the  Infinite  idea 
— against  Hegelianism  in  all  its  phases — stood  the  great  Her- 
bart.  During  his  life  his  followers  were  comparatively  few ; 
but  in  the  softer  light  of  to-day  he  is  seen  to  be,  after  Kant,  the 
noblest  figure  in  German  philosophy.  Says  Wundt,  the  Leip- 
sic  professor,  "  Next  to  Kant  I  am  most  indebted  to  Herbart 
for  the  constructions  of  my  own  philosophical  opinions."*  In  a 
word,  almost"  every  department  of  the  systematical  philosophy 
of  the  Germany  of  to-day  has  its  roots  in  him. 

♦  ^^Fhynoloffiache  Psychologies*^    Introduction. 


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1881.]  Hermann  Lotze.  313 

Among  those  who  have  had  their  starting-point  in  Herbart's 
system,  no  one  is  more  prominent  than  Hermann  Lotze.  He 
was  bom  in  Bantzen  in  1817.  At  the  early  age  of  twenty-two 
he  had  taken  his  degrees  in  medicine  and  philosophy,  and  was 
acting  as  privat-docent  in  both  of  these  departments  in  the 
University  of  Leipsic.  At  twenty-four  he  published  his  "  Met- 
aphydk;^^  at  twenty-five  his  '^AUgemevne  Pathologie  und 
TJierapie^^^  and  three  articles  in  Wagner's  ^^Homdworterhuch 
der  Physiologie  ;'*'^  at  twenty-six  his  ^'Logik;^^  at  thirty-four  his 
^'Phyaiologie  des  Korperlichen  Lebens  ;  "  and  at  thirty-five  his 
^^Medicinische  Psychologie,  In  these  works  of  his  earlier  life 
we  find  the  leading  principles  of  his  philosophy.  Like  Berke- 
ley, Hume,  and  Schopenhaur,  his  development  was  rapid,  and 
in  his  younger  days  the  circle  was  described  in  which  his 
thought  was  afterward  to  move.  The  most  important  of  his 
publications  in  recent  years  have  been  ^^  Mihrokomivs^'^  "6r^ 
schichte  der  Aesthetik^'*  ^^Logih^  and  ^^  Metaphydlc^^  The 
"  Mikrohoanvits^^  now  in  its  third  edition,  is  a  compendium  of 
his  system,  and  contains,  in  a  somewhat  popular  form,  his  opin- 
ions on  psychology,  metaphysics,  religion,  ethics,  aesthetics,  and 
history.  Though  not  the  profoundest,  it  is  the  richest  of  the 
works,  and  its  influence  has  made  itself  felt  outside  of  the 
limits  of  the  philosophic  schools. 

Lotze's  life,  like  that  of  Kant,  has  been  uneventful.  He 
came  to  the  little  and  quaint  old  university  city  of  Gdttingen 
as  professor  of  philosophy  in  1844,  and  has  remained  there 
ever  since,  declining  recently  a  call  to  the  great  University  of 
Berlin.*  In  the  suburbs  he  has  an  old-fashioned  house  in  the 
midst  of  a  large  garden,  and  in  the  fresh  air  of  the  fields  and 
the  thick  shade  of  his  trees  he  leads  the  ideal  life  of  the  phi- 
losopher. 

In  the  short  space  of  a  review  article  an  exposition  of  the 
entire  system  of  Lotze  would  be  impossible ;  and  we  propose 
to  confine  ourselves  to  a  more  or  less  coherent  exposition  of  his 
"Philosophy  of  Religion,"  borrowing  from  his  metaphysics 
what  is  necessary  for  completeness,  and  sketching  his  discus- 
sion of  one  or  two  questions  that  are  now  of  special  interest  to 
the  religious  world. 

*  Since  the  above  was  written,  Lotze  has  finally  been  induced  to  accept  a  pro- 
fessorship of  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Berlin. 


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814  Methodist  Quwrteriy  Beview.  [April, 

In  the  logic  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  where  he  is  speaking  of  the 
"  distribution  of  the  primeval  natural  agents  through  the  uni- 
verse," occurs  the  following  remarkable  passage :  "  The  utmost 
disorder  is  apparent  in  the  combination  of  the  causes  which  is 
consistent  with  the  most  perfect  order  in  their  effect ;  for  when 
each  agent  carries  on  its  own  operations  according  to  a  uni- 
form law,  even  the  most  capricious  combination  of  agencies 
will  generate  a  regularity  of  some  sort,  as  we  see  in  the  kalei- 
doscope, where  any  casual  arrangement  of  colored  bits  of  glass 
produce,  by  the  law  of  reflection,  a  beautiful  regularity  in  the 
eflEect."  In  striking  contrast  is  the  following  extract  from 
Lotze,  "  Nature  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  kaleidoscope  which 
is  shaken  by  accident  and  made  to  produce  figures  that  appear 
as  if  meaning  was  in  them.  If  this  meaning  is  to  have  real 
meaning,  we  must  deal  seriously  with  our  postulate,  and  main- 
tain the  conviction  that  the  same  power  that  establishes  in  things 
their  mechanical  capacities  for  action,  includes  directly  that 
form-determining  fantasy,  which  provides  these  capacities  for 
action  with  their  points  of  application  and  assigns  to  them  their 
significant  directions."  *  In  these  two  passages  from  Mill  and 
Lotze  we  have  a  statement  of  the  two  methods  of  apprehending 
the  cosmos,  the  casual,  and  the  theological ;  both  of  them  rec- 
ognizing the  supremacy  and  universality  of  laws,  but  the  one 
attributing  their  conjunction  to  chance,  the  other  to  a  purpose. 

But  Lotze  is  a  teleologist  of  a  unique  type.  In  the  first  of 
his  three  articles  in  Wagner's  "  Handmorterbuch  der  Physi- 
ologie^^^  he  attacks  with  trenchant  hand  the  theory  of  a  vital 
force,  and  shows  that  the  chemical  and  physical  forces  acting 
upon  the  organic  germs  are  sufficient  to  explain  the  develop- 
ment of  all  life,  and  that  there  are  no  residual  phenomena  to 
be  accounted  for  by  an  hypothesis  of  a  vital  force.  This  arti- 
cle was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  evangelists  of  necessity, 
and  they  welcomed  Lotze  with  open  arms.  But  they  forgot, 
in  the  first  place,  that  the  occasion  called  for  the  expression  of 
only  one  half  of  his  theory,  and,  in  the  second  place,  that  he 
had  written  in  his  ^^Metaphydk  "  that  the  "  true  beginning  of 
metaphysics  is  in  ethics ; "  and  so  when  he  began  to  emphasize 
the  ideal  side  of  life  and  to  vindicate  the  longings  of  the 
Oemuthj  he  was  charged  with  apostasy.     How  consistent  he 

•  "  MikrohmMu;'  book  U,  p.  9. 


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1881.]  nerrrumn  Lotze.  315 

has  been  may  be  seen  when  he  says  that  a  mediation  between 
mechanical  necessity  and  freedom  consists  in  showing  "how 
nnexceptionally  universal  is  the  extent  of  mechanism;"  but 
he  adds,  "  and  how  fully  subordinate  the  mission  is  that  it  has 
to  fulfill  in  the  construction  of  the  world."  *  In  this  idealiza- 
tion of  the  mechanical  view  of  nature  we  have  an  anticipation 
of  the  course  of  Lotze's  philosophy.  But  only  a  more  detailed 
examination  will  show  how  this  mediation  between  freedom 
and  necessity  is  to  be  effected,  and  how  the  kaleidoscopic  laws 
of  Mill  are  to  be  fused  into  a  higher  unity.  That  the  objects 
of  the  external  world  act  upon  each  other  and  upon  us  is  a  fact 
thrust  upon  the  naivest  observation;  and  the  mutual  action 
and  reaction  of  the  ultimate  particles  of  matter  is  an  equally 
coercive  fact  for  the  scientific  mind.  But  as  cogent  as  is 
this  fact  of  interaction  (  WechselAJoirkimg)  we  are  involved  in 
inextricable  diflSculties  when  we  come  to  explain  it.  Consider 
for  a  moment  the  attraction  of  the  earth  and  the  moon.  "O 
that  is  simple  enough ! "  we  are  ready  to  say ;  "  it  is  effected 
by  the  law  of  gravitation."  But  we  have  satisfied  ourselves 
with  the  husks  of  delusion  instead  of  the  bread  of  knowledge, 
for  a  law  is  not  a  power  extraneous  to  the  bodies  themselves, 
enforcing  its  dictates  by  virtue  of  its  superiority  of  position, 
but  only  a  humble  formulation  of  their  methods  of  action. 
Gravitation  is  only  the  general  name  of  a  mystery  of  which  the 
attraction  of  the  earth  and  moon  is  a  specific  case.  But,  it  may 
be  further  argued,  something  goes  out  from  each  of  the  attract- 
ing bodies,  and  effects  their  interaction.  This,  however,  only 
shoves  the  difficulty  farther  back,  for  this  something  must  act 
on  the  body  to  which  it  comes ;  and  thus  all  the  old  difficulties 
again  arise.  If  it  be  said  that  a  force  is  radiated,  and  that  it 
brings  about  the  phenomenon  of  approach,  it  is  to  be  replied 
that  the  thought  is  unfruitful,  and,  when  taken  as  a  whole,  con- 
tradictory. Turn  the  matter  as  we  may,  we  can  find  no  ex- 
planation of  their  mutual  attraction,  and  we  can  do  naught 
better  than  present  ourselves  at  the  confessional  stool  of  phi- 
losophy with  this  frank  avowal  of  our  ignorance.  "  Bodies  do 
work  upon  each  other  at  a  distance,  but  the  modu%  opercmdi 
is  one  of  nature's  secrets."  Transitive  action,  {transeunte  Wvr- 
ktcnffy)  then,  is  a  fact  to  be  accepted  without  explanation. 

*^^Mikroko9mwy  Introdaction,  p.  16. 


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316  MetJiodist  Quarte}*ly  Beview.  [April, 

But  when  we  consider  immanent  action,  {inmianente  Wir- 
kunff,)  that  is,  the  interaction  between  the  parts  of  one  and  the 
same  body,  we  are  involved  in  a  similar  perplexity.  AltUough 
the  space  between  two  atoms  is  almost  infinitely  small,  yet  the 
difficulties  that  encountered  us  in  the  thousands  of  miles  be- 
tween the  earth  and  the  moon  are  not  one  whit  abated  by 
less  than  microscopic  distances.  An  attribute  of  one  atom 
cannot  go  over  to  the  others ;  for  in  the  space  between  the  two 
it  would  be  nobody's  attribute,  which  is  to  affirm  and  deny  in  one 
breath  its  attributive  character.  These  difficulties  in  -  both 
transitive  and  immanent  actions  are  not  new ;  but  in  much  of 
the  Cartesian  philosophy  and  in  the  college  philosophy  of  to- 
day only  one  phase  of  it  lias  been  emphasized,  the  interaction 
of  mind  and  matter.  To  explain  this  phenomenon,  one  philos- 
opher devised  the  theory  of  "  occasional  causes,"  and  Leibnitz 
that  of  "  pre-established  harmony."  But  the  first  did  not  escape 
the  difficulty,  for  its  very  postulate  was  that  matter  could  aflEect 
mind,  and  mind  matter.  For  it  was  God,  a  spirit,  who  raised 
the  arm,  matter,  on  the  occasion  of  a  volition,  and  who  ex- 
cited a  sensation  on  the  occasions  of  the  proper  excitation  of 
the  nerves.  The  second  was  but  little  more  successful.  It  as- 
sumed a  primal  action  of  God,  a  spirit,  in  the  creation  of  the 
world  of  matter,  and  escaped  further  interaction  only  by  a 
rigid  and  factitious  predetermination  of  every  phase  of  the  uni- 
verse's development.  The  action  of  mind  on  matter,  then, 
is  no  more  of  a  mystery  than  the  action  of  matter  on  matter, 
and  the  persistency  with  which  it  is  thrust  forward  as  a  sub- 
ject demanding  a  specific  explanation  is  simply  an  indication  of 
the  limitation  of  our  philosophical  horizon. 

Though  immanent  action  is  a  mystery,  we  have  no  hesitancy 
in  accepting  it  as  a  matter-of-fact.  All  of  us  have  wondered  at 
the  attraction  of  gravitation,  and  have  tried  to  devise  some 
mechanism  by  which  it  could  be  brought  about ;  but  few  of 
us,  however,  have  deemed  the  phenomenon  of  cohesion,  or  the 
transmission  of  motions  from  particle  to  particle,  to  be  matters 
urgently  demanding  an  explanation.  To  repeat  our  exposition 
in  Lotze's  own  words; 

We  regard  this  immanent  action,  developing  state  out  of  state 
in  one  and  the  same  thing,  as  a  fact  that  calls  for  no  further 
effort  of  thought,  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  are  conscious  that  this 


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1881.]  Hermcmn  Lotze.  317 

action  in  respect  to  itD  realization  is  fully  incomprehensible.  For 
how  it  is  that  a  state  m  of  a  thine  A  proceeds  to  bring  about  a 
resulting  state  n  is  not  one  whit  better  understood  b^  us  than 
how  the  same  state  m  proceeds  to  produce  the  state  x  m  another 
thing  B.  Only  the  unity  of  the  thing  in  which  this  incomprehensi- 
ble process  takes  place  makes  it  appear  superfluous  to  ask  after  con- 
ditions of  its  possibility.  We  are,  therefore,  satisfied  with  im- 
manent action  not  because  we  understand  its  genesis,  but  becauB< 
we  are  aware  of  no  hinderance  to  an  unquestioned  recognition 
of  it  as  a  given  fact;  for  the  different  states  of  a  subject  must, 
we  think,  necessarily  have  an  influence  over  each  other.  And, 
indeed,  if  we  do  not  follow  this  fundamental  thought,  there 
will  remain  to  us  no  means  of  finding  an  explanation  for  any 
event.* 

In  this  aspect  of  immanent  action,  then,  we  find  a  hint  that 
enables  ns  not  indeed  to  elucidate  transitive  action,  but  to 
illustrate  it.  Only  where  unity  is,  where  each  part  is  linked 
with  the  other,  and  where  all  together  form  one  coherent  whole, 
do  we  find  that  our  faculties  adapt  themselves  to  the  phenom- 
enon of  interaction.  We  must  then  cease  to  regard  the  world 
as  made  up  of  distinct  elements,  and  begin  to  see  in  it  a  vital 
unity.  This  unity,  indeed,  is  no  working  hypothesis,  but  is 
forced  upon  us  by  the  very  fact  of  interaction ;  for  if  bodies 
were  entirely  independent  of  each  oth^r,  if  each  failed  absolutely 
to  influence  the  other,  if  each  existed,  as  it  were,  in  a  world  for 
itself,  then  all  possibility  of  mutual  action  would  be  at  an  end, 
and  life,  growth,  development,  would  be  myths.  The  abyss 
that  exists  between  separate  bodies  must  be  bridged,  and  tiiis 
can  be  done  only  by  making  them  part  of  the  same  organic 
whole.  "  The  plurality  of  our  cosmic  theory  must  give  place 
to  a  monism  by  which  the  eveivincomprehensible  transitive  ac- 
tion goes  over  into  an  immanent  action."  f  At  this  critical 
point  of  Lotze's  philosophy  we  deem  it  best  to  supplement 
our  exposition  by  his  own  words.  It  is  a  point  to  which  he 
himself  more  than  once  returns,  and  in  our  hands  it  cannot 
suflEer  by  a  partial  repetition  of  its  content : 

Not  the  empty  shade  of  a  course  of  nature,  but  the  full  reality 
of  an  infinite  living  bein^,  whose  innerly  cherished  parts  form 
all  finite  things,  can  so  bind  together  the  manifoldness  of  the 
world  that  the  interactions  reach  over  the  abysses  which  would 
eternally  separate  the  individual  elements  from  each  other.    For 

♦  "JtfatepAyc^it,"  p.  9«.  \  Jhid,  p.  187. 

FouBTU  Sbbibs,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 21 


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318  Methodist  Qaarterly  Review.  CApril, 

an  action  going  out  from  the  one  is  not  lost  in  the  nothinmess 
that  lies  between  it  and  the  other,  but  as  in  all  being  (/Sfein)  the 
really  existing  (daa  wahrhaft  Seiende)  remains  one  and  the  same, 
so  the  infinite  reality  (  Wesen)  works  in  all  interaction  only  upon 
himself  and  his  energy  never  leaves  the  enduring  basis  of  being. 
That  which  is  active  in  one  part  is  not  shut  up  m  itself  and  un- 
known to  all  others;  nor  does  the  individual  state  (Zustand)  have 
to  pass  over  an  illimitable  way  in  order  to  seek  another  element 
to  whom  it  may  conununicate  itself;  nor,  in  fine,  does  it  have  to 
exert  a  power  that  is  likewise  incomprehensible  in  order  to  com- 
pel this  indifferent  second  element  to  participate  in  its  nature. 
Every  excitation  of  a  single  thing  is  at  the  same  time  an  excita- 
tion of  the  entire  infinite  in  which  it  finds  the  living  basis  of  its 
being ;  and  thus  each  element  is  able  to  transmit  its  action  to 
another  having  likewise  the  same  basis.  The  infinite  it  is  that 
through  the  unity  of  his  nature  causes  the  finite  event  here  to  be 
followed  by  its  effect  there,  and  no  finite  thing  works  upon  an- 
other by  means  of  its  own  finite  power.  On  the  contrar]^,  each 
excitation  of  the  individual  thing  moving  the  external  basis  that 
is  the  reality  behind  the  shadow  of  all  finite,  is  able  to  transmit 
its  action  to  that  which  is  apparently  removed  only  through  this 
continuity  of  their  community  of  bemg.* 

But  this  infinite  being,  that  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  finite, 
plays  a  mpre  important  role  than  that  of  rendering  possible  the 
mutual  action  of  the  elements  of  the  world.  It  is  the  "  infinite 
substance,"  the  "  unifying  being,"  the  ^'  one  reality,"  in  which 
all  finite  things  are  comprised  as  "modifications,"  "parts," 
"  states,"  or  "  appearances."  It  assigns  to  every  atom  its  sphere 
of  action  and  the  nature  of  its  energy,  and  to  every  cause  the 
amount  and  character  of  its  effect.  In  all  its  varied  changes 
it  preserves  its  unity  and  adjusts  a  disturbance  in  one  part  by 
compensation  in  another.  It  is  one  and  indivisible  and  all  in 
all.  We  are  approaching  in  this  "infinite  being"  our  concep- 
tion of  God ;  but  it  yet  lacks  many  of  the  essential  attributes ; 
the  chief  among  them  being  personality.  Lotze  passes  in  re- 
view the  various  arguments  for  the  existence  of  God,  and  finds 
with  Kant  that  they  all  fall  short  of  their  purpose.  The  teleo- 
logical  argument  has,  perhaps,  the  most  claim  to  our  considera- 
tion, but  a  candid  examination  of  it  discloses  defects.  "By 
seeking  ye  cannot  find  out  God,"  was  said  long  ago  by  the  in- 
spired seer,  and  Lotze  but  iterates  the  content  of  this  thought 
in  his  denial  of  the  worth  of  ratiocination  as  a  means  of  estab- 

»  *'  Afikrokotmw,"  vol.  i. 


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1881.]  Hermwrm  Lotze.  319 

liflhing  the  existence  of  God.  It  has  pleased  him  to  revive  the 
ontological  argumeut,  but  in  a  form  in  which  the  original  is 
scarcely  recognizable.  That  alone  is  greatest  which  has  a  real 
existence.  If  onr  ideals,  then,  are  to  attain  their  full  width, 
they  must  be  more  than  mere  thought.  Now  "  we  cannot  prove, 
but  only  experience,  that  a  beautiful  something  is  beautiful," 
and  so  we  cannot  demonstrate,  but  only  feel,  that  our  idea  of 
the  one  true,  the  one  good,  and  the  one  beautiful,  has  its  coun- 
terpart in  reality.  Immediately  and  without  syllogistic  confir- 
mation we  realize  that  "  it  is  surely  impossible  that  the  greatest 
of  all  thinkable  things  does  not  exist."  In  this  dictate  of  the 
feelings,  then,  we  find  that  personality  which  was  heretofore 
lacking  to  the  infinite  being  of  our  reason.  In  taking  the  sum 
total  of  Lotze's  argument  for  the  existence  of  God,  we  find  a 
marked  similarity  between  his  aim  and  that  of  Descartes  in  his 
second  great  argument ;  as  both  attempt  to  show,  but  by  dif- 
ferent argumentation,  that  the  conservation  of  the  world  in 
each  successive  moment  is  possible  only  under  the  postulate  of 
an  infinite  Being. 

The  asserted  barrenness  of  philosophical  research  has  served 
so  often  certain  popular  writers  and  orators  of  the  "  hard-fact " 
school  with  subject-matter  for  telling  witticisms  that  it  would 
be  willful  cruelty  to  show  that  philosophy  has  produced  valua- 
ble and  enduring  results.  Just  here  it  is  to  our  purpose  to 
emphasize  only  liiis  fact,  the  persistency  with  which  philoso- 
phy throws  up  new  problems  for  consideration.  Until  the 
time  of  Kant  most  pliilosophers  regarded  time  and  space  as 
purely  objective,  and  few  questions  were  asked  and  answered 
concerning  them.  It  is  not  one  of  the  least  of  the  many  merits 
of  Kant  that  he  subjected  these  two  intuitions  or  concepts  to  a 
rigid  analysis,  and  showed  many  of  the  difficulties  that  arise 
from  a  postulation  of  their  objective  existence.  This  analysis 
was  epochal  in  the  history  of  philosophy.  In  the  post-Kantian 
idealism  space  was  reduced  to  a  species  of  garment  in  which 
the  infinite  Idea  revealed  himself,  and  in  the  Herbartian  real- 
ism it  was  held  as  a  mere  projection  of  the  mind  in  the  space- 
less world,  and  thus  entitled  to  only  a  subjective  existence. 
The  thought  has  fermented  in  the  minds  of  all  the  post-Kant- 
ian philosophers,  and  has  given  rise  to  some  peculiarly  valuable 
and  interesting  psychological  results.    Lotze  maintains  the  sub- 


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320  Methodist  Q^oHerly  Review.  [April, 

jectivity  of  space.  Until  somewhat  recently  he  held  also  the  sub- 
jectivity  of  time,  but  in  his  last  work  he  expressly  says  that  time 
mnst  be  given  a  certain  degree  of  objectivity  if  the  apparent 
succession  of  phenomena  is  to  be  explained.  Deprived  of  all 
space-relations  onr  hard  and  material  world  loses  much  of  its 
hardness  and  materiality,  and  becomes  what  the  Germans  and 
French  are  pleased  to  call  an  intelligible  world.  But  between 
it  and  the  world  of  space — ^and  here  Herbart  and  Lotze  diverge 
radically  from  Kant — ^there  is  an  exact  coiTespondence.  A 
change  of  an  element  in  the  space  world  is  represented  by  a 
change  in  the  spaceless  world ;  a  motion  of  a  body  in  the  space 
world  by  the  equivalent  of  a  motion  in  the  spaceless  world. 
Indeed,  so  exact  is  this  correspondence  that  the  ratios  in  which 
diflEerent  bodies  stand  to  each  other  in  the  space  world  obtain 
likewise  in  the  spaceless  world.  To  illustrate  that  which  is 
only  thinkable  and  not  conceivable,  we  may  say  that  the  space 
world  is  represented  by  the  hands  of  a  watch  and  the  spaceless 
world  by  the  hidden  works.  Every  motion  of  the  hands  is 
represented  by  a  motion  of  the  worlra,  and  the  ratios  of  the  dis- 
tances passed  over  by  the  hands  are  the  same  as  the  ratios  of 
the  corresponding  motions  of  the  wheels.  But  the  illustration 
falls  short.  What  is  not  amenable  to  illustration  cannot  be  il- 
lustratively expressed. 

Pushing  our  inquiries  further  back,  and  asking  after  the  na- 
ture of  this  world  behind  the  phenomenon,  of  this  notunenafij 
we  meet  with  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  Lotzian 
philosophy.  It  maintains  hylozoism.  The  world  is  not  a 
series  of  points  dead  and  cold  and  stiff,  but  each  atom  has  its 
own  conscious  life,  its  own  history,  and  its  own  enjoyment. 
Nature  is  more  than  it  seems.  What  to  us  is  a  series  of  insen- 
tient particles,  contributing  only  to  our  pleasure  and  our  life,  is, 
in  reality,  innumerable  beings  endowed.with  all  the  energy  of 
conscious  life.  "  Every  pressure  and  every  tension  that  matter 
undergoes,  the  repose  of  stable  equilibrium  and  the  separation 
of  compounds,  all  these  do  not  merely  occur,  but,  occm-ring,  are 
the  object  of  some  enjoyment  or  other."  *  Our  author  is  not 
terrified  by  the  consequences  of  his  theory.  He  calmly  meets 
.the  objection  that  it  proves  too  much ;  that  although  we  can 
cherish  the  thought  that  the  flower  and  the  crystal  are  instinct 

•'^Mikrokomm,''  toL  i,  p.  400. 


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1881.]  Hermmm  Lotze.  321 

with  sentient  life,  yet  we  revolt  when  we  animate  "the  dust  at 
onr  feet,  the  prosaic  texture  of  our  garments,  and  the  material 
which  ite  technic  employs  in  the  manufacture  of  the  most 
diverse  articles.  .  .  .  Dust  is  dust  only  for  him  whom  it  an- 
noys. The  indifferent  form  of  the  vessel  just  as  little  degrades 
the  individual  elements  of  which  it  is  composed  as  a  mean 
social  condition,  that  represses  all  expression  of  intellectual 
life,  annulls  the  lofty  destiny  to  which  these  portions  of  op- 
pressed humanity  are  called.  When  we  speak  of  the  divine 
origin  and  the  lofty  aims  of  human  souls,  we  have  then  far 
more  cause  to  throw  a  sorrowful  glance  upon  this  dust  of  the 
spiritual  world,  whose  life  appears  to  us  so  unfruitful  and  whose 
aim  so  fully  missed.'^  * 

Lotze  is  both  prose  poet  and  scientist,  and  often  there  is  only 
a  step  between  his  poetic  inspiration  and  scientific  precision. 
Albeit  that  the  world  is  instinct  with  life,  the  results  of  chem- 
istry and  physics  are  in  no  degree  invalidated.  Iron  delights 
in  a  union  with  oxygen,  yet  this  delight  is  always  expressed 
under  the  prosaic  form  of  numerical  equivalents;  and  the 
magnet  finds  pleasure  in  attracting  its  keeper,  yet  this  pleasure 
can  always  be  formulated  under  the  unpoetic  law  of  intensity 
inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance.  This  self -conscious- 
ness of  matter  no  more  interferes  with  the  laws  of  nature  than 
our  enjoyment  of  physical  exercise  disturbs  the  relation  between 
the  amount  of  muscular  energy  expended  and  the  number  of 
foot-pounds  raised.  Thus  Lotze  escapes  the  trenchant  sentence 
of  Kant  which  Wundt  quotes  with  much  approval,  "  Hylozoism 
is  the  death  of  natural  philosophy."  f 

Hylozoistic  doctrines  have  always  been  more  or  less  popxdar 
in  Germany,  and,  in  addition  to  Lotze,  are  championed  at  pres- 
ent by  Fechner  and  Zoellner.  The  German  has  a  tender  love 
for  nature  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  can  only  with  dif- 
ficulty understand  and  appreciate.  The  flowers,  the  trees,  the 
streams,  the  valleys,  and  the  mountains  are  his  friends,  and  he 
almost  unconsciously  invests  tiiem  with  life.  This  peculiar 
affection,  the  poetic  feeling,  the  revolts  against  unproportion 
and  waste,  and  the  lofty  benevolence  that  lavishes  its  highest 
good  on  all  the  objects  around  it,  these  incentives,  more  tiian 
logical  reasons,  have  led  Lotze  to  attribute  conscious  life  to  the 

•  "JfiJtroAwmw,"  vol.  i,  p.  407.  f  "  Logik;'  p.  684. 


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Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [April, 

material  worid.  Thus  are  restored  to  objective  nature  the 
beauty,  variety,  and  harmony  that  an  advanced  knowledge  had 
deprived  her  of.  Color,  sparkle,  sound,  and  odor  exist  only  in 
the  mind  of  the  observer.  A  dreary  monotony,  we  know  not 
what,  reigns  supreme  in  the  unperceived  world.  No  light,  no 
sound,  no  taste,  no  smell  is  there.  But  let  a  ray  of  conscious 
life  be  attributed  to  the  minute  particles  of  matter,  and  in- 
stantly the  ether  vibrations  transform  themselves  into  the  glory 
of  color  and  the  air  vibrations  into  the  wealth  of  sound,  al- 
though the  eye  and  ear  of  man  and  beast  be  not  upon  the  scene. 

We  have  seen  that  with  Lotze  space  is  subjective  and  mat- 
ter sentient ;  yet  the  language  of  this  intelligible  and  animated 
world  permits  of  a  translation  into  the  language  of  every-day 
life.  Just  as  we  say  the  sun  sets — though,  in  reality,  he  re- 
mains relatively  still — so  we  will  still  continue  to  speak  of  di- 
mensions and  distances,  of  rest  and  motion,  of  atoms  and  mole- 
cules, and  of  matter  and  mind. 

Lotze  is,  with  qualification,  a  champion  of  the  atomic  theory. 
He  finds  the  ordinary  hard  atom  of  science,  however,  full  of 
contradictions,  and  replaces  it  by  a  point  that  is  the  center  of 
in  and  out^going  forces.  These  atoms  cannot  be,  as  we  have 
seen,  independent  of  each  other;  for  interaction  is  possible 
only  when  they  are  parts  of  a  higher  unity.  They  are  po- 
tent with  energy  and  spaceless,  thus  possessing  the  qualities 
that  partly  characterize  the  Lotzian  philosophy.  "  The  phe- 
nomenality  of  space  and  the  inner  activity  of  things,  which 
we  have  substituted  for  the  changes  of  external  relations  as 
the  source  of  all  comings  to  pass,  {Geschehen^  are  the  two 
points  in  which  we  most  contradict  the  ordinary  opinions."  * 
On  their  objective  side  the  chemical  elements  are  irreducible. 
Attempts  have  been  made  to  make  them  all  allotropic  forms  of 
one  basal  and  typical  element,  but  they  retain  their  peculiarities 
too  tenaciously  to  justify  any  hopes  of  success.  On  their  sub- 
jective side  they  find  an  organic  unity  in  God.  They  a/re  epi/r- 
ittudj  not  material.  Each  one  is  a  thought  of  God.  Each  is, 
as  it  were,  a  word  with  a  fixed  meaning,  and  just  as  words  are 
susceptible  of  use  in  various  sentences,  so  the  elements  are 
capable  of  forming  many  diflferent  combinations.  The  whole 
material  world,  then,  with  its  play  of  color  and  harmony  of 


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1881.]  Herma/ifm  Lotze, 

Bound,  is  thus  resolved  into  a  series  of  the  thoughts  of  God. 
The  earthly  vanishes,  the  divine  assumes  its  place.  But  listen 
to  Lotze: 

Let  us  assume,  in  the  first  place,  that  an  idea  of  definite  con- 
tent is  so  cogitated  in  God  that  all  the  consequences  with  which 
it  encroaches  upon  the  remaining  world  of  his  thought  are  also 
at  the  same  time  cogitated.  And,  in  the  second  place,  that  these 
thoughts  of  God  are  precisely  the  power  which  causes  the  intui- 
tion (^^Anschauung^'^)  of  the  external  world  to  arise  in  finite 
minds.  Or  otherwise  expressed  :  Let  us  suppose,  in  the  first 
place,  that  a  definite  energy  in  the  Infinite  is  so  exercised  that, 
m  consequence  of  his  unity,  all  of  the  other  energies  are,  at  the 
same  time,  exercised,  which  must  follow  from  it  in  accordance 
with  the  universal  conformity  to  law  of  this  Infinite  power;  and, 
in  the  second  place,  that  this  activity  of  the  Infinite  is  the  oper- 
ative might  which  produces  in  the  finite  mind  a  picture  of  the 
external  world.  Under  these  suppositions,  then,  these  inner  acts 
of  the  Infinite  are,  according  to  the  idealistic  theory,  the  real 
powers,  which,  operative  in  tne  Infinite  and  calling  out  and  con- 
ditioning eat^h  other  in  conformity  to  law,  produce  that  real  re- 
sult that  is  perceived  secondarily  by  the  individual  minds  as  a 
world  that  embraces  them  and  all  external  things.* 

Thus  we  are  brought  again  into  the  presence  of  the  thought 
of  the  mystic  Malebranche  and  the  empiricist  Berkeley,  that  we 
see  all  things  in  God.  Many  of  our  readers  are  ready  to  assume 
that  our  author  has  long  since  resolved  the  we  into  the  in- 
finite OnCy  and  that  it  is  a  mere  play  with  words  for  us  to 
speak  of  men's  seeing  the  world  in  God.  Write  rather,  say 
they,  that  all  is  God,  and  that  God,  not  we,  sees  all  things  in 
himself. 

But  Lotze  is  neither  pantheist  nor  panlogist.  Both  mind 
and  matter  are,  as  we* have  said,  "states,"  "manifestations," 
"  parts,"  "  modifications  "  of  God ;  but  this  is  not  equivalent  to 
pantheism.  Carri^re,  of  the  University  of  Munich,  admirably 
fixes  Lotze's  place  in  the  future  history  of  philosophy.  "  Thus 
Lotze  comes  to  that  which  I  laid  down  more  than  thirty  years 
ago  as  the  problem  of  the  present  time,  the  union  of  the  oppos- 
ing principles  of  Spinoza  and  Leibnitz,  of  Hegel  and  Herbart, 
and,  consequently,  the  subjection  of  pantheism  and  deism  by  a 
fusion  of  transcendence  and  immanence."  f  How  Lotze  es- 
capes from  this  apparent  logical  dilemma,  how  this  "  fusion  of 

•  *'l/tifcroAo»m»,"  Tol  iii,  p.  529-  \  ''Deutsche  Bevue,''  January,  1880. 

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324  Methodic  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

transcendence  and  immanence  is  impossible,"  we  will  let  him 
show  us  in  his  own  words': 

It  is  true  that  so  lon^  as  thines  are  only  states  {ZasUindi)  of 
the  infinite  they  are  nouiing  in  tnemselves.  Sometnine  must  be 
won  for  them;  and  this  evidently  is  the  wish  of  that  insistence  on 
their  existence  outside  of  Gk>d.  But  things  do  not  gain  this  true 
and  genuine  reality  of  bein^  something  in  themselves,  or  even  of 
being  in  themselves,  by  bemg  placed  outside  of  j6od;  as  if  this 
transcendence,  whose  meaning  it  would  be  impossible  to  state, 
were  thepreliminary  and  formal  condition  on  which  existence 
per  ae  (JFUrsichsein)  hung  as  a  result.  On  the  contrary,  when 
something  is  in  itself,  when  it  refers  itself  to  itself,  when  it  com- 
prehends itself  as  an  ego,  it  thus  separates  itself  from  the  infinite 
through  its  own  very  nature.  It  does  not  thus  acquirey  but  has 
that  existence  out  of  the  Infinite ;  nor  does  it  fulfill  any  condition 
under  which  full  reality,  as  an  act  of  existence  comprised  and  fur- 
nished by  something  else,  first  comes  to  it.  Existence  per  ae,  or 
egoism,*  (Ichheity)  is  the  only  definition  that  expresses  the  es- 
sential content  and  worth  of  what  we  from  accidental  and  badly 
chosen  stand-points  indicate  as  reality  or  independent  being  out- 
side  of  God  in  contradistinction  to  immanence  in  God.  Who, 
therefore,  looks  upon  minds  as  like  to  things,  which,  indeed,  is 
necessary,  a^  states,  thoughts,  in  modifications  of  God  or  the  in- 
finite, yet  regards  them  as  not  a  line  serving  to  transmit  from  point 
to  point,  by  means  of  their  connections  as  links  of  a  chain,  the 
consequences  of  the  nature  of  the  infinite,  but  as  enjoying  at  the 
same  time  by  means  of  a  reflex  reference  what  they  do  and  un- 
dergo as  their  states  and  their  experiences  of  themselves ;  he  who 
thus  regards  the  matter,  I  say,  and  then  still  believes  himself 
compelled  to  assign  to  these  living  minds  that  are  immanent  in 
God  an  existence  outside  of  him,  in  order  that  in  the  fullest  sense 
of  the  word  they  may  be  real,  seems  to  us  no  longer  to  know 
what  he  wishes,  no  longer  to  know  that  he  has  long  since  had 
the  full  and  entire  kernel  to  which  he  anxiously  seeks  the  shell.f 

This  immanence  of  all  things  in  God  is  a  necessary  outcome 
of  Lotze's  first  principles.  As  we  have  seen,  no  one  thing  can 
act  upon  another  in  so  far  as  they  are  parts  of  the  same  organic 
whole  ;  and,  consequently,  if  there  is  to  be  communication  be- 
tween the  finite  mind  and  the  infinite  mind  it  must  be  by 
means  of  the  immanence  of  the  finite  in  the  infinite.  Mediat- 
ing between  realism  and  idealism,  Lotze  can  be  called  an  ideal- 
redist.  Pantheism  and  ideal  realism  agree  in  this,  that  all 
finite  things  are  states  of  the  Infinite ;  they  differ  in  this,  that 

*  Of  oouree,  in  its  philosophical  signification, 
f  '^Mikrokownut;'  vol  iii,  p.  580. 


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1881.]  Eermwim  Lotze.  325 

the  one  denies,  the  other  assigns,  them  an  individuality.  Ad- 
ditional significance  may  be  given  to  the  difference  when  it  is 
emphasized  that  Lotze  is  a  resolute  champion  of  the  freedom 
of  the  wilL 

Tendency-philosophy  is  somewhat  hazardous.  Theories  that 
in  one  generation  are  used  to  substantiate  a  certain  phase  of 
thought  are  employed  in  the  next  to  support  directly  its  op- 
posite. If  Jonathan  Edwards  could  rise  up  from  the  tomb  and 
see  the  motley  crowd  that  swarms  around  his  doctrine  of  neces- 
sity, he  would  unquestionably  probe  again  into  the  depths  of 
the  will,  and  not,  indeed,  with  the  prepossession  that  he  would 
bring  out  determinism.  We  are  reminded  of  the  waggish 
tricks  of  "  Puck  "  when  we  see  Mr.  Spencer  quote  with  serious 
mien  Sir  William  Hamilton  and  Dean  Mansell  as  the  great 
apostles  of  his  favorite  theory  of  agnosticism,  and  acknowl- 
edge himself  as  a  faithful  and  loving  disciple  of  these  masters. 
Hegel  said  that  he  established  in  his  system  only  those  princi- 
ples that  every  child  learned  in  its  catechism ;  and  yet  under 
his  protecting  wing  nestled  Feuerbach,  with  his  coarse  material- 
ism, and  Bauer,  with  his  radical  criticism.  Truly  it  would  be 
going  too  far  to  supplement  the  words  of  Hamlet,  and  say,  In 
philosophy  "nothing  is  either  good  or  bad,  but  thinking  makes 
it  so;"  yet  the  results  that  we  have  just  traced  of  certain 
theories  are  sufficient  to  show  how  much  depends  on  the  in- 
dividuality of  the  thinker,  and  how  dangerous  it  is  in  philoso- 
phy to  denominate  a  doctrine  as  unqualifiedly  good  or  unquali- 
fiedly bad. 

Weakening  thus  the  unpleasant  connotation  of  the  expression 
"  philosophic  skepticism,"  we  will  show  how  far  it  figures  in 
the  philosophy  of  Lotze.  As  different  as  John  Stuart  Mill  and 
Lotze  are  in  their  aims  and  methods,  the  one  theistic,  the  other 
\)08itive,  yet  skepticism  plays  a  not  insignificant  role  in  the  sys- 
tem of  each.  A  comparison  of  one  or  two  passages  will  show 
how  near  they  can  approach  each  other  in  this  respect.  Many 
of  our  readers  are  familiar  with  this  famous  passage  of  Mill : 

It  must  at  the  same  time  be  remarked  that  the  reasons  for  this 
reliance  (or  the  law  of  causation)  do  not  hold  in  circumstances 
unknown  to  us  and  beyond  the  possible  range  of  experience.  In 
distant  parts  of  the  stellar  regions  where  the  phenomena  may  be 
entirely  unlike  those  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  it  would  be 


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326  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Beoiew,  [April, 

folly  to  affirm  confidently  that  this  general  law  prevails  anjr 
more  than  those  special  ones  which  we  have  found  to  hold  uni- 
versally on  our  own  planet.  The  uniformity  in  the  succession  of 
events  otherwise  known  as  the  law  of  causation,  must  be  re- 
ceived not  as  a  law  of  the  universe,  but  of  that  portion  of  it  only 
which  is  within  the  range  of  our  means  of  sure  observation,  with 
a  reasonable  degree  of  extensions  to  adjacent  cases.  To  extend 
it  further  is  to  make  a  supposition  without  evidence,  and  to 
which,  in  the  absence  of  any  ground  from  experience  for  estimat- 
ing its  degree  of  probability,  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  affect  to 
assign  any.* 

The  passage  from  Lotze,  though  not  bearing  on  causation, 
has  a  remarkable  similarity  to  the  one  quoted  from  Mill, 
(though  written  without  reference  to  it,)  the  coyness  of  tran- 
scending the  domain  of  experience  being  exhibited  equally  well 
in  both: 

I  can  by  no  means  consider  it  as  self-evident  that  the  tie  of 
gravitation  binds  together  all  existing  elements  according  to  the 
same  law,  as  if  they  were  mere  selfless  examples  of  a  mass  capa- 
ble of  use.  We  know  its  validity  for  the  solar  system  alone,  and 
only  for  a  number  of  the  double  stars  may  the  supposition  be 
correct  that  they  are  also  held  in  their  paths  by  a  like  mutual  at- 
traction, whose  law,  indeed,  is  unknown.  But  that  the  same  ac- 
tion extends  itself  from  one  connected  system  of  elements  in 
space  to  another  also  connected  is  by  no  means  as  well  proved 
and  as  irrefutable  as  is  the  homogeneous  transmission  of  the  un- 
dulations of  light,  t 

Or,  again,  compare  the  following  passages  : 

I  am  convinced  that  any  one  accustomed  to  abstraction  and 
analysis,  who  will  fairly  exert  his  faculties  for  the  purpose,  will, 
when  his  imagination  has  once  learned  to  entertain  the  notion, 
find  no  difficulty  in  conceiving  that  in  some  one,  for  instance,  of 
the  many  firmaments  into  which  sidereal  astronomy  now  divides 
the  universe,  events  may  succeed  one  another  at  random,  without 
any  fixed  law;  nor  can  any  thing  in  our  experience  or  in  our 
mental  nature  constitute  a  sufficient  nor  indeed  any  reason  for 
believing  that  this  is  nowhere  the  case.  J 

Says  Lotze : 

I  would  be  the  last  to  deny  the  ^eat  worth  and  the  indispensa- 
bleness  of  the  other  method  of  thinking,  which,  in  our  mechanics, 
bases  its  calculations  upon  the  abstract  concept  of  mass  and  its 
constancy,  force  and  its  persistence,  inertia  and  the  immutability 
of  the  elements.  .  .  .  But  I  am  the  last  to  ascribe  to  these 
theories,  which  are  mere  abstractions  out  of  the  short  sketches 

•  "  Logic,"  p.  842.  t  ''M^Aaphynk;'  p.  461.  %  "  Logic,"  p.  888. 

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1881.]  Henncmn  Lotze.  327 

of  the  coarse  of  nature  accessible  to  us,  that  metaphysical  truth 
that  would  entitle  them  to  decide  these  questions  tnat  transcend 
all  experience.  * 

This  denial  of  metaphysical  validity  to  the  scientific  doc- 
trines of  the  permanence  of  matter  and  the  persistence  of  force 
demands  furiiier  consideration.  To  those  who  are  accustomed 
to  regard  the  external  world  as  composed  of  hard  and  material 
atoms,  to  a  great  degree  independent  of  each  other,  and  acting 
together,  as  it  were,  only  by  courtesy,  it  is  about  impossible 
to  conceive  the  quantity  of  matter  as  being  either  increased  or 
decreased.  But  to  Lotze,  who  resolves  the  chemical  elements 
into  the  thoughts  of  God,  and  who  regards  him  not  as  a  fixed 
quantity,  but  as  a  spirit,  an  intellect,  an  idea,  developing  itself 
in  accordance  with  a  definite  plan,  it  is  readily  conceivable  that 
the  number  of  these  thoughts  may  become  greater  or  smaller, 
according  to  the  exigences  of  the  development  of  this  funda- 
mental idea — ^just  as  our  working  vocabulary  increases  or  de- 
creases in  proportion  to  the  complexity  or  simplicity  of  the  sub- 
ject we  are  elaborating — and  this  change  on  its  objective  side 
will  be  an  increase  or  decrease  of  the  quantity  of  matter.  The 
persistence  of  force  is  questioned  by  a  similar  process  of  reason. 
We  are  finite,  and  can  catch  only  vexatious  glimpses  of  the 
shadowings  forth  of  the  Infinite.  Cornered  off  into  one  little 
part  of  the  universe,  and  allotted  only  an  insignificant  time  for 
observation,  we  can  readily  fail  to  grasp  the  true  workings  of 
nature.  It  may  be  that  the  universe  is  like  a  sense  spring, 
whose  force  is  released  by  every  power  which  removes  the  hin- 
derances  to  its  positive  and  perceptible  action.  It  is  true  that 
this  supposition  is  not  confirmed  by  experience,  but  experience 
is  limited.  The  universe,  then,  instead  of  being  a  fixed  quan- 
tity, moving  itself  within  the  limits  of  a  determined  quantity 
of  force — instead  of  being,  as  it  were,  a  simple  tone  ever  mo- 
notonously repeating  itself — may  be  regarded  as  a  melody  now 
sinking  down  to  a  few  simple  notes,  now  bursting  forth  in  all 
the  wealth  of  a  rich  and  varied  harmony. 

The  position  of  Lotze  toward  the  question  that  has  excited 
during  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years  a  feverish  interest  among 
all  classes  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest.  We  can,  of  course,  but 
refer  to  the  doctrine  of  evolution.    He  has  never  entered  into 

♦"if«tepAy»A,"p.  462. 


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328  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [AprL 

a  detailed  discussion  of  it,  and  our  exposition  must  consequently 
be  brief.  He  regards  the  permanence  of  types  as  evidence 
suflBciently  strong  to  refute  the  theoiy  of  Darwin.  Basing 
himself  on  the  persistence  with  which  different  races  of  men 
maintain  their  characteristic  features,  despite  the  influences 
of  different  climates,  soils,  and  methods  of  life,  he  argues  that 
no  change  of  environment  nor  inheritance  of  variation  will 
justify  the  conclusion  that  all  life  has  sprung  from  a  few  primal 
germs.  He  believes  in  different  centers  of  creation,  and  his 
position  leads  him  to  assume  'separate  creative  acts  for  the  dif- 
ferent races  of  men.  But  waiving  all  discussion  of  the  sci- 
entific side  of  evolution,  we  wish  to  emphasize  one  or  two  of 
his  statements  that  bear  on  its  moral  phase.  "  Whichever  of 
the  two  ways  of  creation  God  may  have  chosen,  neither  will 
cause  the  dependence  of  the  world  on  him  to  become  laxer, 
neither  will  attach  it  to  him  more  firmly.*  This  is  a  bugle- 
call  back  to  reason.  Startled  by  the  brilliant  results  of  Dar- 
win's work,  the  thinking  world  has  written  too  much  that  is 
akin  to  the  following  passage  from  "  The  Nation : "  '^  Chan- 
ning's  theology,  much  as  he  did  to  liberalize  that  of  New  En- 
gland, is  already  absolute  in  the  details  of  his  creed,  created  no 
school,  and  has  nothing  in  it  which  will  ffitarcmtee  it  agcmist 
the  undermining  vnji/uences  of  the  doctri/ne  of  evolution,^^ 
Lotze's  protest  against  such  permature  judgments  is  timely  and 
valuable.  Be  the  world  specially  created  or  evolved,  with  him 
moral  questions  are  moral  questions,  and  with  burning  sarcasm 
he  deprecates  the  resolving  of  the  science  of  ethics  into  a 
question  of  worms  and  frogs.  But  he  protests  likewise  against 
the  persistence  with  which  some  writers  limit  the  creative 
methods  of  God  to  that  of  special  creation. 

Even  the  religious  sense  dare  not  prescribe  to  God  the  way  in 
which  he  shall  further  develop  his  creation.  We  can  remain  as- 
sured that  however  undutif ul  this  way  miffht  be,  the  guidance  of 
the  hand  of  Qod  would  not  pass  away.  Man,  who  prolongs  his 
life  by  consumption  of  the  common  products  of  nature,  has  no 
right  to  claim  an  ineffably  noble  origin  of  this  his  body.  And, 
moreover,  he  must  value  himself  according  to  what  he  is,  and 
not  according  to  that  from  which  he  has  arisen.  It  suffices  that 
we  no  longer  feel  ourselves  to  be  monkeys,  and  it  is  a  matter  of 
indifference  whether  our  remote  ancestors,  whom  we  no  longer 


♦  "JftmK»«mi«,"  vol.  ii,  p.  158. 


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1881J  Hermann  Lotze.  829 

remember,  belonged  or  not  to  this  lower  stage  of  life.  Painful 
only  would  it  be  if  we  were  compelled  to  become  monkeys  again, 
and  this  event  impended  in  the  near  future.* 

Since  the  revival  of  the  study  of  natural  science  the  possi- 
bility of  miracles  has  again  become  the  theme  of  more  or  less 
controversy.  The  emphatic  protest  that  Lotze  makes  against 
any  hypostization  of  laws,  and  his  rigid  subjection  of  the  finite 
elements  to  the  dictates  of  the  Infinite,  permits  readily  the 
inference  that  in  his  system  miracles  can  have  a  place.  The 
power  that  works  them  does  it  through  his  close  relation  to  the 
inner  nature  of  things,  changing  it,  and  thus  bringing  about 
the  result  in  a  manner  that  violates  no  law.  Just  ajB  a  galvanic 
current  passed  through  water  so  changes  the  nature  of  the  com- 
ponent atoms,  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  that  their  chemical  afiinity 
is  destroyed,  and  they  are  given  ofE  as  elementary  gases,  with- 
out in  tie  meantime  any  law  being  violated ;  so  God  modifies 
the  inner  nature  of  things,  and  prepares  them  thus  for  new  and 
unusual  methods  of  action.  But  once  again  we  must  acknowl- 
edge the  imperfection  of  our  illustration. 

"  That  whose  worth  and  meaning  entitles  it  to  be  a  perma- 
nent member  of  the  world's  economy  will  live  eternally ;  that 
which  lacks  this  preserving  worth  will  be  destroyed."  Such  is 
Lotze's  formulated  answer  to  the  momentous  question  of  the 
soul's  immortality.  With  him  any  demonstration  is  impossible. 
To  call  the  soul  a  substance,  and  thus  to  entitle  it  to  immortal- 
ity, is  to  prove  too  much.  If  it  is  indestructible  it  cannot  have 
been  created,  and,  consequently,  must  have  pre-existed.  More- 
over, having  uo  right  to  limit  the  substantial  nature  to  human 
souls,  the  immortality  of  the  souls  of  animals  is  assured.  And, 
further,  the  souls  in  the  world  being  limited  to  a  fixed  number, 
we  are  brought  dangerously  near  the  doctrine  of  metempsy- 
chosis m  the  transmigration  of  souls.  Such,  when  pushed  to 
its  legitimate  consequences,  are  the  results  of  the  hypothesis  of 
the  soul  as  indestructible  substance.  Nothing  remains  to  us, 
then,  but  the  opening  thought  of  the  paragraph — ^the  worthf  ul 
is  eternal. 

Here  we  break  off  our  exposition  with  the  remark,  that 
Lotze's  ^^Medioimsche  Psychologies^  has  been  the  stimidus  to 
the  physiological  psychology  of  Germany,  and  that  his  theory 

•  ''Metaphytik;'  p.  466. 


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330  Methodist   QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

of  the  Localzeichen  is  one  of  the  most  important  contributions 
of  the  century  to  psychology.  That  wo  have  done  scant  just- 
ice to  Lotze  we  are  fully  aware.  As  a  Gothic  cathedral,  seen 
through  haze  and  distance,  loses  its  splendor  and  becomes  a 
mere  outline,  so  does  a  system  like  Lotze's  lose  its  glory  when 
seen  through  the  fog  of  a  magazine  article.  And  as  the  cathe- 
dral, on  a  nearer  view,  reveals  its  numerous  statues,  its  pointed 
arches  fretted  with  tracery,  its  flying  buttresses  delicate  in  their 
strength,  and  its  tower,  with  its  graceful  supports  and  pinnacles 
swinging  itself  audaciously  into  the  heavens ;  so  only  through 
a  study  of  his  books  themselves  does  Lotze's  system  reveal  its 
many  lofty  thoughts,  its  graceful  reticulations  of  dialectic  sub- 
tleties, its  flashes  of  poQtic  insight,  inspiring  and  revealing,  and 
its  majestic  unity  which  bases  itself  on  the  solid  ground  of 
experience,  and,  adorned  with  the  idealized  facts  of  labor,  trade, 
domestic  life,  and  history,  rises  up  to  the  Eternal  One.  LoweU 
asserts  that  "  with  the  gift  of  song  Carlyle  would  have  been 
the  greatest  of  epic  poets  since  Homer."  Lotze  is  likewise  a 
prose-poet,  but  his  prose  is  lyricaL  To  the  rare  combination 
— absent  in  the  philosophy  of  Carlyle — of  exact  thought  and 
poetic  energy,  he  owes  much  of  his  power.  With  him  is  "ev- 
ery-where  the  aspect  of  the  whole  universe  marvel  and  poetry, 
while  prose  is  only  the  limited  and  one-sided  perception  of 
small  regions  of  the  finite."  Lotze  is  a  great  spirit,  and,  aa 
Ribot  says,  "  worthy  of  our  full  homage." 


Art.  Vn.— HARRIET  MARTINEAU. 

In  the  autobiography  of  Harriet  Martineau,  we  are  presented 
with  what  must  be  considered  a  decidedly  interesting  book. 
It  is  the  story  of  a  woman  who,  with  little  of  the  quality  called 
genms^  yet  resolutely  and  persistently  employed  the  talents 
given  her,  and  "made  a  covenant  with  labor  as  her  portion  and 
pleasure  under  the  sun." 

This  remarkable  lady  was  bom  at  Norwich,  England,  in  1802. 
She  was  of  French  Protestant  descent,  her  earliest  recorded 
ancestor  having  emigrated  to  England  on  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.     She  was  the  sixth  of  eight  children,  all  of 


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1881.]  Ha/rriet  MaHmea/ti.  331 

whom  Beem  to  have  received  the  best  education  which  their 
parents  could  afford  them;  admonishing  them,  at  the  same 
time,  that  they  must  regard  their  education  as  their  only  secure 
portion. 

Harriet  improved  well  the  advantages  afforded  her,  acquir- 
ing, in  the  course  of  her  school  training,  a  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  and  French  languages,  to  which  she  afterward  added 
Italian  and  German,  and  was  duly  "  exercised  in  composition 
as  well  as  reading,  in  her  own  language  and  others."  It  was 
remarked  of  h^r,  however,  that  in  her  childhood  and  youth 
there  were  few  or  no  tokens  of  unusual  talents  or  ability.  "Her 
health  was  delicate,  her  spirits  low,  her  habits  of  mind  anxious, 
and  her  habits  of  life  silent."  It  added  seriously  to  the  disad- 
vantages of  her  youth — ^as  well  as  of  all  her  after  life — ^that,  at 
about  twelve  years  of  age,  a  slight  deafness  began  to  develop 
itself,  which,  growing  upon  her,  rendered  it  necessary  for  her 
to  use  a  trumpet  during  the  remainder  of  her  life. 

Miss  Martineau  early  addicted  herself  to  the  practice  of  com- 
position, and  her  first  appearance  in  print  was  before  she  was 
twenty  years  of  age.  Her  earliest  writings  were  mainly  of  a 
religious  character,  evincing  Unitarian  leanings;  while,  through- 
out her  long  and  extraordinary  career  of  authorship,  it  seemed 
to  be  characteristic  of  her  that  she  wrote  because  she  must 
write.  Thoughts  appeared  to  swarm  within  her  and  clamor 
for  utterance ;  so  that  never,  while  health  permitted,  did  her 
pen  grow  weary. 

It  soon  transpired,  however,  that  an  additional  necessity 
called  for  the  exercise  of  her  faculty  of  composition.  The  small 
fortunes  falling  to  herself  and  sisters  being  lost  by  the  failure 
of  tlie  house  where  their  funds  were  intrusted,  she  suddenly 
found  herself  poor,  and  that  it  had  now  become  necessary  to 
provide,  by  her  own  labor  and  industry,  for  her  support.  Such 
was  the  occasion  of  one  of  her  early  and  most  successful  lite- 
rary efforts.  This  was  her  series  of  "  Illustrations  of  Political 
Economy."  An  enterprise  of  this  character  might  seem  pe- 
culiar, especially  as  an  undertaking  of  a  lady,  and  a  lady,  too, 
not  yet  thirty  years  of  age.  But  she  was  deeply  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  such  a  work,  particularly  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  laboring  classes,  as  well  as  for  the  influence  which 
she  hoped  might  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  higher  orders  of 


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332  Methodist  QuaHierhf  Review.  [April, 

Bociet J.  This  literary  enterprise  embraced  a  series  of  tales  the 
scenery  of  which  was  laid  in  different  localities  and  countries, 
exhibiting,  by  skillful  and  interesting  pen  pictures,  the  great 
natural  laws  of  society.  It  was  a  simple  and  unpretentious 
work — not  professing  "  to  offer  discoveries  or  new  applications 
of  discoYeries.  It  popularized  in  a  fresh  form  some  doctrines 
and  many  truths  long  before  made  public  by  others." 

In  introducing  this  series  of  tales  to  the  public  the  author 
experienced  uncommon  diflSculties  and  struggles,  the  story  of 
which  may  afford  a  useful  moral  to  other  young  authors.  She 
liad  applied  to  several  publishing  houses,  all  of  which  declined 
to  issue  the  work.  She  at  length,  however,  gained  the  ear  of 
one  publisher^  who  seemed  partially  inclined  to  attempt  it.  But 
he  suddenly  changed  his  mind,  and  was  disposed  to  abandon 
the  whole  project.  He  had  been  advised  against  the  enter- 
prise, and  presented  a  multitude  of  objections ;  while  her  final 
interview  with  him,  as  related  by  herself,  is  thus  pictured : 

I  said  to  him,  "  I  see  you  have  taken  fright.  If  you  wish  that 
your  brother  should  draw  back,  say  so  now.  There  is  the  adver- 
tisement ;  make  up  your  mind  beiore  it  goes  to  press."  He  re- 
plied, "  I  do  not  wish  altogether  to  draw  back."  "  Yes,  you  do," 
said  I ;  "  and  I  would  do  so  at  once.  But  I  tell  you  this — the 
people  want  this  book,  and  they  shall  have  it ! "  ^^1  know  that  is 
your  intention,"  he  replied  ;  "  but  I  do  own  I  do  not  see  how  it 
18  to  come  to  pass."  "  Nor  I ;  but  it  shall,"  said  L  Mr.  Fox 
insisted  that  his  brother  should  not  go  on  with  the  publicatipn 
unless  its  success  was  secured  within  a  fortnight.  "  What  do  you 
mean  by  its  success  being  secured  ? "  asked  Miss  Martineau. 
'^  You  must  sell  a  thousand  copies  in  a  fortnight,"  was  the  reply. 
No  wonder  that  the  poor  lady  was  discouraged.  "  I  be^n  now 
at  last  to  doubt  whether  my  work  would  ever  see  the  light  I 
thought  of  the  multitudes  who  needed  it — and  especially  of  the 
poor — to  assist  them  in  managing  their  own  welfare.  I  thought, 
too,  of  my  own  conscious  power  of  doin?  this  very  thing.  ...  At 
last  it  was  necessary  to  go  to  bed  ;  and  at  four  o'clock  I  went, 
after  crying  for  two  hours  with  my  feet  on  the  fender.  I  cried 
in  bed  till  six,  when  I  fell  asleep.  But  I  was  at  the  breakfast 
table  by  half-past  eight,  and  ready  for  the  work  of  the  day." 

But  her  hour  of  triumph  came.  The  publication  commenced ; 
and  before  the  eventful  fortnight  ended,  instead  of  the  requisite 
one  thousand,,/fwe  thousand  copies  had  been  demanded.  "  From 
that  hour,"  she  writes, "  I  have  never  had  any  other  anxiety  about 
employment  than  what  to  choose,  or  any  real  care  about  money." 


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1881.]  Harriet  Ma/rtineau.  333 

This  series  of  tales  comprised  over  a  score  of  numbers,  were 
issued  once  a  month,  and  exhibited  her  best  ability  and  success 
in  this  species  of  composition.  Several  other  works  of  fiction 
proceeded  from  her  pen,  although  this  kind  of  writing  seems 
not  to  have  been  her  forte.  The  judgment  of  critics  has  been, 
that  '^  the  artistic  aim  and  qualifications  necessary  for  the  suc- 
cessful execution  of  such  compositions  were  absent — that  she 
lacked  power  of  dramatic  construction,  and  that  poetical  in- 
spiration and  critical  cultivation  without  which  no  work  of  the 
imagination  can  be  worthy  to  live." 

Soon  after  completing  her  series  of  pieces  illustrative  of  po- 
litical economy.  Miss  Martineau  determined  on  a  season  of  rest 
from  literary  labor.  For  this  purpose  she,  in  the  summer  of 
1834,  embarked  at  Liverpool  for  the  United  States,  being  actu- 
ated by  a  desire  to  witness  for  herself  the  practical  operation 
of  our  institutions.  Her  reputation  as  an  author  preceded  her 
to  this  country,  and  she  was  received  and  treated  with  distinc- 
tion. After  visiting  various  northern  cities  and  the  national 
capital,  she  journeyed  to  the  South,  and  traveled  somewhat  ex- 
tensively in  the  slave  States,  it  being  a  special  object  of  desire 
with  her  to  study  the  subject  of  slavery  as  then  existing  in  that 
portion  of  the  Republic.  She  had  always  cherished  sentiments 
opposed  to  the  institution,  and  her  southern  travels  do  not  seem 
to  have  exerted  an  influence,  as  with  many  other  travelers,  to 
modify  or  change  her  antislavery  views,  except  to  strengthen 
and  confirm  them. 

It  happened  that  Miss  Martineau's  visit  to  this  country  oc- 
curred at  that  period  of  time  when  antislavery  feeling  began 
to  be  specially  aroused,  and  when,  also,  the  country.  North  as 
well  as  South,  arose  in  violent  opposition  to  the  sentiments  and 
operations  of  abolitionism.  The  mob  spirit  became  sadly  prev- 
alent, and  lawless  violence  frequently  broke  forth — encouraged, 
too  often,  by  many  people  of  respectable  standing  in  society. 
Meantime,  Miss  Martineau's  sympathies  were  decidedly  with 
the  abolitionists ;  nor  did  she  hesitate  to  avow  her  sentiments, 
although  conducting  herself  with  commendable  prudence  and 
modesty.  It  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  she  at  once 
lost  caste  with  many  who,  on  her  arrival  here,  welcomed  her 
to  tlieir  homes  and  firesides;  while  the  evidence  from  her  nar- 
rative is  not  slight  that  even  she  herself  was  not  exempt  from 
FoxjBTH  Sebiks,  Vol.  XXXHI.— 22 

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334  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

^danger  growing  out  of  the  rabid  spirit  of  the  time.  After  a 
two  years'  visit  here  she  embarked  for  England,  and  reached 
her  native  shores  in  safety.  "When  I  returned  home,"  she 
wrote,  "  the  daily  feeling  of  security,  and  of  sympathy  in  my 
antislavery  views,  gave  me  a  pleasure  as  intense  ajs  if  I  had 
returned  from  a  long  exile." 

The  next  spring  following  her  return  home  Miss  Martineau 
published  "Society  in  America,"  and  afterward  "Retrospect 
of  Western  Travel."  Other  works  followed  in  rapid  succession, 
such  as,  "How  to  Observe;"  "Morals  and  Manners;"  several" 
volumes  of  "  Guides  to  Service ; "  her  novels, "  Deerbrook  "  and 
"  The  Hour  and  the  Man ; "  four  volumes  of  children's  tales, 
entitled  "The  Playfellow;"  and  "Life  in  the  Sick  Room." 
The  most  voluminous  and  laborious  of  her  works  was  her  "  His- 
tory of  the  Thirty  Years'  Peace,"  occupying  h^  about  one 
year;  and,  including  the  introduction,  comprising  three  vol- 
umes. She  also  published  "  Eastern  Life — ^Present  and  Past," 
which  seems  to  have  been  deemed  the  best  of  her  writings. 
Some  smaller  works  succeeded,  such  ajs  "  Guides  to  the  Lakes," 
"  Household  Education,"  and  others ;  while  accompanying  all 
these  multitudinous  works  were  articles  from  her  pen  for 
various  periodical  publications,  too  numerous  for  specification. 
Among  her  last  literary  enterprises  was  a  condensed  translation 
of  Comt^'s  "  Positive  Philosophy,"  which  she  finished  in  No- 
vember, 1853. 

Miss  Martineau,  with  all  her  love  of  literature  and  retirement, 
did  not  confine  herself  entirely  to  her  beloved  England.  In 
addition  to  her  protracted  visit  and  extensive  travels  in  this 
country,  she  in  1839  traveled  in  the  south  of  Europe,  and 
some  years  afterward  visited  Egypt,  Palestine,  and  adjacent 
regions,  a  tour  which  gave  rise  to  her  "  Eastern  Life." 

The  autobiography  of  Miss  Martineau  seems  to  have  been 
her  last  considerable  work,  and  is  the  one  in  which  the  reading 
world  will  be  the  most  deeply  interested.  It  was  written  to  be 
published  after  her  decease,  and  when  all  praise  or  censure  of 
the  book  would  be  nothing  to  her.  Perhaps  this  considera- 
tion had  its  influence  in  that  remarkable  independence  of 
thought  and  freedom  of  expression  so  characteristic  of  the  en- 
tire narrative. 

Of  this  freedom  and  singular  plainness  of  speech  we  have 


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1881.]  Ha/rriet  Ma/rtmeau.  335 

ample  illustration  in  her  remarks  touching  one  and  another 
of  the  distinguished  characters  of  her  time. 

Of  William  Taylor,  for  example,  she  writes  that  his  knowl- 
edge of  German  literature  was  a  distinction  which  injured 
him.  He  was  completely  spoiled  by  the  flatteries  of  shallow 
men  and  pedantic  and  conceited  women. 

Mrs.  Barbauld  she  thought  one  of  the  finest  writers  in  our 

language ;  and  the  best  example  of  a  woman  of  a  sound  classical 

education. 
» 

Brougham  she  distrusted;  believing  him  vain  and  selfish, 
low  in  morals  and  unrestrained  in  temper,  talking  exceedingly 
fast,  eating  fast  and  prodigiously,  profane  and  indecent  in 
conversation,  envious,  jealous,  and  false. 

Jeflfrey  had  a  warm  heart,  was  generous  to  an  extreme,  a 
great  converser,  and  had  a  cordial  sympathy  with  all  elevated 
sentiments. 

Mrs.  TroUope  ranked  low  in  the  estimation  of  Miss  Martin- 
eau ;  and  she  denounced  manfully  the  "  dirty  pages "  of  her 
slanderous  book  on  this  country. 

Sydney  Smith  she  liked  from  the  beginning,  with  all  his 
bluffness  and  abundant  witticisms.  As  a  conversationalist,  he 
was  glorious ;  but  she  considered  his  manners  and  many  of  his 
sentiments  aa  not  very  clerical,  and  judged  him  as  having  mis- 
taken his  calling,  not  having  the  spiritual  tendencies  and  endow- 
ments suited  to  a  clergyman. 

Malthus,  the  political  economist,  was  one  of  her  friends; 
and  he  was  pleased  to  tell  her  that  her  tales  illustrating  his 
favorite  science  had  reported  his  views  precisely  as  he  could 
have  wished. 

Hallam  was  at  his  brightest  when  she  first  knew  him..  She 
enjoyed  his  works  greatly,  especially  his  "  History  of  Litera- 
ture ; "  and  had  a  profound  respect  for  him  as  an  author  before 
ever  dreaming  of  him  as  a  friend. 

Southey  she  reports  as  gentle,  kindly,  and  agreeable ;  but 
at  the  time  of  her  meeting  him  seemed  to  be  declining. 

Bishop  Whately  she  pictures  as  odd,  of  overbearing  manners, 
sometimes  rude  and  tiresome,  and  at  other  times  full  of  in- 
struction. She  records  that,  when  once  alluding  to  his  lawn 
sleeves,  he  said,  "  I  don't  know  how  it  is  ;  but  when  we  have 
got  these  things  on,  we  never  do  any  thing  more." 


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336  Methodist  QuwrterVy  Hevtew.  [April, 

Monkton  Milnes  she  liked  for  his  catholicity  of  sentiment 
and  manner,  his  ability  to  sympathize  with  all  manner  of 
thinkers  and  speakers,  and  being  above  all  exclusiveness ;  and 
she  pronounces  his  person  wonderfully  beautiful. 

Of  Grote,  the  historian,  she  speaks  as  being  constitutionally 
timid  and  shy ;  which  qualities  he  endeavored  to  conceal  by  a 
curious,  formd,  old-fashioned,  deliberate  courtesy.  But  she 
deemed  him  a  grand  man  and  a  gentleman,  as  well  as  a  scholar 
and  author,  while  his  reputation  in  these  respects,  she  says,  was 
always  of  the  highest. 

Mr.  Roebuck,  she  writes,  was  full  of  knowledge,  f uU  of  ener- 
gy, f  uU  of  ability ;  but  possessed  of  much  vanity,  of  lively  spirits 
when  well,  and  very  highly  agreeable  as  a  guest  or  host. 

To  Mr.  Macaulay,  whom  as  a  scholar  and  author  we  all 
revere  so  much.  Miss  Martineau  takes  many  serious  exceptions. 
Conceding  his  imposing  and  real  ability,  she,  however,  pro- 
ceeds to  excoriate  him  unmercifully,  denouncing  him  as  want- 
ing heart,  as  unreliable,  as  fundamentally  weak  in  his  speeches 
and  writings,  and  as  failing  signally  as  a  legislator  and  poli- 
tician. His  History  she  pronounces  a  mere  historical  romance ; 
takes  him  to  task  for  his  plagiarisms,  for  his  slanderous  attacks 
on  William  Penn,  for  his  loose  and  unscrupulous  method  of 
narrating,  for  divers  misrepresentations ;  and,  in  a  word,  trans- 
fixes the  poor  man,  and  holds  him  up  before  the  world  as  sim- 
ply a'  stupendous  failure. 

Campbell,  the  poet,  she  pictures  as  being  too  sentimental,  and 
having  a  craving  for  praise  too  inordinate  and  morbid  to  allow 
him  to  be  an  agreeable  companion. 

Babbage,  inventor  of  the  calculating  machine,  she  describes 
as  extremely  sensitive  to  what  was  said  of  him  as  an  author ; 
collecting  every  thing  in  print  about  himself,  pasting  them 
in  a  large  book,  and  gloating  and  growling  over  thevQ^  for 
whole  days. 

Of  Lyell  and  Darwin  she  was  a  special  admirer,  while  they, 
with  their  devoted  wives,  were  ever-welcome  visitors.  Of 
Madam  Lyell  especially  she  speaks  with  enthusiasm,  aflSrming 
that  she  grew  handsomer,  brighter,  and  more  cheery  from  year 
to  year. 

The  great  Mrs.  Somerville  was  also  one  of  her  friends,  and 
her  she  characterized  as  of  great  simplicity,  always  well-dressed, 


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1881.1  Harriet  Ma/rtmecm.  337 

and  thoroughly  womanly  in  conversation  and  manners,  with 
beantif  ul  surroundings  at  her  home,  where,  among  other  things, 
were  several  drawers  filled  with  diplomas  from  sundry  learned 
bodies. 

Of  Joanna  Bailey,  also,  she  speaks  with  great  admiration,  de- 
scribing her  as  one  whose  serene  and  cheerful  life  was  never 
troubled  by  the  pains  and  penalties  of  vanity. 

Allan  Cunningham  comes  in  for  many  pleasant  words  of  ap- 
proval. His  simple  sense  and  cheerful  humor  rendered  his 
conversation  as  lively  as  that  of  a  wit,  while  his  literary  knowl- 
edge and  taste  gave  it  refinement  enough  to  suit  any  society. 

Macready  was  artificial,  but  a  more  delightful  companion 
could  not  be.  A  chivalrous  spirit,  unsleeping  domestic  tender- 
ness, and  sweet  beneficence,  all  combined  to  make  him  the  idol 
of  society. 

Carlyle,  of  course,  was  one  of  her  heroes ;  and  her  character- 
ization of  this  singular  genius  is  more  extensive  than  that  of 
others.  She  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  his  Chelsea  home,  and 
consequently  saw  him  in  the  more  prominent  phases  of  his 
character..  Of  one  of  his  moods  she  thus  writes :  "  The  sym- 
pathetic is,  by  far,  the  finest  in  my  eyes.  This  excess  of  sym- 
pathy has  been,  I  believe,  the  torment  of  his  life ; "  and  she  in- 
dulged the  notion  that  the  savageness  which  has  come  to  be  the 
prominent  characteristic  of  this  remarkable  man  is  a  mere  ex- 
pression of  his  intolerable  sympathy  with  suffering  people. 
"  He  cannot,"  she  adds,  "  express  his  love  and  pity  in  natural 
acts  like  other  people,  and  it  shows  itself  too  often  in  unnatural 
speech ; "  that  is,  in  speech  that  is  savage  and  ferocious.  All 
this  may  be  so,  but  plain  and  simple  people  will  conclude  it  to 
be  the  first  and  last  case  of  such  a  paradox  in  the  history  of  the 
race.  Miss  Martineau's  opinion  of  Carlyle  was  extremely 
favorable,  and  she  deemed  that  he  was  worthy  of  being  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  chief  influencers  of  his  time. 

Her  estimate  of  Coleridge  was  not  so  exalted,  though  for 
a  time  she  greatly  admired  him  as  a  poet.  He  appeared  to 
her  to  have  been  constitutionally  defective  in  will,  in  con- 
scientiousness, and  in  apprehension  of  the  real  and  true. 

Of  the  Brownings  she  writes  that  Robert  was  full  of  good 
sense  and  fine  feeling ;  full,  also,  of  fun,  and  a  real  genius ; 
while  she  praises  the  genius  of  Mrs.  Browning,  esteeming  her 


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338  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Heview.  [April, 

poetry  as  wondei'fiilly  beautiful  in  its  way.     She  pronounces 
them  a  remarkable  pair. 

In  a  sketch  like  this,  it  is,  of  course,  indispensable  that  we 
pass  over  a  multitude  of  interesting  incidents  associated  with 
the  life  of  this  notable  woman.  Also,  it  is  time  to  revert  to 
the  religious  aspect  of  her  character,  or,  more  properly,  to  that 
sad  "  eclipse  of  faith "  that  gradually  settled  over  her  mind, 
and  shut  out  from  her  vision  all  idea  and  hope  of  that  glorious 
immortality  brought  to  light  in  the  gospel,  and  so  precious 
with  every  Christian  heart. 

Miss  Martineau,  in  her  childhood  and  as  she  grew  up,  had 
received  a  Christian  training,  and  passed  no  morning  or  even- 
ing without  prayer.  It  is  melancholy,  therefore,  to  trace  the 
gradual  decline  of  her  faith  in  the  great  scheme  of  redemption, 
and  in  revelation  itself,  until,  in  the  course  of  her  reading  and 
speculation,  she  stranded,  at  length,  on  the  stem  rock  of  neces- 
sity; whence,  through  a  long  after-life  of  half  a  century,  she 
was  never  extricated. 

The  views  to  which,  at  about  twenty  years  of  age,  she  had 
drifted,  may  be  considered  as  embodied  in  the  following  prop- 
ositions :  The  New  Testament  proceeds  on  the*  ground  of 
necessity  /  and  the  fatalistic  element  pervades  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  and  the  apostles.  The  practice  of  prayer  is  wholly  un- 
authorized in  the  New  Testament,  and  Christian  prayer,  as 
now  offered,  answers  to  the  Pharisaic  prayers  which  Christ 
condemned.  Miss  Martineau,  therefore,  gradually  ceased  from 
all  prayer,  whether  for  herself  or  others.  She  j)rofessed  to 
find  herself  a  better  person  when  she  cared  least  about  being 
good ;  and  found,  or  thought  she  found,  that  working  out  her 
own  salvation  wajs  demoralizing.  Every  thing  in  the  material 
and  spiritual  world  being  fixed  by  immutable  laws,  she  reached 
the  same  condition  of  ease  about  her  spiritual  as  her  temporal 
welfare,  and,  to  use  her  own  language,  she  "  felt  it  better  to 
take  the  chance  of  being  damned  (as  she  viewed  danmation) 
rather  than  to  be  always  quacking  one's  self  in  the  fear  of  it." 
Then  as  prayer  ceased,  so  all  praise  was  laid  aside,  for  she  ex- 
pressed herself  as  ashamed  to  offer  to  God  a  homage  that  would 
be  offensive  to  a  human  being. 

Thus  with  this  distinguished  lady  all  faith  and  worship 
ceased  forever,  and  she  reached  the  conclusion  that  Christian- 


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1881.]  Ha/rriet  Ma/rtmeau.  339 

itj  is  a  monstrous  superstition,  having  the  character  of  a 
mere  fact  in  the  history  of  the  universe.  There  may  be  an- 
other life,  but  she  does  not  believe  it ;  she  does  not  desire  it ; 
she  indulges  no  care  about  it.  If  she  finds  it  to  be  true,  "  all 
right,"  says  she.  Ay,  most  certainly,  aU  right;  but  what  will 
be  involved  in  those  two  little  words ! 

But  we  hasten  to  close  at  once  this  very  imperfect  notice  of 
a  very  remarkable  book — the  production  of  a  very  remarkable 
woman.  The  pages  additional  to  the  autobiography,  by  Mrs. 
Chapman,  Miss  Martineau's  editor  and  devoted  friend,  will  be 
read,  especially  by  American  readers,  with  almost  equal  inter- 
est with  the  autobiography  itself.  We  lay  aside  these  volumes 
with  mingled  feelings  of  pleasure  and  sadness :  pleasure,  on  the 
one  hand,  at  the  thought  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  a  dil- 
igent pen,  whether  in  the  hand  of  man  or  woman ;  and  sadness, 
on  the  other,  at  the  possibility  that  an  intelligent  and  talented 
lady  of  enlightened  Britain,  and  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
should  most  deliberately  turn  away  from  the  light  and  hopes 
of  Christianity,  and  embrace  quietly,  and  apparently  without 
the  slightest  misgivings,  the  darkness  and  hopelessness  of  pa- 
ganism. 


abt.  vm.— synopsis  of  the  quarterlies  and  others  of 

THE  higher  periodicals. 
American  Heviews. 

Amsbioan  Cathouo  Quartkrlt  Retiiw,  January,  1881.  (Philadelphia.) — 1.  A 
Glance  at  the  Conflict  between  Religion  and  Science ;  by  Rer.  S.  Fitzsimons. 
2.  The  Joyous  Knights:  or,  Frati  Gaudenti;  by  Kev.  Bernard  J.  O'Reilly. 
8.  The  Anticatholic  Issue  in  the  Late  Election — The  Relation  of  Catholics  to 
the  Political  Parties ;  by  John  Gilmary  Shea.  4.  Ireland's  Great  Grievance — 
Land  Tenure  in  Ireland  and  other  Countries ;  by  M.  F.  Sullivan.  6.  The  Exist- 
ence of  God  Bemonstrated ;  by  Rev.  John  Ming,  S.  J.  6.  Lord  Beaoonsfield 
and  his  Latest  Novel ;  by  John  M'Carty.  7.  The  Religious  Outlook  in  Europe 
at  the  Present  Day ;  by  Rev.  Aug.  J.  Thebaud,  S.  J.  8.  The  French  Republic, 
Will  it  Last?  by  A  de  G. 

Baptist  Rivncw,  January,  February,  March,  1881.  (Cincinnati.)— 1.  Organization 
and  Personality;  by  President  David  J.  Hill.  2.  The  Antiquity  of  Man— Its 
Present  Phase ;  by  Rev.  E.  Nisbet,  D.D.  8.  The  Will  in  Theology ;  by  President 
Augustus  H.  Strong,  D.D.  4.  Some  Conditions  of  Pulpit  Power ;  by  Rev.  Sam- 
uel  Graves,  D.D.  6.  The  Doctrine  of  Two  Messiahs  among  the  Jews ;  translated 
from  the  German,  by  Rev.  J.  F.  Morton,  tf .  The  Denominational  Work  of  Pres- 
ident Manning ;  by  Reuben  A.  Guild,  LL.D.  7.  Moral  Lessons  from  the  Word ; 
by  Rev.  Philip  L.  Jones.  8.  The  Old  Testament  Apocrypha ;  by  Prof.  John  A. 
BroaduB,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


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340  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review,  [April, 

LuTHKRAV  QvARTiRLT,  Jaou&ry,  1881.  (Gettysburgh.)— 1.  The  Asperity  oi  Lu- 
ther's Language ;  by  John  G.  Morris,  D.D.,  LL.D.  2.  The  Confessional  Prin- 
ciple and  £e  Confessions ;  by  H.  £.  Jacobs,  D.D.  8.  Notes  on  Some  Postulates 
in  the  New  Ethics ;  by  C.  A.  Stork,  D.D.  4.  Philosophy  of  Religion ;  by  Prof. 
W.  H.  Wynn,  Ph.D.  6.  Is  the  Lord's  Day  only  a  Human  Ordinance  ?  by  M.  Val- 
entine, D.D.    6.  Some  Elements  of  Family  Religion ;  by  Rer.  J.  C.  Roller,  A.M. 

Nkw  Enolandkr,  January,  1881.    (New  Haven.)  —  1.  Horace  Bushnell ;  by  Rev. 

•  Henry  M.  Goodwin.  2.  Bayard  Taylor's  Posthumous  Works;  by  Professor 
Franklin  Carter.  8.  Be6wulf  Gretti ;  by  Prof.  C.  Sprague  Smith.  4.  The  Irish 
Land  Question ;  by  Henry  Carter  Adams,  Ph.D.  6.  The  Teaching  of  Church 
History  as  to  the  Method  of  the  World's  Conversion ;  by  Rev.  William  De  Loss 
Love.  6.  A  Humble  Apology ;  or,  Is  the  Pulpit  Insincere  ?  by  Rev.  M.  C.  Welch. 
7.  A  Word  with  the  Spelling  Reformers ;  by  Prof.  Lemuel  S*  Potwin. 

New  England  Historical  and  Gknkalooical  Rioistxr,  January,  1881.  (Boston.) 
— 1.  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  the  Hon.  John  Howe  Peyton ;  by  Col  J.  T.  L.  Preston. 
2.  The  Rev.  John  Eliot's  Record  of  Roxbury  Church  Members ;  by  William  B. 
Trask,  Esq.  8.  Longmeadow  Families ;  by  Williard  S.  Allen,  A.M.  4.  Diary  of 
the  Hon.  Paul  Dudley,  1740;  by  B.  Joy  Jeffries,  M.D.  6.  Records  of  Dart- 
mouth, Mass. ;  by  the  late  James  B.  Congdon.  6.  Taxes  under  Gov.  Andros ; 
by  Walter  Lloyd  Jeffries,  A.B.  7.  Lieut  John  Brjrant  and  Descendants ;  by 
William  B.  Lapham,  M.D.  8.  Quincy  Family  Letters ;  by  Hubbard  W.  Bryant, 
Esq.  9.  Early  Records  of  Gorgeana ;  by  Samuel  L.  Boardman,  Esq.  10.  The 
Youngman  Family;  by  John  C.  J.  Brown,  Esq.  11.  Cabo  de  Baxos,  or  the 
Place  of  Cape  Cod  in  the  Old  Cartology ;  by  Rev.  B.  F.  De  Costa.  12.  Descent 
of  Margaret  Locke,  Wife  of  Francis  Willoughby ;  by  Col.  Joseph  L.  Chester, 
LL.D.  18.  Letters  of  Shirley  and  Moulton ;  by  N.  J.  Herrick,  Esq.  14.  The 
Atherton  Family  in  England;  by  John  C.  J.  Brown,  Esq.  15.  Grantees  of 
Meadow  Lands  in  Dorchester;  by  William  B.  Trask,  Esq.  16.  Wright  Geneal- 
ogy by  Rev.  Stephen  Wright.  17.  Letters  Written  during  the  Revolution ;  by 
John  a  H.  Fogg,  M.D. 

Princeton  Review,  January,  1881.  (New  York.)— 1.  Grounds  of  Knowledge  and 
Rules  for  Belief ;  by  Mark  Hopkins.  2.  The  Public  Schools  of  England ;  by  Prof. 
William  M.  Sloane,  Ph.D.  3.  The  Historical  Proofs  of  Christianity ;  by  George 
P.  Fisher,  D.D.,  LL.D.  4.  Christian  Morality,  Expediency  and  Liberty ;  by  Prof. 
Lyman  H.  Atwater.  6.  Legal  Prohibition  of  the  Liquor  Traffic ;  by  Henry  Wade 
Rogers.  6.  Is  Thought  Possible  without  Language?  by  Prof.  Samuel  Porter. 
7.  Presidential  Elections  and  Civil  Service  Reform ;  by  William  G.  Sumner. 

Untversalist  Quarterly,  January,  1881.  (Boston.)— 1.  The  Light  of  Asia ;  by  G.  T. 
Flanders,  D.D.  2.  Faith  or  Faithfulness  ?  by  Austin  Bierbower.  8.  A  Study 
of  American  Archawlogy ;  by  Rev.  J.  P.  M'Lean.  4.  Revelations  of  God ;  by 
Rev.  S.  Crane.  6.  Materialistic  Conceptions  of  Religion;  by  Prof.  J.  S.  Lee. 
6.  Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ;  by  Rev.  Mary  J.  S.  De  Long.  7.  New 
Defenses  of  Endless  Punishment;  by  T.  J.  Sawyer,  D.D. 

Contemporary  Review,  September,  1880.  (New  York.)— 1.  The  Unity  of  Nature ; 
by  the  Duke 'or  Argyll. 

We  give,  from  the  "  Contemporary  Eeview "  for  September, 
1880,  this  initial  article — an  article  remarkable  both  for  beauty 
of  style  and  force  of  argument— omitting  the  introductory  part 
for  want  of  room.  The  point  of  the  argument  is,  that  the 
imity  of  the  universe  and  the  unity  of  God  reciprocally  de- 
mand and  demonstrate  each  other.  Monotheism  he  holds  to 
have  been  the  primitive  doctrine  of  God,  derived  from  original 
revelation.    And,  amid  the  complexities  of  nature,  there  is  a 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QtuxHerlies.  841 

oneness  that  shows  the  truth  of  the  primitive  belief.  His  first 
proof  of  this  unity  is  derived  from  gravitation,  which  binds  the 
material  worlds  in  one.  This  argmnent  was  given  in  an  article 
with  great  clearness  some  years  ago,  in  our  pages,  by  Professor 
"Winchell ;  we,  therefore,  omit  it,  and  proceed  to  the  second. 

Nor  is  gravitation  the  only  agency  which  brings  home  to  us 
the  unity  of  the  conditions  which  prevail  among  the  worlds. 
There  is  another:  Light — that  sweet  and  heavenly  messenger 
which  comes  to  us  from  the  depths  of  Space,  telling  us  all  we 
know  of  other  worlds,  and  giving  us  all  that  we  enjoy  of  life  and 
beauty  on  our  own.  And  there  is  one  condition  of  unity  revealed 
by  Light  which  is  not  revealed  by  gravitation.  For,  in  respect  to 
grfivitation,  although  we  have  an  idea  of  the  measure,  we  have 
no  idea  of  the  method,  of  its  operation.  We  know  with  precision 
the  numerical  rules  which  it  obeys,  but  we  know  nothing  what- 
ever of  the  way  in  which  its  work  is  done.  Bat  in  respect  to 
Light,  we  have  an  idea  not  only  of  the  measare,  but  of  the  mode 
of  its  operation.  In  one  sense,  of  course.  Light  is  a  mere  sensa- 
tion in  ourselves.  But  when  we  speak  of  it  as  an  external  thing, 
we  speak  of  the  cause  of  that  sensation.  In  this  sense,  Light  is  a 
wave  or  an  undulatory  vibration,  and  such  vibrations  can  only  be 
propagated  .in  a  medium  which,  however  thin,  must  be  material. 
Light,  therefore,  reveals  to  us  the  fact  that  we  are  united  with 
the  most  distant  worlds,  and  with  all  intervening  space,  by  some 
ethereal  atmosphere  which  embraces  and  holds  them  all.  More- 
over, the  enormous  velocity  with  which  the  vibrations  of  this 
atmosphere  are  propagated  proves  that  it  is  a  substance  of  the 
closest  continuity,  and  of  the  highest  tension.  The  tremors  which 
are  imparted  to  it  by  luminous  bodies  rush  from  particle  to  par- 
ticle at  the  rate  of  186.000  miles  in  a  second  of  time;  and  thus, 
although  it  is  impalpable,  intangible,  and  imponderable,  we  know 
that  it  is  a  medium  infinitely  more  compact  than  the  most  solid 
substance  which  can  be  felt  and  weighed.  It  is  very  diflicult  to 
conceive  this,  because  the  waves  or  tremors  which  constitute  Light 
are  not  recognizable  by  any  sense  but  one;  and  the  impressions 
of  that  sense  eive  us  no  direct  information  on  the  nature  of  the 
medium  by  which  those  impressions  are  produced.  We  cannot 
see  the  luminiferous  medium  except  when  it  is  in  motion,  and 
not  even  then,  unless  that  motion  be  in  a  certain  direction  toward 
ourselves.  When  this  medium  is  at  rest  we  are  in  utter  darkness, 
and  so  are  we  also  when  its  movements  are  rushing  past  us,  but 
do  not  touch  us.  The  luminiferous  medium  is,  therefore,  in  itself 
invisible;  and  its  nature  can  only  be  arrived  at  by  pure  reasoning 
— ^reasoning,  of  course,  founded  on  observation,  but  observation 
of  rare  phenomena,  or  of  phenomena  which  can  only  be  seen  un- 
der those  conditions  which  man  has  invented  for  analyzing  the 
operations  of  his  own  most  glorious  sense.  And  never,  perhaps, 
has  man's  inventive  genius  been  more  signally  displayed  than  in 


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342  Methodist  Qua/tterly  Be^^iew,  [April, 

the  long  senes  of  investigations  which  first  led  up  to  the  concep- 
tion, and  have  now  furnished  the  proof,  that  light  is  nothing  but 
the  undulatory  movement  of  a  substantial  medium.  It  is  very 
difficult  to  express  in  language  the  ideas  upon  the  nature  of  that 
medium  which  have  been  built  up  from  the  facts  of  its  behavior. 
It  is  difficult  to  do  so,  because  all  the  words  by  which  we  express 
the  properties  of  matter  refer  to  its  more  obvious  phenomena — 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  direct  impressions  which  matter  makes  upon 
the  senses.  And  so,  when  we  have  to  deal  with  forms  of  matter 
which  do  not  make  any  impressions  of  the  same  kind — forms  of 
matter  which  can  neither  oe  seen,  nor  felt,  nor  handled,  which 
have  neither  weight,  nor  taste,  nor  smell,  nor  aspect — ^we  can 
only  describe  them  by  the  help  of  analogies  as  near  as  we  can  find. 
But  as  regards  the  qualities  of  the  medium  which  causes  the  sen- 
sation of  light,  the  nearest  analogies  are  remote,  and,  what  is 
worse,  they  compel  us  to  associate  ideas  which  elsewhere  are  so 
dissevered  as  to  appear  almost  exclusive  of  each  other.  It  is  now 
more  than  half  a  century  since  Dr.  Thomas  Young  astonished 
and  amused  the  scientific  world  by  declaring  of  the  luminif  erous 
medium  that  we  must  conceive  of  it  as  finding  its  way  through 
all  matter  as  freely  as  the  air  moves  through  a  grove  of  trees. 
This  suggests  the  idea  of  an  element  of  extreme  tenuity.  But  that 
element  cannot  be  said  to  be  thin  in  which  a  wave  is  transmitted 
with  the  enormous  velocity  of  light.  On  the  contrary,  its  mole- 
cules must  be  in  closest  contact  with  each  other  when  a  tremor 
is  carried  by  them  through  a  thickness  of  186,000  miles  in  a 
single  second.  Accordingly,  Sir  J.  Herschel  has  declared  that 
the  luminiferous  ether  must  be  conceived  of  not  as  an  air,  nor 
as  a  fluid,  but  rather  as  a  solid — "  in  this  sense  at  least,  that  its 
particles  cannot  be  supposed  as  capable  of  interchanging  places, 
or  of  bodily  transfer  to  any  measurable  distance  from  their  own 
special  and  assigned  localities  in  the  universe."  *  Well  may  Sir 
J\  Herschel  add  that  "  this  will  go  far  to  realize  (in  however  un- 
expected a  form)  the  ancient  idea  of  a  crystalline  orb."  And 
thus  the  wonderful  result  of  all  investigation  is,  that  this  earth  is 
in  actual  rigid  contact  with  the  most  distant  worlds  in  space — in 
rigid  contact,  that  is  to  say,  through  a  medium  which  touches 
and  envelops  all,  and  which  is  incessantly  communicating  from 
one  world  to  another  the  minutest  vibrations  it  receives. 

The  laws,  therefore,  and  the  constitution  of  Light,  even  more 
than  the  law  of  gravitation,  carry  up  to  the  highest  degree  of 
certainty  our  conception  of  the  universe  as  one — one,  that  is  to 
say,  in  virtue  of  the  closest  mechanical  connection,  and  of  the 
prevalence  of  one  universal  medium. 

Moreover,  it  is  now  known  that  this  medium  is  the  vehicle  not 
only  of  Light,  but  also  of  Heat,  while  it  has  likewise  a  special 
power  of  setting  up,  or  of  setting  free,  the  mysterious  action 
of  chemical  affinity.      The  beautiful  experiments  have  become 

*  **  Familiar  Lectures  on  Scientific  Subjects,**  p  285. 


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1881J  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  343 

familiar  by  which  these  three  kinds  of  ethereal  motion  can  be 
separated  from  each  other  in  the  solar  spectrum,  and  each  of  them 
can  be  made  to  exhibit  its  peculiar  effects.  With  tin  se  again  the 
forces  of  galvanism  and  electricity  have  some  verv  liiiiuate  con- 
nection, which  goes  far  to  indicate  like  methods  of  operation  in 
some  prevailing  element.  Considering  how  all  the  forms  of  Mat- 
ter, both  in  the  organic  and  in  the  inorganic  worlds,  depend  on 
one  or  other,  or  on  all  of  these— considering  how  Life  itself  de- 
pends upon  them,  and  how  it  flickers  or  expires  according  as  they 
are  present  in  due  proportion — it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  that  in 
this  great  group  of  powers,  so  closely  bound  up  together,  we  are 
standing  very  close  indeed  to  some  pervading,  if  not  universal, 
agency  m  the  mechanism  of  Nature. 

This  close  connection  of  so  many  various  phenomena  with  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  movement  in  a  single  medium  is  by  far  the  most 
striking  and  instructive  discovery  of  modem  science.  It  supplies, 
to  s<yife  extent,  a  solid  physical  basis,  and  one  veritable  cause  for 
part,  at  least,  of  the  general  impression  of  unity  which  the  aspects 
of  Nature  leave  upon  the  mind.  For  all  work  done  by  the  same 
implement  generally  carries  the  mark  of  that  implement,  as  it 
were  of  a  tool,  upon  it.  Things  made  of  the  same  material,  what- 
ever they  may  be,  are  sure  to  be  like  in  those  characteristics  which 
result  from  identical  or  from  similar  properties  and  modes  of  ac- 
tion. And  so  far,  therefore,  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  constant 
and  close  analogies  which  prevail  in  that  vast  circle  of  phenomena 
which  are  connected  with  Heat,  Light,  Electricity,  Chemical  and 
Vital  Action. 

But  although  the  employment  of  one  and  the  same  agency  in 
the  production  of  a  variety  of  effects  is,  no  doubt,  one  cause  of 
the  visible  unity  which  prevails  in  Nature,  it  is  not  the  only  cause. 
The  same  close  analogies  exist  where  no  such  identity  of  agency 
can  be  traced.  Thus  the  mode  in  which  the  atmosphere  carries 
Sound  is  closely  analogous  to  the  mode  in  which  the  ether  carries 
Light.  But  the  ether  and  the  atmosphere  are  two  very  different 
agents,  and  the  similarity  of  the  laws  which  the  undulations  of 
both  obey  is  due  to  some  other  and  some  more  general  cause  of 
unity  than  identity  of  material.  This  more  general  cause  is  to 
be  found,  no  doubt,  in  one  common  law  which  determines  the 
forms  of  motion  in  all  matter,  and  especially  in  highly  elastic 
media. 

But,  indeed,  the  mere  physical  unity  which  consists  in  the  ac- 
tion of  one  great  vehicle  of  power,  even  if  this  were  more  univers- 
ally prevalent  than  it  is  known  to  be,  is  but  the  lowest  step  in 
the  long  ascent  which  carries  us  up  to  a  unity  of  a  more  perfect 
kind.  The  means  by  which  some  one  single  implement  can  be 
made  to  work  a  thousand  different  effects,  not  only  without  in- 
terference and  without  confusion,  but  with  such  relations  between 
it  and  other  agents  as  to  lead  to  complete  harmonies  of  result,  are 
means  which  point  to  some  unity  behmd  and  above  the  implement 
itself — that  is  to  say,  they  point  to  some  unity  in  the  method  of 


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844  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

its  handling,  in  the  management  of  the  impulses  which,  receiv- 
ing, it  conveys,  and  in  the  arrangement  of  the  materials  on  which 
it  operates. 

No  illustration  can  be  given  of  this  higher  kind  of  unity  which 
is  half  80  striking  as  the  illustration  which  is  afforded  by  the 
astonishing  facts,  now  familiar,  as  to  the  composition  of  solar 
light.  When  we  consider  that  every  color  in  the  spectrum  repre- 
sents the  motion  of  a  separate  wave  or  ripple,  and  that,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  visible  series,  there  are  other  series,  one  at  each  end 
of  the  luminous  rays,  which  are  non-luminous,  and,  therefore, 
invisible — all  of  which  consist  of  waves  equally  distinct ;  when 
w6  consider,  further,  that  all  these  are  carried  simultaneously 
with  the  same  speed  across  millions  of  miles;  that  they  are  sep- 
arable, and  yet  are  never  separated;  that  thejr  are  more  accu- 
rately together,  without  josthng  or  confusion,  m  perfect  combi- 
nation, yet  so  that  each  shall  be  capable  of  producing  its  own 
separate  effect — it  altogether  transcends  our  faculties  of  (njagi- 
nation  to  conceive  how  movements  of  such  infinite  complication 
can  be  united  in  one  such  perfect  order. 

And  be  it  observed  that  the  difficulty  of  conceiving  this  is  not 
diminished,  but  increased,  by  the  fact  that  these  movements  are 
propagated  in  a  single  medium;  because  it  is  most  difficult  to 
conceive  how  the  particles  of  the  medium  can  be  so  arranged  as 
to  be  capable  of  conveying  so  many  different  kinds  of  motion 
with  equal  velocities  and  at  the  same  instant  of  time.  It  is  clear 
that  the  unity  of  effect  which  is  achieved  out  of  this  immense 
variety  of  movements  is  a  unity  which  lies  altogether  behind  the 
mere  unity  of  material,  and  is  traceable  to  some  one  order  of  ar- 
rangement under  which  the  original  impulses  are  conveyed.  We 
know  that  in  respect  to  the  waves  of  Sound  the  production  of 
perfect  harmonies  among  them  can  only  be  attained  by  a  skillful 
adjustment  of  the  instruments,  whose  vibrations  are  the  cause  and 
the  measure  of  the  aerial  waves  which,  in  their  combination,  con- 
stitute perfect  music.  And  so,  in  like  manner,  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  harmonies  of  Heat,  Light,  and  Chemical  Action,  effected 
as  they  are  among  an  infinite  number  and  variety  of  motions, 
very  easily  capable  of  separation  and  disturbance,  must  be  the 
result  of  some  close  adjustment  between  the  constituent  element 
of  the  conveying  medium  and  the  constituent  elements  of  the 
luminous  bodies,  whose  complex,  but  joint,  vibrations  constitute 
that  embodied  harmony  which  we  know  as  Light.  Moreover,  as 
this  adjustment  must  be  close  and  intimate  between  the  proper- 
ties of  the  ether  and  the  nature  of  the  bodies  whose  vibrations  it 
repeats,  so  also  must  the  same  adjustment  be  equally  close  be- 
tween these  vibrations  and  the  properties  of  Matter  on  which  they 
exert  such  a  powerful  influence.  And  when  we  consider  the  num- 
ber and  the  nature  of  the  things  which  this  adjustment  must  in- 
clude, we  can,  perhaps,  form  some  idea  of  what  a  bond  and  bridge 
it  is  between  the  most  stupendous  phenomena  of  the  heavens  and 
the  minutest  phenomena  of  earth.     For  this  adjustment  must  be 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qtcarterlies.  345 

perfect  between  these  several  things — first,  the  flaming  elements 
m  the  sun  which  communicate  the  different  vibrations  m  definite 
proportion  ;  next,  the  constitution  of  the  medium,  which  is  capa- 
ble of  conveying  them  without  division,  confusion,  or  obstruction; 
next,  the  constitution  of  ouj  own  atmosphere,  so  that  neither  shall 
it  distort,  nor  confuse,  nor  quench  the  waves;  and,  lastly,  the  con- 
stitution of  those  forms  of  Matter  upon  earth  which  respond,  each 
after  its  own  laws,  to  the  stimulus  it  is  so  made  as  to  receive  from 
the  heating,  lighting,  and  actinic  waves. 

In  contemplating  this  vast  system  of  adjustment  it  is  important 
to  analyze  and  define,  so  far  as  we  can,  the  impression  of  unitj 
which  it  makes  upon  us;  because  the  real  scope  and  source  of  this 
impression  may  very  easily  be  mistaken,  it  has  been  already 
pomted  out  that  we  can  only  see  likeness  by  first  seeing  differ- 
ence, and  that  the  full  perception  of  that  in  which  things  are  un- 
like is  essential  to  an  accurate  appreciation  of  that  in  which  they 
are  the  same.  The  classifying  instinct  must  be  strong  in  the  hu- 
man mind,  from  the  delight  it  finds  in  reducing  diverse  things  to 
some  one  common  definition*  And  this  instinct  is  founded  on  the 
power  of  setting  differences  aside,  and  of  fixing  our  attention  on 
some  selected  conditions  of  resemblance.  But  we  must  remember 
that  it  depends  on  our  width  and  depth  of  vision  whether  the  uni- 
ties which  we  thus  select  in  Nature  are  the  smallest  and  the  most 
incidental,  or  whether  they  are  the  largest  and  the  most  signifi- 
cant. And,  indeed,  for  some  temporary  purposes — as,  for  ex- 
ample, to  make  clear  to  our  minds  the  exact  nature  of  the  facts 
which  science  may  have  ascertained  —  it  may  be  necessary  to 
classify  together,  as  coming  under  one  and  the  same  category, 
things  as  different  from  each  other  as  light  from  darkness.  Nor 
is  this  any  extreme  or  imaginary  case.  It  is  a  case  actually  exem- 
plified in  a  lecture  by  Professor  Tyndall,  which  is  entitled  "  The 
Identity  of  Light  and  Heat."  Yet  those  who  have  attended  the 
expositions  of  that  eminent  physical  philosopher  must  be  familiar 
with  the  beautiful  experiments  which  show  how  distinct  in  an- 
other aspect  are  Light  and  Heat;  how  easily  and  how  perfectly 
they  can  be  separated  from  each  other;  how  certain  substances 
obstruct  the  one  and  let  through  the  other;  and  how  the  fiercest 
heat  can  be  raging  in  the  profoundest  darkness.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  more  than  one  mental  aspect,  there  is  more  than  one 
method  of  conception,  in  terms  of  which  these  two  separable 

Eowers  can  be  brought  under  one  description.  Light  and  Heat, 
owever  different  in  their  effects — however  distinct  and  separable 
from  each  other — can  both  be  regarded  as  ** forms  of  motion" 
among  the  particles  of  matter.  Moreover,  it  can  be  shown  that 
both  are  conveyed  or  caused  by  waves,  or  undulatory  vibrations 
in  one  and  the  same  ethereal  medium.  And  the  same  definition 
applies  to  the  chemical  ravs,  which  again  are  separable  and  dis- 
tinct from  the  rays  both  of  light  and  heat. 

But  although  this  definition  mav  be  correct  as  far  as  it  goes, 
it  is  a  definition,  nevertheless,  which  slurs  over  and  keeps  out  of 


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346  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  fApril, 

sight  distinctions  of  a  fundamental  character.  In  the  first  place, 
it  takes  no  notice  of  the  absolute  distinction  between  Light  or  Heat 
considered  as  sensations  of  our  organism,  or  as  states  of  conscious- 
ness, and  Light  or  Heat  considered  as  the  external  agencies  which 
produce  these  sensations  in  us.  Sir  W.  Grove  has  expressed  a 
doubt  whether  it  is  legitimate  to  apply  the  word  "  Light "  at  all 
to  any  rays  which  do  not  excite  the  sense  of  vision.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  distinction  to  which  I  now  refer.  If  it  be  an 
ascertained  fact,  or  if  it  be  the  only  view  consistent  with  our 
present  knowledge,  that  the  ethereal  pulsations  which  do,  and 
those  which  do  not,  excite  in  us  the  sense  of  vision  are  pulsations 
exactly  of  the  same  kind  and  in  exactlj  the  same  medium,  and 
that  they  differ  in  nothing  but  in  penods  of  time  or  length  of 
wave,  so  that  our  seeing  of  them,  or  our  not  seeing  of  them,  de- 
pends on  nothing  but  the  focusing,  as  it  were,  of  our  eyes,  then 
the  inclusion  of  them  under  the  same  word  "  Light "  involves  no 
confusion  of  thought.  We  should  confound  no  distinction  of  im- 
portance, for  example,  by  applying  the  same  name  to  grains  of 
sand  which  are  large  enough  to  be  visible,  and  to  those  which  are 
so  minute  as  to  be  wholly  mvisible  even  to  the  microscope.  And 
if  a  distinction  of  this  nature — a  mere  distinction  of  size,  or  of 
velocity,  or  erf  form  of  motion,  were  the  only  distinctions  between 
Light  and  Heat — it  might  be  legitimate  to  consider  them  as  iden- 
tical, and  to  call  them  by  the  same  name.  But  the  truth  is,  that 
there  are  distinctions  between  them  of  quite  another  kind.  Light, 
in  the  abstract  conception  of  it,  consists  in  undulatory  vibrations 
in  the  pure  ether,  and  in  these  alone.  They  may  or  may  not  be 
visible — that  is  to  say,  they  may  or  may  not  be  within  the  range 
of  our  organs  of  vision,  just  as  a  sound  may  or  may  not  be  too 
faint  and  low,  or  too  fine  and  high,  to  be  audible  to  our  ears. 
But  the  word  "heat"  carries  quite  a  different  meaning,  and  the 
conception  it  conveys  could  not  be  covered  under  the  same  defi- 
nition as  that  which  covers  Light.  Heat  is  inseparably  associated 
in  our  minds  with,  and  does  essentially  consist  in,  certain  motions, 
not  of  pure  ether,  but  of  the  molecules  of  solid  or  ponderable 
matter.  These  motions  in  solid  or  ponderable  matter  are  not  in 
any  sense  identical  with  the  iindulatorv  motions  of  pure  ether 
which  constitute  Light ;  consequently  when  physicists  find  them- 
selves under  the  necessity  of  defining  more  closely  what  they 
mean  by  the  identity  of  Heat  and  Light,  thev  are  obliged  to  sepa- 
rate between  two  different  kinds  of  Heat — that  is  to  say,  between 
two  wholly  different  things,  both  covered  under  the  common 
name  of  Heat — one  of  which  is  really  identical  in  kind  with  Light, 
and  the  other  of  which  is  not.  "  Radiant "  Heat  is  the  kind,  and 
the  only  kind  of  Heat,  which  comes  under  the  common  definition. 
"Radiant"  Heat  consists  in  the  undulatory  vibrations  of  pure 
ether  which  are  set  up  or  caused  by  those  other  vibrations  in 
solid  substances  or  ponderable  matter,  which  are  Heat  more  prop- 
erly so  called.  Hot  bodies  communicate  to  the  surrounding 
ethereal  medium  vibrations  of  the  same  kind  with  light,  some  of 


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1881.]  Synopds  of  the  Quarterlies.  347 

these  being,  and  others  not  being,  luminous  to  our  eyes.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  unity  or  close  relationship  which  exists  between 
Heat  and  Light  is  not  a  unity  of  sameness  or  identity,  but  a  unity 
which  depends  upon,  and  consists  in,  correspondences  between 
things  in  themselves  different.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the 
facts  of  Nature  would  be  much  more  clearly  represented  in  lan- 
guage if  the  old  word  "  Caloric  "  were  revived,  in  order  to  distin- 
euiwi  one  of  the  two  very  different  things  which  are  now  con- 
founded under  the  common  term  "  Heat " — ^that  is  to  say.  Heat 
considered  as  molecular  vibration  in  solid  or  ponderable  matter, 
and  Heat  considered  as  the  undulatory  vibrations  of  pure  ether 
which  constitute  the  "Heat"  called  "radiant."  Adopting  this 
suggestion,  the  relations  between  Light  and  Heat,  as  these  relations 
are  now  known  to  science,  may  be  thrown  into  the  following 
propositions,  which  are  framed  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting 
distinctions  not  commonly  kept  in  view  : 

L  Certain  undulatory  vibrations  in  pure  ether  alone  are  Light, 
either  (I)  visible  or  (2)  invisible. 

U.  These  undulatory  vibrations  in  pure  ether  alone  are  not 
Caloric. 

in.  No  motions  of  any  kind  in  pure  ether  alone  are  Caloric. 

IV.  Caloric  consists  in  certain  vibratory  motions  in  the  mole- 
cules of  ponderable  matter  or  substances  grosser  than  the  ether, 
and  these  motions  are  not  undulatory. 

V.  The  motions  in  ponderable  matter  which  constitute  Caloric 
set  up  or  propagate  in  pure  ether  the  undulatory  vibrations  which 
constitute  Light. 

VL  Conversely,  the  undulatory  vibrations  in  pure  ether  which 
constitute  Light  set  up  or  propagate  in  grosser  matter  the  motions 
which  are  Caloric. 

VII.  But  the  motions  in  pure  ether  which  are  Light  cannot  set 
up  or  propagate  in  all  ponderable  matter  equally  the  motions 
which  are  Caloric.  Transparent  substances  allow  the  ethereal 
undulations  to  pass  through  them  with  very  little  Caloric  motion 
being  set  up  thereby;  and  if  there  were  any  substance  perfectly 
transparent,  no  Caloric  motion  would  be  produced  at  all. 

VIII.  Caloric  motions  in  ponderable  matter  can  be  and  are  set 
up  or  propagated  by  other  agencies  than  the  undulations  of  ether, 
as  by  friction,  percussion,  etc. 

lA.  Caloric,  therefore,  differs  from  Light  in  being  (1)  motion 
in  a  different  medium  or  in  a  different  kind  of  matter;  (2)  in  be- 
ing a  different  kind  of  motion;  (3)  in  being  producible  without, 
so  far  as  known,  the  agency  of  light  at  all.  I  say  "  so  far  as 
known,"  because,  as  the  luminif  erous  ether  is  ubiquitous,  or  as,  at 
least,  its  absence  cannot  anywhere  be  assumed,  it  is  possible  that 
in  the  calorific  effects  of  percussion,  friction,  etc.,  undulations  of 
the  ether  may  be  always  an  essential  condition  of  the  production 
of  Caloric. 

It  follows  from  these  propositions  that  there  are  essential 
distinctions  between  Light  and  Heat,  and  that  the  effect  of  lumi- 


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348  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [April, 

nif erous  undulations,  or  "  Radiant "  Heat,  in  pi^ducing  Caloric  in 
ponderable  matter  depends  entirely  upon,  and  varies  greatly  in 
accordance  with,  the  constitution  or  structure  of  the  substances 
through  which  it  passes,  or  upon  which  it  plays. 

The  same  fundamental  distinction  applies  to  those  ethereal 
undulations  which  produce  the  effects  called  Chemical.  No  such 
effects  can  be  produced  upon  substances  except  according  to  their 
special  structure  and  properties.  Their  effect,  for  example,  upon 
living  matter  is  absolutely  different  from  the  effect  they  produce 
upon  matter  which  does  not  possess  vitality.  The  forces  which 
give  rise  to  chemical  affinity  are  wholly  unknown.  And  so  are 
those  which  give  rise  to  the  peculiar  phenomena  of  living  matter. 
The  rays  which  are  called  Chemical  may  have  no  other  part  in 
the  result  than  that  of  setting  free  the  molecules  to  be  acted  upon 
by  the  distinct  and  separate  forces  which  are  the  real  sources  of 
chemical  affinity. 

What,  then,  have  we  gained  when  we  have  grouped  together, 
under  one  common  definition,  such  a  variety  of  movements  and 
such  a  variety  of  corresponding  effects  ?  This  is  not  the  kind  of 
unity  which  we  see  and  feel  in  the  vast  system  of  adjustments 
between  the  sun,  the  medium  conveying  its  vibrations,  and  the 
effect  of  these  on  all  the  phenomena  of  earth.  The  kind  of  unity 
which  is  impressed  upon  us  is  neither  that  of  a  mere  unity  of  ma- 
terial, nor  of  identity  in  the  forms  of  motion.  On  the  contrary, 
this  kind  of  unity  among  things  so  diverse  in  all  other  aspects  is 
a  bare  intellectual  apprehension,  only  reached  as  the  result  of 
difficult  research,  and  standing  in  no  natural  connection  with  our 
ordinary  apprehension  of  physical  truth.  For  our  conception 
of  the  energies  with  which  we  have  to  deal  in  Nature  must  be 
molded  on  our  knowledge  of  what  they  do,  far  more  than  on  any 
abstract  definition  of  what  they  are ;  or  rather,  perhaps,  it  would 
be  more  correct  to  say  that  our  conception  of  what  things  are 
can  only  be  complete  in  proportion  as  we  take  into  our  view  the 
effects  which  they  produce  upon  other  things  around  them,  and 
especially  upon  ourselves,  through  the  organs  by  which  we  are  in 
contact  with  the  external  world.  If  in  these  effects  any  two 
agencies  are  not  the  same — if  they  are  not  even  alike — i^  perhaps, 
they  are  the  very  antithesis  of  each  other — then  the  classification 
which  identifies  them,  however  correct  it  may  be,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  must  omit  some  characteristics  which  are  much  more  essen- 
tial than  those  which  it  includes.  The  most  hideous  discords 
which  can  assail  the  ear,  and  the  divinest  strains  of  heavenly 
music,  can  be'regarded  as  identical  in  being  both  a  series  of  so- 
norous waves.  But  the  thought,  the  preparation,  the  concerted 
design — in  short,  the  unity  of  mind  and  of  sentiment,  on  which 
the  production  of  musical  harmony  depends,  and  which  it  again 
conveys  with  matchless  power  of  expression  to  other  minds — all 
this  higher  unity  is  concealed  and  lost  if  we  do  not  rise  above  the 
mere  mechanical  definition  under  which  discords  and  harmonies 
can  nevertheless  be  in  this  way  correctly  classed  together.    And 


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1881.]  ISynopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  349 

yet  so  pleased  are  we  with  discoveries  of  this  kind,  which  reduce, 
under  a  common  method  of  conception,  things  which  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  regard  as  widely  different,  that  we  are  apt  to 
be  filled  with  conceit  about  such  definitions,  as  if  we  had  reached 
in  them  some  great  ultimate  truth  on  the  nature  of  things,  and  as 
if  the  old  aspects  in  which  we  had  been  accustomed  to  regard 
them  were  by  cor.parison  almost  deceptive;  whereas,  in  reality, 
the  higher  truth  may  well  have  been  that  which  we  have  always 
known,  and  the  lower  truth  that  which  we  have  recently  discov- 
ered. The  knowledge  that  Light  and  Heat  are  separable,  that  they 
do  not  always  accompany  each  other,  is  a  truer  and  juster  con- 
ception of  the  relation  in  which  they  stand  to  us,  and  to  all  that 
we  see  around  us,  than  the  knowledge  that  they  are  both  the 
same  in  respect  of  their  being  both  "modes  of  motion."  To  know 
the  work  which  a  machine  does  is  a  fuller  and  higher  knowledge 
than  to  know  the  nature  of  the  materials  of  which  its  parts  are 
composed,  or  even  to  perceive  and  follow  the  kind  of  movement 
by  which  its  effects  are  produced.  And  if  there  be  two  machines 
which,  in  respect  to  structure  and  movement  and  material,  are 
the  same,  or  closely  similar,  but  which,  nevertheless,  produce 
totally  different  kinds  of  work,  we  may  be  sure  that  this  differ- 
ence IS  the  most  real  and  the  most  important  truth  respecting 
them.  The  new  aspects  in  which  we  see  their  likeness  are  less 
full  and  less  ade<]^uate  than  the  old  familiar  aspects  in  which  we 
regard  them  as  dissimilar. 

But  the  mind  is  apt  to  be  enamored  of  a  new  conception  of  this 
kind,  and  to  mistake  its  place  and  its  relative  importance  in  the 
sphere  of  knowledge.  It  is  in  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only, 
that  we  can  account  for  the  tendency  among  some  scientific  men 
to  exaggerate  beyond  all  bounds  the  significance  of  the  abstract 
definitions  which  they  reach  by  neglecting  differences  of  work, 
of  function,  and  of  result,  and  by  fixing  their  attention  mainly 
on  some  newly-discovered  likeness  in  respect  to  form,  or  motion, 
or  chemical  composition.  It  is  thus  that,  because  a  particular 
substance  called  "**  Protoplasm"  is  found  to  be  present  in  all  living 
organisms,  an  endeavor  follows  to  get  rid  of  Life  as  a  separate 
conception,  and  to  reduce  it  to  the  physical  property  of  this 
matenal  The  fallacy  involved  in  this  endeavor  needs  no  other 
exposure  than  the  fact  that,  as  the  appearance  and  the  compo- 
sition of  this  material  is  the  same  whether  it  be  dead  or  living, 
the  Protoplasm  of  which  such- transcendental  properties  are  af- 
firmed has  always  to  be  described  as  "  living  "  Protoplasm.  But 
no  light  can  be  thrown  upon  the  facts  by  telling  us  that  life  is  a 
property  of  that  which  lives.  The  expression  for  this  substance 
which  has  been  invented  by  Professor  Huxley,  is  a  better  one — 
the  "  Physical  Basis  of  Life."  It  is  better,  because  it  does  not 
suggest  the  idea  that  Life  is  a  mere  physical  property  of  the  sub- 
stance. But  it  is,  after  all,  a  metaphor  which  does  not  give  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  conceptions  which  the  phenomena  suggest. 
The  word  "  basis "  has  a  distinct  reference  to  a  mechanical  sup- 

FouETH  Series,  Vol,  XXX HI. — 23 


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350  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

port,  or  to  the  principal  substance  in  a  chemical  combination. 
At  the  best,  too,  there  is  but  a  distant  and  metaphorical  analogy 
between  these  conceptions  and  the  conceptions  which  are  sug- 
gested by  the  connection  between  Protoplasm  and  Life.  We  can- 
not suppose  Life  to  be  a  substance  supported  by  another.  Neither 
can  we  suppose  it  to  be  like  a  chemical  element  in  combination 
Mrith  another.  It  seems  rather  like  a  force  or  energy  which  first 
works  up  the  inorganic  materials  into  the  form  of  protoplasm, 
and  then  continues  to  exert  itself  through  that  combination  when 
achieved.  "We  call  this  kind  of  energy  by  a  special  name,  for  the 
best  of  all  reasons,  that  it  has  special  effects,  different  from  all 
others.  It  often  happens  that  the  philosophy  expressed  in  some 
common  form  of  speech  is  deep  and  true,  while  the  objections 
which  are  made  to  it  in  the  name  of  science  are  shallow  and  fal- 
lacious. This  is  the  case  with  all  those  phrases  and  expressions 
which  imply  that  Life  and  its  phenomena  are  so  distinguishable 
from  other  things  that  they  must  be  spoken  of  by  themselves. 
The  objection  made  by  a  well-known  writer,*  that  we  might  as 
well  speak  of  "  a  watch  force "  as  of  "  a  vital  force,"  is  an  objec- 
tion which  has  no  validity,  and  is  chargeable  with  the  great  vice 
of  confounding  one  of  the  clearest  distinctions  which  exist  in 
Nature.  The  rule  which  should  govern  language  is  very  plain. 
Every  phenomenon  or  group  of  phenomena  which  is  clearly  sep- 
arate from  all  others  should  have  a  name  as  separate  and  dis- 
tinctive as  itself.  The  absurditv  of  speaking  of  a  "watch  force" 
lies  in  this — that  the  force  by  which  a  watch  ^oes  is  not  separable 
from  the  force  by  which  many  other  mechanical  movements  are 
effected.  It  is  a  force  which  is  otherwise  well-known,  and  can  be 
fully  expressed  in  other  and  more  definite  terms.  That  force  is 
simply  the  elasticity  of  a  coiled  spring.  But  the  phenomena  of 
Life  are  not  due  to  any  force  which  can  be  fully  and  definitely 
expressed  in  other  terms.  It  is  not  purely  chemical,  nor  purely 
mechanical,  nor  purely  electrical,  nor  reducible  to  any  other  more 
simple  and  elementary  conception.  The  popular  use,  therefore, 
which  keeps  up  separate  words  and  phrases  by  which  to  describe 
and  designate  the  phenomena  of  Life,  is  a  use  which  is  correct 
and  thoroughly  expressive  of  the  truth.  There  is  nothing*  more 
fallacious  in  philosophy  than  the  endeavor  by  mere  tricks  of  lan- 
guage, to  suppress  and  keep  out  of  sight  the  distinctions  which 
Nature  proclaims  with  a  loud  voice. 

It  is  thus,  also,  that  because  certain  creatures  widely  separate 
in  the  scale  of  being  may  be  traced  back  to  some  embryonic  stage, 
in  which  they  are  undistinguishable,  it  has  become  fashionable  to 
sink  the  vast  differences  which  must  lie  hid  under  this  uniformity 
of  aspect  and  of  material  composition  under  some  vague  form  of 
words  in  which  the  mind  makes,  as  it  were,  a  covenant  with  itself 
not  to  think  of  such  differences  as  are  latent  and  invisible,  how- 
ever important  we  know  them  to  be  by  the  differences  of  result 
to  which  they  lead.  Thus  it  is  common  now  to  speak  of  things 
»  Mr.  G.  H.  Lewes. 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QtcarterUes.  351 

widely  separated  in  rank  and  function  being  the  same,  only  "dif- 
ferentiated," or  "variously  conditioned."  In  these,  and  in  all 
similar  cases,  the  differences  which  are  unseen,  or  which,  if  seen, 
are  set  aside,  are  often  of  infinitely  greater  importance  than  the 
similarities  which  are  selected  as  the  characteristics  chiefly  worthy 
of  regard.  If,  for  example,  in  the  albumen  of  an  egg  there  be  no 
discernible  differences  either  of  structure  or  of  chemical  compo- 
sition; but  if,  nevertheless,  by  the  mere  application  of  a  little 
heat,  part  of  it  is  "differentiated"  into  blood,  another  part  of  it 
into  nesh,  another  part  of  it  into  bones,  another  part  of  it  into 
feathers,  and  the  whole  into  one  perfect  organic  structure,  it  is 
clear  that  any  purely  chemical  dennition  of  this  albumen,  or  any 
purely  mechanical  definition  of  it,  would  not  merely  fail  of  being 
complete,  but  would  absolutely  pass  by  and  pass  over  the  one 
essential  characteristic  of  vitality  which  makes  it  what  it  is,  and 
determines  what  it  is  to  be  in  the  system  of  Nature. 

Let  us  always  remember  that  the  more  perfect  may  be  the  ap- 
parent identity  between  two  things  which  afterward  become 
widely  different,  the  greater  must  be  the  power  and  value  of  those 
invisible  distinctions — of  those  unseen  factors — which  determine 
the  subsequent  divergence.  These  distinctions  are  invisible,  not 
merely  because  our  methods  of  analysis  are  too  coarse  to  detect 
them,  but  because,  apparently,  they  are  of  a  nature  which  no  phys- 
ical dissection  and  no  chemical  analysis  could  possibly  reveal. 
Some  scientific  men  are  fond  of  speaking  and  thinking  of  these 
invisible  factors  as  distinctions  due  to  differences  in  "  molecular 
arrangement,"  as  if  the  more  secret  agencies  of  Nature  gave  us 
the  idea  of  depending  on  nothing  else  than  mechanical  arrange- 
ment—on differences  m  the  shape  or  in  the  position  of  the  mole- 
cules of  matter.  But  this  is  by  no  means  true.  No  doubt  there 
are  such  differences — as  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  microscope  as 
the  differences  which  the  microscope  does  reveal  are  beyona  the 
reach  of  our  unaided  vigion.  But  we  know  enough  of  the  differ- 
ent agencies  which  must  lie  hid  in  things  apparently  the  same  to 
be  sure  that  the  divergences  of  work  whicn  these  agencies  pro- 
duce do  not  depend  upon  or  consist  in  mere  differences  of  mechan- 
ical arrangement.  We  know  enough  of  those  agencies  to  be  sure 
that  they  are  agencies  which  do,  indeed,  determine  both  arrange- 
ment and  composition,  but  do  not  themselves  consist  in  either. 

This  is  the  conclusion  to  which  we  are  brought  by  facts  which 
are  well  known.  There  are  structures  in  Nature  which  can  be 
seen  in  the  process  of  construction.  There  are  conditions  of 
matter  in  which  its  particles  can  be  seen  rushing  under  the  im* 
pulse  of  invisible  forces  to  take  their  appointed  place  in  the  form 
which  to  them  is  a  law.  Such  are  the  facts  visible  in  the  proc- 
esses of  crystallization.  In  them  we  can  see  the  particles  of 
matter  passing  from  one  "molecular  condition"  to  another;  and 
it  is  impossible  that  this  passage  can  be  ascribed  either  to  the  old 
arrangement  which  is  broken  up,  or  to  the  new  arrangement 
which  is  substituted  in  its  stead.     Both  structures  have  been 


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352  Metliodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [April. 

built  up  out  of  elementary  materials  by  some  constructive  agency 
which  IS  the  master  and  not  the  servant— the  cause  and  not  the 
consequence — of  the  movements  which  are  effected,  and  of  the 
arrangement  which  is  their  result.  And  if  this  be  true  of  crys- 
talline forms  in  the  mineral  kingdom,  much  more  is  it  true  of 
organic  forms  in  the  animal  kingdom.  Crystals  are,  as  it  were, 
the  beginnings  of  Nature's  architecture,  her  lowest  and  simplest 
forms  of  building.  But  the  most  complex  crystalline  forms  which 
exist — and  many  of  them  are  singularly  complex  and  beautiful 
— are  simplicity  itself  compared  with  the  very  lowest  organism 
which  is  endowed  with  Life.  In  them,  therefore,  still  more  than 
in  the  formation  of  crystals,  the  work  of  "  differentiation  " — that 
is  to  say,  the  work  of  forminsr  out  of  one  material  different  struct- 
ures for  the  discharge  of  different  functions — is  the  work  of  agen- 
cies which  are  invisible  and  unknown  ;  and  it  is  in  these  agencies, 
not  in  the  molecular  arrangements  which  they  cause,  that  the 
essential  character  and  individuality  of  every  organism  consists. 
Accordingly,  in  the  development  of  seeds  and  of  eggs,  which  are 
the  germs  of  plants  and  animals  respectively,  the  particles  of 
matter  can  be  traced  moving,  in  obeaience  to  forces  which  are 
unseen,  from  "  molecular  conditions  "  which  appear  to  be  those 
of  almost  complete  homogeneity  to  other  molecular  conditions 
which  are  of  inconceivable  complexity.  In  that  mystery  of  all 
mysteries,  of  which  physicists  talk  so  glibly,  the  living  "nucleated 
cell,"  the  great  work  of  creation  may  be  seen  in  actual  operation, 
not  caused  by  "molecular  condition,*'  but  determining  it,  and, 
from  elements  which  to  all  our  senses  and  to  all  our  means  of  in- 
vestigation appear  absolutely  the  same,  building  up  the  molecules 
of  Protoplasm,  now  into  a  sea- weed,  now  into  a  cedar  of  Lebanon, 
now  into  an  insect,  now  into  a  fish,  now  into  a  reptile,  now  into  a 
bird,  now  into  a  man.  And  in  proportion  as  the  molecules  of 
matter  do  not  seem  to  be  the  masters  but  the  servants  here,  so  do 
the  forces  which  dispose  of  them  stand  ou4  separate  and  supreme. 
In  every  germ  this  development  can  only  be  "after  its  kind." 
The  molecules  must  obey ;  but  no  mere  wayward  or  capricious 
order  can  be  given  to  them.  The  formative  energies  seem  to  be 
as  much  under  command  as  the  materials  upon  which  they  work. 
For,  invisible,  intangible,  and  imponderable  as  these  forces  are — 
unknown  and  even  inconceivable  as  they  must  be  in  their  ulti- 
mate nature — enough  can  be  traced  of  their  working  to  assure  us 
that  they  are  all  closely  related  to  each  other,  and  belong  to  a 
system  which  is  one.  Out  of  the  chemical  elements  of  Nature,  in 
numerous  but  definite  combinations,  it  is  the  special  function  of 
vegetable  life  to  lay  the  foundations  of  organic  mechanism;  while 
it  is  the  special  function  of  animal  life  to  take  in  the  materials 
thus  supplied,  and  to  build  them  up  into  the  highest  and  most 
complicated  structures.  This  involves  a  vast  cycle  of  operations, 
as  to  the  unity  of  which  we  cannot  be  mistaken — for  it  is  a  cycle 
of  operations  obviously  depending  on  adjustments  among  all  the 
forces  both  of  solar  and  terrestrial  physics — and  every  part  of 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qua/rterUes.  353 

this  vast  series  of  adjustments  must  be  in  continuous  and  unbro- 
ken correlation  with  the  rest. 

Thus  every  step  in  the  progress  of  science  which  tends  to  reduce 
all  organisms  to  one  set  of  elementary  substances,  or  to  one  initial 
structure,  only  adds  to  the  certainty  with  which  we  conclude  that 
it  is  upon  something  else  than  composition  and  structure  that  those 
vast  differences  ultimately  depend  which  separate  so  widely  be- 
tween living  things  in  rank,  in  function,  and  m  power.  Although 
we  cannot  tell  what  that  something  is — although  science  does  not 
as  yet  even  tend  to  explain  what  the  directive  agencies  are  or 
how  they  work — one  thmg,  at  least,  is  plain:  that  if  a  very  few 
elementary  substances  can  enter  into  an  untold  variety  of  combi- 
nations, and  by  virtue  of  this  variety  can  be  made  to  play  a  vast 
variety  of  parts,  this  result  can  only  be  attained  by  a  system  of 
mutual  adjustments  as  immense  as  the  variety  it  produces,  as 
minute  as  the  differences  on  which  it  depends,  and  as  centralized 
in  direction  as  the  order  and  harmony  of  its  results.  And  so  we 
come  to  understand  that  the  unity  which  we  see  in  nature  is  that 
kind  of  unity  which  the  mind  recognizes  as  the  result  of  opera- 
tions similar  to  its  own — not  a  unity  which  consists  in  sameness 
of  material,  or  in  identity  of  composition,  or  in  uniformitv  of 
structure,  but  a  unity  which  consists  in  similar  principles  oi  ac- 
tion— ^that  is  to  say,  in  like  methods  of  subordinating  a  few  ele- 
mentary forces  to  the  discharge  of  special  functions,  and  to  the 
production,  by  adjustment,  of  one  harmonious  whole. 

North  Amkrioan  Review,  February,  1881.  (New  York.)  —  1.  The  Nicaragua 
Canal;  bj  General  U.  S.  Grant.  2.  The  Pulpit  and  the  Pew ;  by  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes.  8.  Aaron^s  Rod  in  Politics ;  by  Judge  Albion  W.  Tourgee.  4.  Did 
Shakspeare  write  Bacon's  Works?  by  James  Freeman  Clarke.  6.  Partisanship  in 
the  Supreme  Court ;  by  Senator  Jolm  T.  Morgan.  6.  The  Ruins  of  Central  Amer- 
ica, Part  VI ;  by  D^r^  Chamay.    7.  Poetry  of  the  Future ;  by  Walt  Whitman. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  name  of  General  Grant,  and  the 
great  importance  of  the  isthmian  transit,  the  prime  article  of 
this  number  is  Judge  Tourgee's  on  "  Aaron's  Rod  in  Politics." 
Wrapt  up  in  this  enigmatical  title  is  a  very  able  discussion  of 
the  method  of  removing  the  illiteracy  of  the  people,  especially 
of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  endowing  every  voter  with  the 
intelligence  necessary  to  an  intelligent  vote.  The  proportions 
of  this  illiteracy  is  thus  presented : 

Voting  population  of  the  United  States 7,628,000 

*♦            "              "       former  slave  States. 2,776,000 

Illiterate  male  adults  in  the  United  States .' 1,580,000 

"            "        "                former  slave  Sutes 1,128,000 

Per  cent  illiterate  voters  in  United  States  to  entire  vote. 20 

"               "               "     slaveStates 45 

**               "               "     States  not  slave 9 

"             .  "                "     South  Carolina 69 

Illiterate  voters  in  Southern  States  (white) 804,000 

"                "                "                 (colored) 819,000 


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354  Methodist  QiuxHerly  Review.  tApril, 

From  this  table  the  following  facts  will  be  apparent: 

1.  The  sixteen  Southern  States  contain  about  one  third  of  our 
voting  population,  and  almost  three  fourths  of  our  illiteracy. 

2.  Forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  voters  of  the  Southern  States  are 
unable  to  read  their  ballots. 

3.  The  illiteracy  of  the  South,  plus  six  per  cent,  of  its  literate 
voters,  can  exercise  the  entire  power  of  those  States. 

4.  If  this  illiterate  vote  be  neutralized  by  force  or  fraud,  a 
majority  of  the  intelligent  voters,  or  twenty-eight  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  vote  of  those  States,  will  exercise  their  entire  national 
strength. 

These  States  have  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  electoral  votes; 
or,  in  other  words,  they  .exercise  seventy-two  per  cent,  of  the  power 
necessary  to  choose  a  President  or  constitute  a  majority  m  the 
House  01  Representatives,  and  eighiy-four  per  cent,  of  a  majority 
in  the  Senate. 

By  reason  of  their  ignorance,  forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  voters 
of  the  South  are  unable: 

1.  To  know  what  is  their  political  duty. 

2.  To  be  sure  that  their  votes  actually  represent  their  wishes. 

3.  To  secure  the  counting  of  the  ballots  which  they  cast. 

4.  To  protect  themselves  in  the  exercise  of  their  ballotorial 
privileges. — P.  144. 

We  lately  read  in  a  Southern  Methodist  paper  an  ingenious 
article,  evidently  written  by  a  man  of  culture,  claiming  to  show 
that  a  common  school  education  was  unnecessary  for  public 
political  safety,  for  "our  fathers,  who  founded  our  Constitution, 
were  illiterate,  having  in  fact  no  common  school  system.  The 
article  was  self-contradictory.  For,  if  ignorant  men  can  con- 
struct a  government  just  as  well  as  the  educated,  why  could  he 
not  have  framed  just  as  good  an  article  without  the  knowledge 
of  grammar,  orthography,  or  penmanship?  Judge  Tourgee 
had  evidently  encountered  this  argument,  and  gives  reply : 

OuB  Founders  were  Picked  Men. 

The  immigration  to  our  shores  (except  the  pauper  and  penal 
immigration  to  some  of  the  Southern  plantations)  had  chiefly  been 
confined  to  religious  malcontents,  who  came  to  avoid  persecution, 
and  persons  who  voluntarily  left  their  homes  to  seek  advantage 
from  settlement  in  unbroken  wilds.  This  very  fact  stamps  them 
as  among  the  most  enterprising,  far-seeing  and  determined  of 
their  respective  classes.  They  were  really  picked  men.  The 
doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  never  had  a  better  illustra- 
tion than  in  the  settlement  of  the  American  colonies.  This  was 
the  main  reason  why  our  early  settlers,  coming  as  they  did  chiefly 
from  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  England,  developed  so  sud- 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QuaHerlies.  355 

denly  a  capacity  for  self-government,  invented  new  governmental 
forms,  and  adapted  themselves  to  untried  conditions  with  sach 
astonishing  ease. — P.  149. 

Our  author  would  not  raise  a  fund  and  intrust  it  to  any 
State,  since  ample  experience  shows  that  it  would  be  very  lia- 
ble to  be  squandered  by  the  demagogues  in  the  Southern  States, 
as  other  national  bestowments  have  been.    He  would  adopt  the 

Model  of  the  Pbabodt  Fund. 

It  is,  in  effect,  the  plan  adopted  in  the  distribution  of  the  Pea- 
body  Fund,  and  has  there  shown  itself  well  calculated  both  to 
secure  immunity  from  imposition  and  also  to  awaken  public  in- 
terest and  co-operation  in  educational  work.  By  this  wise 
method  of  administration  the  trustees  have  doubled,  and  perhaps 
trebled,  the  value  of  Peabody's  munificent  benefaction.  Giving 
to  no  school  enough  to  wholly  sustain  it;  requiring  it  to  be  kept 
open  a  certain  number  of  months  in  every  school  year;  to  have  a 
certain  minimum  of  enrolled  pupils  and  a  certain  average  at- 
tendance during  that  time;  and,  above  all,  paying  only  when  its 
work  has  been  done;  the  Peabody  Fund  has  done  more  good  bv 
inducing  others  to  give  than  by  the  funds  actually  distributed. 
Its  working  has  been  altogether  harmonious  both  with  State  sys- 
tems and  free  schools  niamtained  by  private  subscription.  The 
same  system  adopted  by  the  nation  would  have  a  like  effect.  If 
the  authorities  of  a  State  should  refuse  to  co-operate  with  the 
nation,  the  people  of  the  separate  districts  of  such  State  might 
still  share  its  benefits  by  a  little  individual  exertion.  It  would 
only  be  necessary,  in  order  to  carry  out  this  provision,  to  ascer- 
tain the  number  of  illiterates  in  any  specified  territory  of  each 
race,  apportion  the  fund  thereto,  and,  before  giving  money  to 
any  school  within  that  town  or  district,  to  require  proof  either 
that  it  was  open  to  all  races,  or,  in  States  where  public  opinion 
does  not  allow  of  mixed  schools,  that  like  opportunity  was 
afforded  to  the  other  race  by  other  schools  in  such  district.  Of 
course,  the  details  of  this  would  require  careful  elaboration.  No 
man  could  to-day  draw  a  bill  sufficientlv  broad  and  elastic  to 
meet  all  the  needs  of  such  a  system.  Only  care,  experience,  and 
the  most  extended  study  of  the  data  furnished  by  full  and  careful 
reports,  could  enable  one  to  accomplish  such  a  task. — Pp.  166, 157. 

The  question  next  discussed  is, 

By  Whom  would  this  Plan  be  Opposed? 

It  is  in  the  Southern  States  alone  that  any  opposition  to  such  a 
plan  of  national  action  is  to  be  anticipated.     The  mistaken  ideas 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  "  Solid  South,"  in  regard  to  the  true 
interests  of  that  section,  naturally  incline  them  to  oppose  any  • 
thing  looking  toward  governmental  action  in  this  respect,  and 


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356  MetJvodist  Qa(vrteTly  Review.  [April, 

many  of  their  leaders  would  be  bitterly  hostile  to  any  thin  j  which 
promised  to  secure  the  enlightenment  of  their  constituents. 
Their  power  depends  in  great  measure  on  the  ignorance  of  the 
masses.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  leaders  of  the  ''  Solid 
South  "  are  the  best  men  of  the  organization  which  they  control. 
They  are,  to  a  large  extent,  the  buccaneers,  the  desperadoes,  of 
their  own  party;  the  men  who  were  bold  enough  and  unscrupu- 
lous enough  to  assume  its  leadership  in  the  days  of  active  kuklux- 
ism,  and  head  the  revolutionary  organizations  which  gave  it 
power.  They  are  men  who  gained  prominence  by  their  boldness 
m  directing  movements  which  touched  the  verge  of  treason,  were 
unlawful  and  violent.  There  were  many  who  sympathized  with 
the  purposes  of  such  organizations  who  did  not  approve  of  their 
methods.  Few  cared  to  face  danger  and  ostracism  to  oppose ; 
but  many  tacitly  disapproved.  These  are  the  really  "best  men" 
of  the  "Solid  South."  As  a  rule,  they  are  not  extravagantly 
proud  of  their  present  leaders.  Many  of  them — and  the  number 
IS  hourly  increasing — are  becoming  more  and  more  convinced 
that  the  education  of  the  voter  is  the  only  chance  for  the  perma- 
nent prosperity  of  their  section.  These  would  undoubtedly  give 
in  their  adhesion  to  such  a  system. — P.  158. 

Senator  Morgan's  article  on  "  Partisanship  in  the  Supreme 
Court "  is  an  insidious  plea  in  behalf  of  judicial  treason.  What 
he  virtually  demands  is  that  the  nation  should  place  judges  on 
the  bench  hostile  to  our  national  existence.  It  is  a  true  traitor's 
plea.  It  asks  this  nation  to  disregard  the  law  of  national  self- 
preservation.  More  than  once  did  the  Democratic  Supreme 
Court,  during  the  Rebellion,  aim  a  blow  at  the  Union  cause. 
Notably,  when  the  question  of  the  power  of  the  government 
to  blockade  the  rebel  States  came  before  that  court,  the  Demo- 
cratic majority  would  have  given  victory  to  secession  by  a  neg- 
ative decision  had  not  Judge  Grier  deserted  tlieir  side  and  left 
them  alone  in  their  disloyalty.  No  man  who  ever  took  arms, 
or  favored  the  use  of  amis,  against  his  country ;  no  man  who 
denies  that  we  are  a  nation,  or  claims  that  a  single  State  has  a 
right  to  dismember  our  nationality,  ought  ever  to  be  seated  in 
that  court.  And  such  an  exclusion  is  not  partisanship  but  patri- 
otism. 

James  Freeman  Clarke  furnishes  an  ingenious  argument 
against  certain  modem  theorists,  to  show  that  Bacon  did  not 
write  Shakspeare,  but  that  Shakspeare  wrote  Bacon.  You  find 
the  argument  so  skillfully  conducted  that,  if  not  convinced 
yourself,  you  are  likely  to  believe  that  the  writer  is,  when  he 
unceremoniously  breaks  up  the  play  by  telling  you  that  he  is 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  357 

only  parodying  the  opposite  argument,  and  showing  that  the 
historic  fact  stands  undisturbed  that  Shakspeare  wrote  Shaks- 
peare  and  Bacon  wrote  Bacon. 

We  are  sorry  that  the  able  editor  encourages  charlatanry  by 
inserting  Walt  Whitman's  semi-idiotic  twaddle. 


EnglisK  Heviews, 

British  and  Forbion  EvANOSLiCiLL  Reyibw,  January,  1881.  (London.) — 1.  Agnos- 
ticism ;  by  Rev.  Robert  Flint,  D.D.,  LL.D.  2.  Evolution  and  the  Hebrews :  A 
Review  of  Herbert  Spencer's  **  Hebrews  and  Phoenicians ;  "  by  Rev.  Alfred  Cave, 
B.A.  8.  The  Eloquence  of  the  Pulpit.  Translated  by  Clement  De  Faye  from 
the  French  of  the  late  Adolphe  Monod.  4.  Two  Modem  Apostles ;  by  Rev.  Alex, 
Macleod  Symington,  B.A.  5.  Christian  Philosophy  of  Patience.  6.  The  Ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath ;  by  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon,  D.D.  7.  Evolution  in  Rela- 
tion to  Species ;  by  Rev.  J.  H.  M'llvaine,  D.D.  8.  Criteria  of  the  Various  Kinds 
of  Truth ;  by  Rev.  James  M'Cosh,  D.D.  9.  The  Regeneration  of  Palestine ;  by 
Prof.  WiUiam  WeUs.     10.  The  Faith  of  Islam ;  by  Rev.  Edward  SeU. 

British  Quarterly  Rivirw,  January,  1881.  (London.) — 1.  Congregationalism. 
2.  Ugo  Bassi.  3.  The  Lord's  Supper  Historically  Considered.  4.  The  Consti- 
tutional Monarchy  in  Belgium.  5.  The  Christian  Church  and  War.  6.  Materi- 
alism, Pessimism,  and  Pantheism :  Final  Causes.  7.  Dr.  Julius  Muller.  8.  Some 
National  Aspects  of  Established  Churches. 

Edinburgh  Review,  January,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Memoirs  of  Prince  Metter- 
nich.    2.  The  Navies  of  the  World.    8.  Jacob  van  Arteveld,  the  Brewer  of  Ghent. 

4.  Endymion.  6.  Dr.  Caird  on  the  Philosophy  of  Religion.  6.  Laveleye's  Italy 
OS  It  Is.  7.  Army  Reform.  8.  Grove's  Dictionary  of  Music.  9.  Kinglake's  In- 
vasion of  the  Crimea.     10.  England  and  Ii:eland. 

Indian  Evangelical  Review,  October,  18§i.  (Calcutta.) — 1.  Missionary  Educa- 
tion ;  by  Rev.  C.  W.  Park.  2.  Foreign  Missions  of  the  M.  E.  Church  ;  by  Rev. 
James  Mudge,  B.A.,  B.D.  8.  The  Prospects  of  Hindu  Caste;  by  Rev.  M.  A. 
Sherring,  M.A.,  LL.B.  4.  Prayer  Books ;  by  Rev.  William  Harper,  M.A.  6.  Re- 
ply to  Mr.  Harper  on  Prayer  Books ;  by  Rev.  W.  R.  Blackett,  M.A.  6.  Intem- 
perance among  the  Santals  ;  by  A.  Campbell.  7.  Reasons  for  the  Adoption  of 
Ishwar,  as  the  Term  or  Equivalent  for  God,  in  the  Santali  Language ;  by  A. 
Campbell. 

London  Quarterly  Review,  January,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Lord  Campbell, 
Lord  Chief  Justice  and  Lord  Chancellor.  2.  Califomian  Society.  8.  Lord  Bo- 
lingbroke  in  Exile.  4.  Protection  of  British  Birds.  6.  Lord  Beaconsfield*s  En- 
dymion. 6.  Belief  and  Unbelief.  7.  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy's  History  of  Our  Own 
Times.  8.  Employment  of  Women  in  the  Public  Service.  9.  The  Ritualists  and 
the  Law.     10.  The  Truth  about  Ireland. 

London  Quarterly  Review,  January.  (London.) — 1.  The  Great  Pyramid  and  its 
Interpreters.  2.  National  Education:  English  and  Continental  8.  Recent 
Travels  in  Japan.    4.  The  Land  Question  in  England  and  Ireland  Contrasted. 

5.  Christianity  and  the  Science  of  Religion.  6.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.  7.  The  Protest  of  the  Wurtemberg  Clergy  against 
Methodism. 

The  seventh  article  is  a  reply,  written  with  Christian  modera- 
tion and  considerable  ability,  to  a  manifesto  from  certain  Lu- 
theran clergymen  against  our  German  Methodism.  The  man- 
ifesto aims  to  make  as  broad  a  doctrinal  issue  as  possible  against 


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358  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [April, 

Methodism,  charges  that  Methodism  is  as  much  to  be  avoided 
as  Rationalism  or  Eomanism,  and  gives  a  very  earnest  warning 
against  the  Methodistic  infection.  It  gives  a  catalogue  of  the 
disabilities  which  all  Methodists  mnst  incur,  in  the  following 
terms :  "  Every  member  of  our  Church  who  transfers  to  a 
Methodist  preacher  any  such  spiritual  function  as  marriage,  the 
baptism  or  confirmation  of  a  child,  or  the  burial  of  his  relatives, 
by  that  act  separates  himself  from  the  national  Church ;  and, 
until  he  returns,  will  be  deprived  of  all  his  ecclesiastical  privi- 
leges, especially  his  claim  to  the  burial  of  the  Church,  so  far  as 
the  presence  of  the  clergy  and  the  singing  of  the  choristers  at 
his  funeral  is  concerned.  Neither  can  such  a  one  vote  for,  or 
be  elected,  a  member  of  the  parish  vestry.  The  clergy  will 
not  permit  any  child  to  be  confirmed  who  at  the  same  time  is 
receiving  religious  instruction  from  the  Methodists." — P.  443. 
Our  reviewer  adds :  "  It  is  the  story  with  which  Methodism  in 
England  is  thoroughly  familiar.  The  community  of  German 
Methodists  is  in  a  certain  sense  excommunicated,  and  must  go 
on  its  way  under  the  protection  of  the  law." — P.  443. 

Of  the  nature  and  consequences  of  these  onslaughts  by  the 
state  clergy  on  Methodism  the  reviewer  gives  the  following 
excellent  paragraph : 

The  Theses  wind  up  with  very  practical  suggestions:  "16.  The 
best  means  against  Methodism  is  doctrine  in  conformity  with  our 
confession  and  care  for  souls.  But  to  these  must  be  added  polem- 
ics in  preaching  and  in  catechising.  It  must  be  regarded  as  a 
plain  duty,  flowing  from  pastoral  compassion  for  the  poor  flock, 
that  a  definition  of  what  is  Methodistic  and  what  is  Lutheran  is 
not  to  be  shunned.  It  must  be  clearly  explained  that  the  ques- 
tion is  not  about  a  State  Church  or  a  Free  Church,  about  the 
clergy  or  the  meeting,  but  about  another  way  of  salvation,  when 
in  truth  there  is  no  other.  17.  Where  the  Methodist  is  purposing 
to  nestle,  visits  to  those  who  are  threatened  are  desirable.  Plain 
statements  from  the  pulpit  and  historical  instruction  at  special 
services  have  been  proved  to  be  beneficial.  In  addition,  the  pa- 
rishioners must  be  taught  to  distinguish  Methodist  individuals 
from  Methodist  societies,  and  not  to  sin  against  Methodists,  but 
rather  to  learn  from  them."  All  that  the  objects  of  these  cau- 
tions could  desiire  is  that  this  "  historical  information  "  should  be 
honestly  given.  There  should  be  perfect  truth  in  these  polemics 
and  catechisings.  All  misstatements  and  exaggerations  are 
wrong  in  themselves  and  should  be  shunned;  moreover,  they  are 
sure  to  be  found  out  sooner  or  later.  The  defendant  has  nothing 
to  fear  in  any  case.     No  surer  means  of  bringing  the  character  of 


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1881.1  Synopsis  of  the  QicarterUes.  369 

Methodism  to  light  could  be  adopted  than  this  public  preaching 
and  private  teaching  against  them.  People  will  be  stimulated  to 
inquire  who  they  are  who  are  as  bad  as  infidels  and  Romanists, 
and  to  read  their  books,  and  to  ask  what  are  those  *^  activities 
peculiar  to  Methodism ''  which,  on  the  other  hand,  their  pastors 
recommend  for  "  adaptation  to  our  own  Church."  They  will  find 
out  that  these  activities  are,  after  all,  very  much  like  the  healthy 
charitable  vigor  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  and,  indeed,  that 
those  which  are  most  "  peculiar "  are  marvelously  akin  to  those 
Pietistic  methods  of  encouraging  godliness  to  which  South  Ger- 
many owes  much  of  the  religion  it  has.  Now  this  kind  of  dis- 
covery invariably  tends  to  recommend  the  system  which  these 
ministers  abhor.  If  they  were  well  read  in  the  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory of  Great  Britain  in  the  last  century — a  branch  of  learning  in 
which  German  divines  generally  show  themselves  strangely  defi- 
cient— they  would  know  that  these  "  polemics  "  were  among  the 
most  nourishing  elements  of  the  growth  of  Methodism.  It  has 
always  thriven  on  this  kind  of  diet.  The  Lutheran  clergy  could  not 
more  effectually  serve  the  cause  they  wish  to  suppress  than  by  de- 
claiming against  it  in  the  style  of  these  declamations. — Pp.  442, 443. 

The  action  of  the  Methodist  ministry  in  reply  is  thus  in 
conclusion  stated : 

As  we  approached  the  close  of  this  short  paper  a  sheet  reached 
us  containing  the  Reply  issued,  under  the  sanction  of  the  English 
and  American  Methodist  ministers,  by  Mr.  Dieterle,  one  of  their 
body.  It  is  a  temperate  and  well-argued  letter,  and  clearly 
traces  the  chain  of  circumstances — clerical  intolerance  and  the 
leadings  of  Providence — which  have  justified  the  attitude  assumed 
by  the  German  Methodists,  with  the  help  of  England  and  America. 
We  have  reason  to  believe  that  this  counter  plea  has  been  useful 
in  circles  independent  of  the  two  bodies,  and  hope  that  it  will 
tend  to  awaken  more  moderate  thoughts,  and  thoughts  more 
worthy  of  themselves,  in  the  minds  of  the  evangelical  clergy 
themselves.  Meanwhile,  we  think  that  the  attacked  should  de- 
fend themselves  by  a  dignified  and  silent  discharge  of  their  duties. 
They  should  not  be  drawn  into  polemics.  No  good  can  come  of 
them.  Meek  submission  to  whatever  penalties  they  have  to 
endure,  and  a  persevering  return  of  good  for  evil,  will  do  more 
than  multitudes  of  pamphlets  or  sermons.  But  our  space  is  gone; 
and  we  must,  for  a  time  at  least,  dismiss  this  painful  controversy. 
—Pp.  443,  444. 

The  following  paragraph  occurs  in  a  book  notice  of  Dr. 
Maccracken's  "  Lives  of  the  Leaders  of  the  Church  Universal," 
criticising  especially  the  American  part  of  that  book : 

It  would  be  easy  to  take  exception  to  much  in  the  execution  of  the 
task  that  Dr.  Maccracken  set  himself.    The  very  plan  of  the  book. 


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360  MetJvodist  Quarterly  Review.  FApril, 

which  associates  some  eighty  authors  in  the  composition  of  more 
than  a  hundred  lives,  renders  it  very  unequal  in  style  and  merit. 
In  some  sections  the  ecclesiastical  element  predominates,  in  others 
the  historical,  and  in  others  the  devotional.  Occasionally  the  mat- 
ter is  paltry,  as  when  a  doctor  in  divinity,  after  fixing  the  average 
weight  of  Bishop  M'Kendree  at  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds, 
introduces  us  to  a  curious  discussion  as  to  the  color  of  his  eyes. 
But,  as  a  rule,  the  information  is  reliable^  and  the  leading  traits 
in  the  character  are  rightly  and  forcefully  portrayed.  Some  of 
the  lives,  indeed,  are  exquisitely  well  told,  and  no  one  can  read 
the  familiar  stories  of  Lawrence,  of  the  girl-martvrs  at  Lyons  and 
Carthage,  or  of  Monica  and  hfer  son,  without  seemg  fresh  beauty 
in  them,  and  having  his  devotion  stirred  and  his  admiration  re- 
awakened. Except  for  very  frequent  Americanisms  in  phrase 
and  spelling,  the  rendering  is  fairly  done,  though  amid  the  exi- 
gencies of  translation  the  rights  of  grammar  are  not  alwavH 
respected,  and  sentences  of  this  kind  too  often  disfigure  the 
pages:  "By  exceeding  diligence  the  youth  was  soon  so  far  along 
m  grammatic  studies  that  he  could  give  lessons,  and  so  earn  his 
own  living."  By  a  little  more  care  in  his  editorial  work,  and  a 
rigid  preference  of  pure  forms  of  English  to  bastard  ones,  etc.. 
Dr.  Maccracken  will  be  able  to  rid  this  first  series  of  its  few 
blemishes;  and,  if  he  show  similar  skill  in  selection  in  the  next 
series,  he  will  have  accomplished  the  great  work  of  proving  his- 
torically the  identity  of  the  Christian  religion  under  all  names, 
and  in  all  places  and  ages,  since  the  ascension — 

We  interrupt  the  sentence  in  the  midst  of  its  exuberant 
flow  to  say  that  the  entire  train  of  remarks  is  characterized  by 
that  tone  of  excessive  self-respect  which  renders  our  English 
cousin  both  in  Europe  and  America,  so  often  much  more  agree- 
able to  himself  than  to  any  body  else.  Our  own  experience  is 
that  as  many  an  ugly  looking  linguistic  "  bastard  "  is  often  be- 
gotten in  England  as  in  any  other  part  of  the  globe ;  though 
our  reviewer  would  doubtless  reply,  at  least  mentally,  that  an 
Englishman's  "  bastard  "  is,  of  com^se,  truly  legitimate.  For  is 
not  an  Englishman's  talk  truly  English  ?  Yet  an  American  hears 
in  England  phrases  from  even  literary  mouths  that  sound  won- 
derfully "  bastard."  He  may  hear  an  English  clergyman  main- 
taining from  the  pulpit  that  "  a  young  man  ought  to  get  any 
He  wonders  when  he  hears  an  Englishman  say,  "  This  is  differ- 
ent to  that ;"  or,  "  Immediately  that  this  took  place  that  event 
followed."  Even  in  this  writer's  high-toned  criticism,  he  won- 
ders whether  "  reliable  "  is  legitimate  or  "  bastard."  And  the 
very  phrase  in  which  this  exception  to  "Americanisms"  is  taken 


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1881.]  Synoj>8is  of  the  Qua/rterlies.  361 

seems  to  iis  very  "  bastard."  '^Except  for  very  frequent  Amer- 
icanisms," etc.,  is,  we  rejoice  to  say,  not  American,  and  we  be- 
lieve is  not  English.  It  seems  to  ns  that  so  peremptory  a  critic 
shonld  write  in  legitimate  style ;  or  are  we  to  understand  that 
when  an  Englishman  begets  a  new  linguistic  kink  it  is  a  legit- 
imate, but,  if  an  American,  a  "  bastard  ?"  On  this  point  we 
have  a  few  words  to  offer. 

The  very  adjective  English  as  applied  to  language  is  not  a 
geographical  but  an  ethnological  term.  When  we  profess  to 
speak  English  we  have  no  reference  to  a  locality.  What  is 
called  the  English  language  is  as  much  the  property  of  the  man 
bom  in  America  or  Australia  as  of  the  man  bom  in  London. 
To  the  common  English-speaking  race  we  owe  the  duty  to  seek 
to  maintain  such  uniformity  as  will  tend  to  preserve  the  lan- 
guage as  one.  But  that  can  never  be  accomplished  by  setting 
one  locality — a  locality  noted  for  its  recklessness  of  speech  and 
utterance — as  supreme  and  capricious  arbiter.  The  vast  En- 
glish-speaking republic  will  not  leave  it  to  cockneydom  to 
decide  at  its  own  sweet  will  what  is  purity  of  language.  A 
word  is  none  the  worse  for  being  an  Americanism.  A  new 
word  must  attain  legitimacy  not  from  the  spot  in  which  it  is 
bom,  but  by  its  own  intrinsic  excellence.  If  it  expertly  express 
a  shade  of  thought  demanding  its  designation,  if  euphonious,  if 
accordant  with  the  laws  of  analogy  so  as  to  define  itself  instantly 
to  the  whole  world-wide  republic,  it  needs  no  certificate  from 
England.  If  not,  it  is  tmly  "  bastard,"  though  begotten  by  an 
English  adulterer.  So  long,  indeed,  as  England's  present  pre- 
eminence in  literary  rank  remains,  the  decently  expressed  dis- 
approval of  English  criticism  wiU  command  respect.  But  the 
great  future  of  the  language  is  with  America.  And  when  an 
Englishman  puts  on  his  expansive  strut  and  talks  about  a  "  vile 
Americanism"  and  "bastard,"  contempt  is  a  game  that  two 
can  play  at. 

As  to  "  spelling,"  we  remember  the  statement  of  an  eminent 
German,  that  the  English  language,  by  the  simplicity  of  its 
syntax,  is  the  best  of  all  languages  for  universal  diffusion,  but 
its  universality  is  prevented  by  its  whimsical  orthography. 
And,  we  may  add,  its  whimsical  orthography  is  kept  in  exist- 
ence by  the  stiffness  of  English  conservatism,  which  prefers  an 
absurdity  simply  because  of  its  being  in  place  and  familiar  to 


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362  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [April, 

the  eye.  We  have  no  belief  that  America  will  be  brain-bound 
through  centuries  by  any  such  obstructiveism.  We  believe  the 
time  is  coming  when  the  ricketty  old  spelling-machine  Mrill  be 
"  smashed,"  and  a  beautiful  reconstruction  come  into  existence. 


Oerrrum  Reviews, 

Thsologische  Studdek  und  Kjutiken.  (Theological  Essays  and  Reviews.)  1881. 
Second  Number.  Et»ay9:  1.  Rokdenbkrg,  On  Marriage  with  Special  Regard 
to  Divorce,  and  the  Remarriage  of  Divorced  Persons.  TJwughU  and  Remarks  : 
1.  ToLLiN,  Servetus  on  Preaching,  Baptism,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  2.  Nowack, 
Remarks  on  the  Fourteenth  Tear  of  Hislcia.  8.  Hollinbkro,  Critical  Remarks 
on  the  Second  Martyrdom  of  St.  Ignatius.  Reviews:  I.  Knaakr,  Review  of 
Three  Works  on  Servetus  by  Tollin.  2.  Siegfrikd,  Review  of  Nowack's  Com- 
mentary to  the  Prophet  Hosea.  Miseellaneous :  1.  Programme  of  the  Hague 
Society  for  the  Defense  of  the  Christian  Religion  for  the  Year  1880.  2.  Pro- 
gramme of  the  teyler  Theological  Society  at  Haarlem  for  the  Year  1881. 

According  to  Dr.  Roedenberg,  the  author  of  the  first  article,  the 
introduction  of  civil  marriage,  if  viewed  from  the  stand-point 
of  the  Evangelical  Church,  is  in  general  of  a  very  questionable 
advantage,  but  in  one  respect  it  has  had  a  very  favorable  in- 
fluence upon  the  shaping  of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the 
State,  (of  course,  he  means  the  Evangelical  Church  of  Ger- 
many.) "  It  has  freed,"  he  says,  "  the  Church  from  the  ob- 
struction which  had  hitherto  prevented  the  scriptural  manage- 
ment of  the  laws  relating  to  the  Christian  marriage.  This 
libei-ation  imposes  upon  the  Evangelical  Church  the  duty  of 
examining  a^in  and  again  the  principles  by  which  she  judges 
the  admissibility  and  the  consequences  of  divorce  by  the  words 
of  Holy  Writ.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  repeated  attempts 
which  the  Church  has  made  at  different  times  to  harmonize 
her  action  with  the  demands  of  Holy  Writ  have,  in  spite  of 
all  the  labor  expended  upon  them,  remained  at  length  without 
lasting  result.  This  consideration  should  lead  to  a  new  investi- 
gation whether  or  not  thi^  principles  by  which  the  Church  has 
been  guided  suffer  from  a  mistake  which  hitherto  has  not  been 
sufficiently  recognized  and  appreciated.  I  find  this  mistake  in 
the  doctrine  of  malicious  abandonment.  I  am  of  opinion  that  this 
doctrine  is  irreconcilably  opposed  to  the  teachings  of  the  Lord 
and  the  apostles,  and  that,  consistently  developed,  it  must  lead 
to  the  principle  of  the  absolute  solubility  of  marriage.  As 
long  as  malicious  abandonment  is  recognized  as  a  scriptural 
ground  for  divorce  so  long  will  the  force  of  consistency  induce 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qicarterlies.  363 

people  to  recognize  also  numerous  other  grounds  for  divorce 
as  justified,  and  all  counter-efforts  will  finally  be  in  vain." 

Dr.  Koedenberg  says  that  his  article  is  intended  to  prove  the 
above  assertions  to  be  correct.  This  truth,  however,  appears 
to  him  to  be  impossible  without  examining  more  closely,  under 
the  guidance  of  Holy  Writ,  the  nature  and  essence  of  marriage, 
and  without,  in  particular,  contemplating  marriage  also  with 
regard  to  its  natural  basis  and  its  effects,  (the  unitas  camis,) 
from  which  the  Lord  himself,  in  opposition  to  the  Pharisees, 
derives  the  indissolubility  of  marriage.  In  order  to  appreciate 
this  point  in  its  full  significance  it  may  be  of  service  to  re- 
member how  from  the  time  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  scriptural 
views  of  the  bodily  unity  of  married  persons  controlled  the 
consciences  of  the  people,  how  they  shaped  the  formation  of 
the  laws  on  marital  affairs,  especially  on  the  judicial  conse- 
quences of  the  marriage,  as  the  laws  of  inheritance  and  prop- 
erty. The  author  announces  that  he  will  treat  of  these  points 
more  fully  than  is  generally  the  case,  in  order  to  show  their 
consistency  and  validity.  In  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Eoedenberg 
the  Church  Fathers  were  right  who  represented  a  divorce  as  be- 
coming perfect  only  by  the  remarriage  of  the  divorced  persons. 
"  The  Lord  does  not  condemn  a  mere  separation  as  much  as 
the  remarriage  of  the  divorced,  and  the  apostle  also  judges 
leniently  on  mere  separation.  But  the  remarriage  of  divorced 
persons  is  repeatedly  and  emphatically  designated  by  the  Lord 
as  adultery.  He  exempts  from  this  judgment  only  the  remar- 
riage of  those  who  were  separated  on  account  of  the  nopveia  of 
the  other  part.  It  is  not  diflicult  to  determine  the  position 
of  the  Church  with  regard  to  the  divorced,  as  long  as  they 
remain  single;  but  the  difficulty  begins  as  soon  as  the  di- 
vorced contract  a  new  marriage,  and  demand  from  the  Church 
to  recognize  them  as  man  and  wife,  to  admit  them  to  the 
Loid's  Supper,  and  to  solemnize  their  marriage."  The  ques- 
tions connected  with  these  points  cannot  be  thoroughly  an- 
swered without  previously  elucidating  what  is  effected  in  re- 
gard to  the  conclusion  of  a  perfect  marriage  by  the  civil  mar- 
riage act,  what  by  the  beginning  of  this  marital  communion 
and  the  consummation  of  the  marriage,  and  what  remains  to  be 
consummated  by  the  religious  solemnization  of  the  marriage. 
This  is  an  outline  of  the  treatise  which  the  author  intends  to 


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364  Methodist  QuaHerly  Jievtew.  [April, 

write  on  the  subject.    It  is  begun  in  the  present  number  of  the 
Sttcdieriy  and  will  be  concluded  in  the  next. 

The  readers  of  the  German  Theological  Quarterlies  during 
the  last  twenty  years  cannot  but  have  noticed  the  great  num- 
ber of  books,  pamphlets,  and  articles  treating  of  Michael  Ser- 
vetus,  the  learned  Spaniard  of  the  sixteenth  century  who  was 
burned  by  order  of  Calvin  for  having  denied  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity.  What  is  still  more  remarkable,  all  these  numer- 
ous publications  have  been  written  by  one  man,  H.  Tollin, 
pastor  at  Magdeburg.  In  the  present  number  of  the  Studien 
we  have  from  his  pen  one  new  article,  entitled,  "  Servetus  on 
Preaching,  Baptism,  and  the  Lord's  Supper,"  and  a  review  of 
three  different  books  published  by  him  since  1875,  and  entitled, 
"  Dr.  M.  Luther  and  Dr.  M.  Servetus,  Philip  Melanchthon  and 
M.  Servetus,  and  Michael  Servetus  and  Martin  Butzer."  For 
twenty  years  Mr.  Tollin  has  been  ransacking  the  libraries  of 
Germany,  Switzerland,  France  and  Northern  Italy,  to  find  new 
information  of  Michael  Servetus,  whom  he  regards  as  one  of 
the  literary  heroes  of  mankind,  and  to  whom  he  wishes  to  pro- 
cure that  prominent  place  which,  in  his  opinion,  is  due,  but  has 
hitherto  been  denied  to  him.  In  the  opinion  of  his  reviewer, 
Mr.  Tollin  is  no  historian,  he  is  carried  away  by  his  enthusiasm 
for  his  hero,  and  led  astray  into  the  most  exaggerated  asser- 
tions. He  is,  of  course,  deeply  interested  in  his  subject,  writes 
in  a  beautiful  style,  and  frequently  presents  views  which  sur- 
prise by  their  novelty.  But,  says  the  reviewer,  many  of  his 
statements  have  been  found  to  be  untrustworthy,  and  his  many 
new  books  and  articles  must,  therefore,  be  received  at  least 
with  a  great  reserve. 

ZiiTSCHRiFT  FUR  W188KN8CHXPTLICHE  Thkolooie.  (Journal  for  Scientific  The- 
ology.) Edited  by  Dr.  Hilgenfeld.  1881.  First  Number.  1.  Hilgenfeld, 
Cerdon  and  Marcion.  2.  W.  Grimm,  On  a  Few  Questions  concerning  the  Book 
Tobias.  2.  Fritsche,  The  Letter  of  Ratramnus  on  the  Kynokephaloi,  (Dog's 
Heads.)  4.  Tollik,  The  Generation  of  Jesus  in  Servetus*  "  Restitutio  Christian- 
ismi."     5.  Grunwald,  Contributions  to  the  History  of  the  Masora. 

Second  Number.  1.  Hiloenfkld,  The  Muratorianum  and  the  Investigations  by 
A.  Hamack  and  Franz  Overbeck.  2.  Julius  Furst,  Contributions  to  the 
Critical  Investigations  on  the  Books  of  Samuel.  3.  Seufert,  Relationship  be- 
tween the  first  Epistle  of  Peter  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.  4.  Roensch, 
Remarks  on  the  Itala.  5.  Eoli,  Remarks  on  the  Pentateuch,  (a)  On  Noah's 
Ravens,  (b)  On  Exodus,  i,  16.  6.  Preiss,  The  Origin  of  the  Jehovah  Worship. 
7.  Hilgenfeld,  The  Epistle  of  the  Yalentinian  Ptolemy  to  Flora. 

"  Of  all  the  heretics  of  the  ancient  Church,"  says  Dr.  Hilgen- 
feld, "  none  has  exerted  so  powerful  and  so  lasting  an  influence 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QiuirterUes.  365 

upon  hifl  time  aa  Marciwi  of  Pontus,  the  countryman  of  the 
cynic  philosopher,  Diogenes  of  Sinope.  No  other  heretic  of 
the  ancient  Church  is,  moreover,  of  so  great  importance  for 
the  critical  investigations  on  the  history  of  the  New  Testament 
as  Marcion,  who  opposed  his  own  canon  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
to  the  scriptural  canon  of  the  Orthodox  Church.  Even  the  old 
Church  workers  represented  him  as  the  destructive  critic  of 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles  of  Paul,  {TertuUiamis  adv.  Ma/rcionem^ 
iv,  3,)  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  modem  critical  school  lays 
stress  on  Marcion's  assertions  of  a  direct  opposition  between 
Paul  and  the  primitive  apostles,. regarding  it  an  ancient  testi- 
mony for  the  true  history  of  primitive  Christianity.  This 
modem  school  has  even  shown  to  Marcion  the  honor  of  find- 
ing polemical  references  to  him  in  several  writings  of  the  New 
Testament,  particularly  in  the  pastoral  letters  of  Paul.  '  It  is, 
therefore,  a  question  of  the  highest  importance  at  what  time 
and  in  what  manner  Marcion  made  his  appearance  as  a  heretic." 
According  to  the  ancient  Church  Fathers,  Marcion,  notwith- 
standing his  marked  originality,  was  closely  connected  with  the 
heretical  Gnosis.  It  is  in  particular  stated  by  Epiphanius  (see 
M'Clintock  and  Strong's  "Cyclopedia,"  art.,  Marcion)  that  Mar- 
cion joined  at  Kome  the  Syrian  Cerdon,  who  preached  in  that 
city  the  Gnostic  doctrines,  and  that  he  confessed  his  intention 
of  proclaiming  an  abiding  schism  in  the  Christian  Church. 
This  connection  between  Marcion  and  the  Gnostics  has  re 
cently  been  denied  by  Adolf  Hamack,  who  has  been  engaged 
for  some  time  in  preparing  a  special  work  on  Marcion,  the  first 
installment  of  which  was  published  in  1876  in  the  ^^ZeitscAriJi 
fur  Wissenschaftliche  Thedlogie^'^  (p.  80-120,)  in  an  article 
entitled,  ^^Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  der  Marcionitisohen  Kir- 
chenr  In  the  first  theological  essay  published  by  him,  {Z-wr 
QiLeUenkri'tik  des  Gnosticism'bk^  1873,)  Hamack  expresses  the 
opinion  that  "  the  originality  of  this  wonderful  man,  Marcion, 
is  so  extraordinary  that  it  cannot  be  sufficiently  emphasized. 
Entirely  different  from  the  Gnostics  who,  following  their  ab- 
Btmse  and  theoretical  speculations,  left  the  Christian  masses  far 
behind  them  and  conceded  to  them  as  psychists  a  certain  rela- 
tive right,  he  feels  himself  called  upon  to  work  among  these 
masses,  and  to  purify  and  transform  the  faith  which  animated 
them.  Because  he  was  fully  convinced  that  the  forms  in 
FouBTH  Sbmbs,  Vol.  XXXIII. — 24 

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366  Methodist  QuaHerly  H&oimo.  [April, 

which  the  Catholic  Christianity  of  his  times  had  become  crys- 
tallized were  not  only  not  entitled  to  any  recognition,  but  that 
they  were  absolutely  unchristian,  yea,  antichristian,  he  believed 
himself  to  have  received  the  mission  to  go  immediately  back,  in 
a  reformatory  manner,  to  the  primitive  history  of  Christianity, 
and  to  serve  a  Church— which  in  his  opinion  was  relapsing 
into  Judaism — as  the  only  tnistworthy  guide  in  the  return  to 
tlie  right  path.    In  this  sense  he  believes  in  his  own  divine 
mission.     As  formerly  Paul  was  commissioned  by  God  to 
bring  to  light  unadulterated  the  true  preaching  of  Christ,  thus 
a  hundred  years  later  he  was  divinely  commissioned  to  warn 
once  more,  in  the  same  manner,  the  erring  Church."     Hilgen- 
feld  considers  this  argumentation  of  Dr.  Hamack  as  being  in 
the  main  correct,  but  he  submits  that  if  Marcion  was  not  like 
the  other  Gnostics,  a  mere  man  of  the  school,  but  above  all  a 
man  of  deeds  and  of  life — if  he  did  not  care  so  much  for  a 
large  number  of  followers  as  for  a  reformation  of  the  entire 
Church — then  it  does  not  interfere  with  his  originality  if  he 
passed  through  the  school  of  a  Gnostic  like  Cerdon,  but  ob- 
tained his  peculiar  significance  as  an  ecclesiastical  agitator  and 
organizer.     Hilgenfeld  then  goes  on  to  examine  all  the  pas- 
sages in  the  early  Church  writers  which  refer  to  or  shed  light 
upon  the  relation  between  Cerdon  and  Marcion.     In  summing 
up  the  result  of  his  minute  investigations  he  finds  that  not  a 
single  one  of  the  Church  writers  whose  passages  he  has  ex- 
amined gives  us  the  right  to  represent  Marcion  as  a  heretical 
autodidact,  or  even  as  one  of  the  principal  heretics  blooming  at 
a  time  when  Yalentinus  and  Bauloder  were  only  blossoming. 
On  the  contrary,  he  arrives  at  the  opinion  that  Marcion  of 
Pontus  did,  for  a  considerable  length   of  time,  a  flourishing 
business  as  a  ship-owner ;  that  about  140  or  soon  after,  at  a 
time  when  he  was  already  a  Christian,  or  at  all  events  ac- 
quainted with  Polycarpus  of  Smyrna,  he  joined  the  Christian 
congregation  at  Kome ;  that  in  Rome  he  entered  into  a  closer 
connection  with  Cerdon,  the  Syrian,  and  entirely  fell  out  with 
the  Orthodox  Church.     Though  he  may  have  been  a  pupil 
and  follower  of  the  theoretical  heretic,  Cerdon,  he  practically 
did  a  great  deal  himself  by  widening  the  heresy  into  an  open 
itehism.     His  lasting  work  consisted  in  the  rupture  between 
a  Christianity  freed  from  the  law  on  the  one  hand,  and  all  ten- 


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1881.J  Synapsis  of  the  QttoHerUes.  367 

dencies  toward  Judaism  on  the  other,  and  in  the  foundation 
of  a  heretical  universal  Church  which  he  endeavored  to  spread 
throughout  the  world,  and  even  supplied  with  its  own  Script- 
ure. His  work  continued  to  exist  long  after  the  merely  the- 
oretical gnosis  had  ceased.  The  recent  literature  on  the  sub- 
ject, as  is  usual  in  the  articles  of  Professor  Hilgenfield,  is  copi- 
ously quoted. 


French  Reviews. 


BiYVB  CHRETiKinnc,  (Ohristhtn  Review.)  December,  ISSO. — 1.  Bbbsier,  The  Un- 
changeable Value  of  the  Teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  2.  E.  W.,  A  New  Life  of 
Saint  Paul.    8.  Loriot,  A  Great  Man  and  a  Grand  Nature. 

January,  1881. — 1.  Mouboh,  The  Physiology  of  the  Kind.  2.  Puaux,  The  Frendi 
Mission  in  South  Africa  among  tiie  Bassutos.  8.  E.  W.,  Lord  Beaconsfield^ 
New  NoveL 

February,  188l»— 1.  Sabatikb,  The  Future  of  Theology.  2.  Puaux,  The  French 
Mission  in  South  Africa  among  the  Bassutos.  (Second  Article.)  8.  ScHAnm, 
The  Lyric  Poets  of  Austria.    4.  E.  W.,  George  Eliot 

The  editors  of  the  Revue^  in  a  brief  preface  to  the  Decemb^ 
number,  announce  that  a  few  changes  will  be  made  in  the  edi- 
torial management  of  next  yearns  volume.  E.  de  Pressens4 
will  write  the  monthly  review  of  important  events  alone,  in- 
stead of  alternating  widi  A.  Sabatier.  The  latter  will  write  once 
every  three  months  a  huUetin  UUera/i/re.  Twice  a  year  M. 
Philippe  Bridel  will  give  a  huUeUn  jphUosqphiqvs.  The  Chron- 
ique  AUemcmde  by  Professor  Lichtenberger,  and  the  Chron- 
iqvs  Anglaise  will  be  continued  as  in  the  volume  for  1880. 

All  those  who  take  an  interest  in  the  progress  of  Protestant 
missions  in  pagan  countries  are  acquainted  with  the  French 
Protestant  mission  among  the  Sassutos,  in  South  Africa.  Its 
success  has  long  been  the  glory  of  Prot^tant  France,  for,  small 
as  the  number  of  Protestants  is  in  France,  especially  since  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  have  been  united  with  Germany,  they  have 
made,  by  their  Sassuto  mission,  a  very  notable  contribution  to 
the  prosperous  missions,  of  the  Protestant  world.  The  war 
whi<i  the  English  government  of  the  Cape  Colonies  wantonly 
provoked,  in  1880,  by  ordering  the  peaceable  Bassutos  to  lay 
down  their  arms,  and  which  at  the  beginning  of  1881  had 
not  yet  been  ended,  has  produced  a  most  painful  impression 
upon  Protestant  Churches  in  general,  and  particularly  upon  the 


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368  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

Protestant  Churclies  of  France.  It  is,  therefore,  very  oppor- 
tune that  the  Reime  gives  ns,  from  the  pen  of  an  old,  tried  con- 
tributor, the  history  of  the  favorite  pagan  mission  of  Protest- 
ant France.  The  first  missionaries  were  sent  out  in  1829. 
The  Society  of  Evan^lical  Missions,  which  took  this  field  in 
hand,  had  been  formed  only  a  few  years  ago.  On  arriving  at 
the  Cape  Colony  the  missionaries  met  with  a  warm  reception 
on  the  part  of  the  descendants  of  the  French  Huguenots  who 
had  lived  there  since  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 
They  had  lost,  under  the  rule  of  the  Dutch,  the  knowledge  of 
their  native  tongue,  and  only  one  old  man  was  met  with  who 
still  spoke  French,  but  they  still  were  greatly .  attached  to 
France.  Soon  after  King  Moshesh  of  the  Bassutos,  who  was 
greatly  harassed  by  the  neighboring  tribes  of  the  Koranas  and 
the  Griquas,  heard  of.  them,  and  he  sent  some  oxen  to  a  Hot- 
tentot hunter,  who  was  acquainted  with  the  mis6ij)naries,  with 
the  request  to  send  him  in  return  a  "  tnan  of  prayer."  One  of 
the  three  missionaries  who  accepted  the  king's  invitation  was 
M.  Casalis,  whose  name  is  now  indissolubly  connected  with  the 
beginning  of  the  civilization  and  Christianization  of  the  Bas- 
sutos. After  having  labored  among  them  for  twenty-three 
years  he  published  the  work,  Les  Bassoutos  ou  Vmgt  Trots 
a/n/nees  de  sejov/r  et  d^ observations  au  sud  de  VAfrique^  (sec- 
ond edition,  Paris :  I860,)  which  will  always  remain  the  chief 
source  of  information  for  the  history  of  this  interesting  mis- 
sion, and  a  standard  work  of  the  missionary  literature  of  Prot- 
estantism. King  Moshesh  remained  the  devoted  friend  of  the 
missionaries  until  his  death,  and  never  wavered  in  his  high  ap- 
preciation of  the  services  which  the  missionaries  rendered  to 
his  people  by  instructing  and  civilizing  them ;  he  died,  how- 
ever, without  becoming  a  Christian  himself.  The  people  grad- 
ually passed  over  from  a  nomad  life  to  fixed  settlements,  and 
the  Church,  which,  under  the  management  of  missionaries  be- 
longing to  the  Reformed  Church  of  France,  naturally  assumed 
the  Presbyterian  form  of  government,  gradually  and  steadily 
grew.  In  1841  the  first  printing-office  was  established,  where 
a  newspaper  and  several  works  in  the  native  tongue  have  been 
published.  Of  the  New  Testament  no  less  than  26,000  copies 
have  been  printed  and  sold.  A  normal  school  has  been  estab- 
lished at  MoriJA,  and  is  likewise  in  a  flourishmg  condition.    In 


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1881.]  Synopds  of  the  Quarterlies.  369 

1872  the  synodal  organization  of  the  native  Church  was  com- 
pleted, and  has  since  that  time  been  in  nninterrupted  operation. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  missionaries,  agriculture  and  com- 
merce have  been  wonderfully  developed.  They  have  exported 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  sacks  of  wheat,  of  two  hun- 
dred pounds  each,  and  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  balls 
of  wool,  and  have  imported  manufactured  articles  from  Europe 
of  an  aggregate  value  of  more  than  3,760,000  francs.  The  ma- 
jority of  the  Bassutos  are  still  pagan,  but  the  Christian  minora 
ity,  excelling  by  education,  industry,  and  wealth,  already  has 
a  controlling  influence.  In  1880  the  French  Protestant  mis- 
sion in  the  lands  of  the  Sassutos  numbered  sixteen  missionaries, 
two  physicians,  one  assistant  missionaiy,  and  one  director  of  an 
industrial  school.  There  were  fourteen  stations  or  central 
Churches,  with  sixty-nine  annexes,  under  the  care  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-six  native  helpers.  The  contributions  of  the 
Bassutos  for  the  support  of  missions  amounted  in  1879  to  the 
sum  of  37,700  francs.  More  recently  a  resolution  was  passed 
at  one  of  the  synods  of  the  Bassuto  Churches  to  send  out  a 
missionary  for  the  conversion  of  the  river  tribes  of  the  Zam- 
besi. The  sum  of  15,000  francs  was  at  once  subscribed  for  this 
object,  and  numerous  catechists  declared  their  readiness  to  join 
in  the  mission.  When  M.  Coillard,  who  was  put  at  the  head 
of  the  mission,  arrived  in  August,  1878,  at  Leshoma,  on  the 
Zambesi,  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  all  the  tribes  of  the 
country,  the  Makhalakas,  the  Batokas,  the  Masobi6as,  tjie  Ma- 
totekas,  the  Mashapatan^,  fully  understood  the  S6ssuto,  or  the 
language  of  the  Bassutos.*  A  major  in  the  English  army  in 
South  Africa,  Mr.  Malan,  who  is  known  for  his  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  natives  of  South  Africa,  has  written  an  in- 
tei*esting  work  on  the  beginning  and  importance  of  this  new 
mission,  which  has  been  translated  into  French,  Za  Mission 
fram^ise  du  sud  de  VAfrique^  impressions  d^un  wiicien  scl- 
dat^pa/r  C.  H.  Malcm^  t/raduitpa/r  madame  G,  Mallet^  (1878.) 
The  entire  territory  inhabited  by  the  Bassutos  covers  an  area 
of  about  12,700  square  miles,  with  a  i)opulation  estimated  at 
about  100,000.     By  the  treaty  of  peace  which  they  had  to 

*The  name  of  the  country  inhabited  by  the  Bassutoe  is  Lessouto ;  the  name  of 
the  language,  S^uto;  one  inhabitant  is  called  Mossouto;  and  the  plural  of  this 
word  is  Bassutos. 


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370  Methodist  Qiuxrterly  Review.  [April, 

make  with  the  Boers  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  on  March  26, 
1866,  after  a  protracted  war,  they  had  to  cede  a  portion  of 
their  territory  to  that  Eepublic;  the  remainder,  with  about 
60,000  inhabitants,  was,  on  March  12,  1868,  annexed  to  Natal. 


A»r.  IX.— FOREIGN  RELIGIOUS  INTELMGENCE. 

PROTESTANTISM  IN   ITALY. 

[Onb  of  the  last  nnmbers  of  the  new  edition  of  Professor  Hersog^s 
*'  Real  Bneyelopddie  fur  Protestantiaehe  Theologie  und  Kirche^^^  contains 
«n  article  on  Italy,  by  K.  Rdnneke,  which,  after  treating  of  the  present 
condition  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  gives  a  foil  statement  of  the 
different  Protestant  denominations  of  that  country  in  1880.  As  the  prog- 
ress of  Protestantism  in  Italy  has  a  special  interest  for  every  Protest- 
ant, we  translate  this  account  of  the  present  condition  of  Italian  Prot- 
estantism for  our  readers.] 

The  Evangelical  Church  in  Italy  is  at  present  represented  by  the  welK 
known  Waldensian  Church  and  the  less  known  Free  Italian  Church,  to 
which  must  be  added  a  few  smaller  ecclesiastical  denominations  which 
.  owe  their  origin  to  Foreign  Missions. 

L  The  Waldknsians. — This  Church,  after  being  heavily  oppressed 
for  many  centuries  and  often  subjected  to  bloody  persecutions,  received 
in  the  former  kingdom  of  Sardinia  freedom  of  worship  by  a  decree  of 
February  17,  1848.  At  thnt  time  the  Church  numbered  in  the  so-called 
Waldensian  valleys  the  following  fifteen  congregations:  Angrogna, 
Bobbio — Pellice,  Masello,  Perrero,  Pomaretto,  Praly,  Pramollo,  Praros- 
tino,  Rodoretto,  Rora,  8.  Gerraano,  S.  Giovanni,  Torre  Pellice,  Villa 
Pellice,  and  Villa  Secca.  Besides,  it  had  a  congregation  in  Tunn. 
These  old  congregations  of  the  Waldensians  must  be  distinguished  from 
the  new  congregations  which,  by  means  of  an  active  evangelization,  have 
been  formed  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  The  former  numbered 
in  1879,  11,968  members,  17  active  and  6  superannuated  pastors,  with 
4,727  pupils  in  the  day  schools,  (elementary  schools,  college,  and  semi- 
nary,) and  2,859  pupils  of  Sunday-schools.  The  college  of  Torre  Pellice 
has  7  professors  and  75  scholars,  the  seminary  of  the  same  place,  8  teach- 
ers, with  31  pupils,  the  Female  High  School  at  the  same  place,  9  teachers 
and  71  pupils ;  the  preparatory  college  at  Pomaretto  has  2  professors 
and  82  pupils.  Besides,  there  are  8  hospitals  at  Torre  Pellice,  Pomaretto 
and  Turin,  and  1  orphanage  for  girls  at  Torre  Pellice.  In  1855  a  theol- 
ogical school  was  founded  at  Torre  Pellice  for  the  education  of  clergy- 
men who  formerly  had  been  educated  abroad,  especially  at  Geneva  and 
Lausanne.  This  school  was  removed  in  1862  to  Florence,  and  had  in 
1879  8  professors  and  18  students.     At  the  head  of  the  entire  Church 


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1881.]  Foreign  ReUgiaua  InteUigenoe.  371 

there  is  a  Board  of  Administration  and  Saperintendence,  called  The 
Table,  consisting  of  5  persons,  and  elected  by  the  Synod  of  the  Church, 
which  annually  meets  in  the  first  week  of  September.  The  Synod 
elects  likewise  a  Committee  of  Evangelization,  which  consists  of  6  mem- 
bers, and  has  control  of  the  work  of  evangelization,  and  superintends  all 
the  new  congregations,  stations,  schools,  etc.  According  to  the  official 
report  of  1879  the  number  of  the  new  cong^regatioos  was  89,  of  stations, 
83.  We  mention  of  them  the  following:  Ancona,  Aosta,  Brescia,  Cal- 
tanisetta,  Castiglione,  Catania,  Coazze,  Como,  S.  Fedele,  Courmayeur, 
Favale,  Florence,  (2  congregations,)  Qenoa,  Guastalla,  Ivrea,  Leghorn, 
Lucca,  Messina,  Milan,  Modica,  Naples,  Pinerolo,  Pietra-Marazzi,  Paler- 
mo, Pisa,  Reggio,  (Calabria,)  Rio  Marina  and  Porto  Perraio,  (on  the  island 
of  Elba,)  Riesi,  Rome,  San  Bartolomeo  in  Qaldo,  Sanpierd  arena,  Syracuse, 
Susa,  Trabia,  Trapani,  Turin,  Vallecrosia,  Verona,  and  Venice.  Ele- 
mentary schools  are  found  in  Ariccia,  Catania,  Florence,  Genoa,  Gui- 
dizzolo,  Leghorn,  Lucca,  Naples,  Palermo,  Pietra-Marazzi,  Pinerolo,  Pisa, 
Poggio-Mirteto,  Rio  Marina,  Nice,  Rome,  Sanpierdarena,  Monzambano, 
Trabia,  Transella,  Turin,  Venice,  Verona,  Viareng.  There  are  employe^ 
for  these  congregations  and  schools  84  ordained  ministers,  28  evan- 
gelists, 44  teachers,  7  colporteurs.  The  congregations  and  stations 
number  2,818  communicants,  about  400  catechumens,  1,684  pupils  in 
the  elementary  schools,  and  1,686  children  in  the  Sunday-schools. 

n.  Thb  Freb  Italian,  Church.— This  Church  has  been  in  existence 
since  1870,  in  which  year  28  congregations  which  had  been  formed  in- 
dependently of  the  evangelization  carried  on  by  the  Waldenses,  united 
themselves  at  Milan  into  a  religious  denomination  under  the  above  name. 
They  have  their  own  creed  and  constitution,  which  were  adopted  by  the 
second  and  third  General  Assemblies  at  Milan  and  Florence.  At  the 
head  is  a  Committee  of  Evangelization,  consisting  of  5  ordinary  and 
4  honorary  members.  The  Church  has  86  congregations,  and  85  stations 
of  evangelization,  of  which  we  mention  the  following:  Albano,  Ban, 
Bassignana,  •  Belluno,  Bergamo,  Bologna,  Brescia,  Mottola,  Fara- 
Novarese,  Florence,  Leghorn,  Livomo,  (Piedmont,)  Milan,  Naples,  Pie- 
trasanta,  Ghezzano,  Rocca  Imperiale,  Rome,  S.  Giovanni  Pellice,  Savona, 
Treviglio,  Treviso,  Turin,  Udine.  Elementary  schools  have  been  estab- 
lished in  Florence,  Leghorn,  Naples,  Pisa,  Cisanello,  Rome.  The  con- 
gregations and  schools  are  under  the  care  of  16  ordained  ministers,  15 
evangelists,  8  colporteurs,  21  male  and  female  teachers.  The  rolls  of  the 
congregations  contain  the  names  of  1,800  communicants,  265  catechu- 
mens, 724  children  in  Sunday-schools,  and  1,800  in  the  elementary 
schools.  Since  1876  the  Free  Italian  Church  has  conducted  at  Rome  a 
** Theological  School"  with  4  professors  and  10  students.  Connected 
with  it  is  a  preparatory  school  with  8  teachers  and  7  scholars. 

III.  The  Frkb  Christian  Chtjrch.— This  Church  consists  of  the 
remnant  of  those  independent  small  congregations  which  were  unwill- 
ing to  join  the  Free  Italian  Church.  The  heads  of  this  Church  refuse 
on  principle  to  give  any  information  on  the  number  of  their  members 


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372  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Review.  [April, 

and  laborers.  We  must,  therefore,  content  oarselves  with  stating  that 
among  the  larger  congregations  of  this  Charch  are  those  of  Alessandria, 
Bologna,  Florence,  Genoa,  Mantua,  Milan,  Rome,  and  Turin.  Besides 
these  there  may  be  about  50  other  places  where  this  denomination  has  a 
larger  or  smaller  number  of  brethren.  The  Church  rejects  the  institu- 
tion of  an  ordained  ministry  as  contrary  to  the  Gospel. 

rv.  Thb  Wesley  an  Church. — Wesley  an  missionaries  from  England 
have  labored  in  Italy  since  1861.  Their  missions  are  divided  into  a 
northern  and  southern  district.  The  northern  district  embraces  28  con- 
gregations and  stations,  14  ordained  ministers,  2  evangelists,  11  male 
and  female  teachers,  2  colporteurs,  756  communicants,  58  catechumens, 
414  scholars  in  elementary  schools,  898  scholars  in  Sunday-schools.  The 
southern  district  has  15  congregations  and  stations,  8  ordained  clergy- 
men, 5  evangelists,  10  male  and  female  teachers,  678  communicants, 
196  catechumens,  888  scholars  in  the  elementary,  and  228  scholars  in 
Sunday-schools.  Among  the  places  where  this  Church  has  congrega- 
^ns  and  stations  are  Rome,  Bologna,  Velletri,  Spezia,  Padua,  Vicenza, 
(Bassano,)  Reggio,  (Emilia,)  Parma,  Mazzano  Inferiore,  Cremona, 
Milan,  Pavia,  Intra,  Rimini,  Aquila,  Noto,  Caserta,^atania,  Catanzaro, 
Cosenz^  Messina,  Naples,  Palermo,  Salerno.  It  has  day-schools  in 
Bologna,  Marinasco,  Mazzano  Inferiore,  Spezia,  Caserta,  Catania,  Naples, 
and  evening  schools  in  Mezzano  Inferiore,  Spezia,  Rome,  Velletri. 

V.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  been  at  work  since  1873. 
It  has  congregations  and  stations  in  Arezzo,  Bologna,  Faenza,  Forli, 
Florence,  Foligno,  Milan,  Modena,  Naples,  Narni,  Perugia,  Rome,  Terni, 
Venice.  The  number  of  ordained  ministers  is  8,  of  evangelists,  9,  of 
colporteurs,  1,  of  communicants,  487,  of  catechumens,  215,  of  children 
in  Sunday-schools,  160,  of  Bible  women,  5. 

VI.  Baptists.* — 1.  The  American  Baptists  have  been  evangelizing 
since  1870  in  Bari,  Barletta,  Cagliari,  Milan,  Modena,  Naples,  Rome, 
Torre  Pellice,  Venice.  They  have  9  ministers,  175  baptized  members, 
65  catechumens,  2  elementary  schools,  and  5  Sunday-schools.  The  En- 
glish Baptists  have  been  at  woj-k  since  1871  in  Civitavecchia,  Genoa,  Leg- 
horn, Naples,  Rome,  Turin,  Trapani.  They  employ  11  ministers  and 
evangelists  in  these  places  and  in  the  neighborhood.  The  largest  con- 
gregation in  Rome  numbers  124  members,  16  catechumens,  and  80  chil- 
dren in  Sunday-schools. 

The  Protestant  Italian  press  is  at  present  represented  by  the  following 
papers:  1.  **^m«to  GrUtiana,^^ a,  literary  monthly;  2.  ^^Famiglia  CrU- 
tiana^'^  a  weekly  family  paper  with  illustrations;  8.  ^^Amico  di  Casa^^^ 
a  popular  almanac  with  a  very  large  circulation ;  4.  ^^Amieo  dd  Fancir 
tdli,^^  an  illustrated  monthly  for  children;  5.  "Z«  Temoin,^^  a  French  re- 
ligious journal  for  the  Waldensian  valleys;  6.  "iZ  Cristiano  Evangelico^^^ 

*  The  "BaptiBt  Hand-Book  for  1881 "  (London,  1881)  giyes  the  number  of  members 
of  Baptist  Churohea  as  about  400.  It  enomerates  28  places  where  Baptista  meet  for 
divine  worship. 


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1881.]  Foreign  JRdiffiotcs  InteUigencs.  873 

a  religious  journal  for  the  Waldensian  missionary  congregations; 
7.  ^DEducatore  Evangelieo,"  a  Waldensian  school  journal ;  8.  "//  Pic* 
eolo  Messngiere^^  the  Church  paper  of  the  Free  Italian  Church;  9.  ^'La 
Vedetta  OristianOy^^  the  Church  paper  of  the  Free  Christian   Church; 

10.  ^^La  Oivilta  Evangeliea,^^    the  Church  journal   of  the  Wesleyans; 

11.  ^'La  JPHaceola^^^  the  Church  journal  of  the  American  Methodists; 

12.  **i2  SemiruUore^^'*  a  literary  monthly  of  the  American  Baptists. 
Noteworthy  are  also  the  seamen^s  missions,  which  are  carried  on  in  the 
ports  of  Genoa  and  Naples  in  floating  chapels,  as  well  as  the  eyangelical 
military  congregation  in  Rome. 

Among  the  charitable  institutions  controlled  by  Protestants  we  men- 
tion: 1.  The  Orphanage  and  House  of  Refuge  for  Boys,  in  Florence, 
founded  by  Dr.  Comandi,  with  80  boys ;  2.  The  Ferretti  Orphanage  for 
Girls,  in  Florence,  with  82  girls ;  8.  The  Orphanage  in  Yallecrosia  for 
Boys  and  Girls,  founded  by  Mrs.  Boyce,  containing  50  orphans ;  4.  The 
Gould  Female  Institution  at  Rome,  for  the  education  of  both  boys  and 
girls;  5.  The  Van  Meter  Schools  at  Rome;  6.  The  Labor  School  for 
Women  at  Rome. 

The  English  Italian  Tract  Society  keeps  an  evangelical  printing  and 
publishing  office  {Tipogrc^  Claudina)  at  Florence.  The  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  has  offices  and  depositories  in  Ancona.  Florence, 
Genoa,  Leghorn,  Milan,  Naples,  and  Rome.  In  the  same  cities  there 
are  also  Protestant  book-stores.  An  Italian  Bible  Society  has  been  in 
existence  since  1878.  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  have  been 
organized  in  Florence,  Messina,  Naples,  Padua,  Rome,  Turin,  and  Ven- 
ice.    There  are  missions  for  the  Jews  in  Rome,  Leghorn,  and  Verona. 

There  are  German  Protestant  congregations  in  Bergamo,  Florence, 
Genoa,  Leghorn,  Milan,  Messina,  Naples,  *  Rome,  and  Venice,  and  in 
connection  with  them  hospitals  in  Florence,  Milan,  Genoa,  Naples, 
Rome;  elementary  schools  in  Genoa,  Messina,  Rome,  Venice;  high 
schools  for  boys  in  Florence,  Leghorn,  Naples  ;  female  high  schools  in 
Florence,  (under  the  control  of  the  Eaiserswerth  deaconesses,  with  a 
boarding  school,)  and  Naples. 


Art.  X.— foreign  LITERARY  INTELLIGENCE. 

Thb  new  edition  of  the  great  theological  cyclopssdia  of  Protestant  Ger- 
many, by  Professor  Herzog  and  Professor  Plitt,  {^'Beal  Eneyelopddie  far 
ProUHantiaehe  Theologie  und  Kirche,^''  New  York :  B.  Westermann  &  Co. ; 
Cincinnati :  Walden  &  Stowe,)  has  now  reached  the  end  of  the  letter  K. 
Of  the  fifteen  volumes  which  the  complete  work  is  to  contain  seven  have 
now  been  completed.  In  a  prefatory  remark  to  the  seventh  volume  it 
is  announced  that  one  of  the  editors,  Professor  J.  L.  Plitt,  of  Heidelberg, 
had  died  on  Sept.  10, 1880.  His  place  has  been  filled  by  the  appointment 
of  Professor  Albert  Hauck,  who,  as  editor  of  several  theological  periodic- 


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374  MetKodist  Qva/rterly  Review.  [April 

alfl,  and  by  other  literary  labors,  had  made  himself  favorably  known  a^. 
an  able  theologian.  The  new  volumes  which  have  been  published  since 
our  last  notice  of  the  work,  and  which  contain  the  articles  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  letter  E  to  the  end  of  the  letter  E,  fully  support,  the 
high  reputation  which  this  work  has  enjoyed  throughout  the  Protestant 
world  since  the  publication  of  the  first  number  of  the  first  edition.  We 
need  not  tell  the  regular  readers  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly  Review  of 
the  wonderful  productivity  which  continues  and  steadily  increases  in 
the  department  of  Protestant  theological  litemture.  Every  succespive 
number  of  the  Review  calls  attention  to  works  which  shed  new  light  on 
important  points  of  theological  and  religious  science.  The  number  of 
works  which  are  of  a  strictly  religious  character  now  amounts  to  many 
thousands  every  year.  Germany  alone  publishes  several  thousands  every 
year,  and  it  is  especially  in  Germany  where  the  young  theologians  who 
wish  to  obtain  an  academical  degree  or  a  theological  professorship  are 
expected  and  encouraged  to  write  special  treatises  on  points  that  need 
further  elucidation.  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  every  important  subject 
treated  of  in  a  theological  Cyclopedia  needs  revisions  and  additions 
after  a  few  years.  A  comparison  of  the  volumes  of  the  new  edition  of 
Herzog's  ** Cyclopaedia"  with  the  corresponding  volumes  of  the  first 
edition,  which  were  published  some  twenty  years  ago,  shows,  indeed,  that 
in  almost  every  article  of  importance  new  information  derived  from  re- 
cent literature  has  been  added.  The  first  three  volumes  of  M'Clintock  & 
Strong's  **  Cyclopaedia"  were  published  in  the  years  1867,1870,  and  1872, 
and  even  since  then,  as  the  most  cursory  perusal  of  the  large  articles  in 
the  German  work  will  show,  an  extraordinary  amount  of  new  matter  in 
the  religious  sciences  has  been  made  available.  No  one  can  examine 
any  volume  of  this  grand  work  without  becoming  convinced  that  in  the 
whole  range  of  Cyclopaedias,  general  and  special,  it  has  hardly  any  su- 
perior and  but  few  equals.  What  makes  this  Cyclopaedia  especially  valu- 
able as  a  work  of  reference  is  the  fact  that  almost  every  article  has  been 
prepared  by  a  theologian  of  acknowledged  reputation,  who  shows  him- 
self fully  conversant  with  the  entire  literature  on  the  subject,  and  treats 
of  it  in  an  exhaustive  manner.  Among  the  most  thorough  articles  on 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity  we  have  noticed  those  on  Gott 
and  Eirche,  both  by  Dr.  Julius  E5stlin,  and  that  on  Jesus,  by  Zdckler. 
The  biographical  articles  on  the  Popes  have  all  been  written  by  Profess- 
or Zopffel,  and  those  of  the  last  four  volumes  embrace  among  others 
those  on  Innocent  HI.,  Gregory  VII.,  and  Honorius.  The  last-named 
article  gives  an  interesting  reference  to  the  literature  called  forth  by  the 
dogmatization  of  Papal  Infallibility,  which,  it  would  seem,  the  condem- 
nation of  Pope  Honorius  as  a  heretic,  by  a  council  recognized  as  ecu- 
menical, should  have  sufficed  to  make  forever  impossible.  Other  inter- 
esting biographical  articles  are  those  on  Franz  von  Assisi;  Julian  the 
Apostate,  by  A.  Hamack ;  Hus,  by  Gotthard  Lechler ;  Johannes  Presbyter, 
by  Germann;  Jansenius,  by  Dr.  Herzog;  Josephus  Flavins,  by£.  SohtLrer; 
Johannes  von  Damascus,  by  Dr.  Dorner.     One  of  the  most  interesting 


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1881.]  Foreign  Litera/ry  IntelUgence.  87J 

arcbsologicat  articles  is  that  on  the  Katacomben,  by  H.  Merz.  An  excel- 
lent article  on  Hebrew  Poetry  has  been  furnished  by  Professor  E.  Reuss, 
of  Strassborg;  and  one  of  equal  excellency  on  the  Hebrew  Language,  by 
Professor  Bertheau,  of  G5ttingen.  Some  of  the  main  branches  of  theol- 
ogy, as  well  as  several  auxiliary  sciences,  are  represented  in  these  vol- 
umes :  as  Ethics,  by  Dr.  Christlieb ;  Homiletics,  Hermeneutics,  Church 
History,  by  Hauck,  the  new  associate  editor;  Church  Law,  by  Wasser- 
schleben;  Church  Music,  by  B.  Kmger;  Catechetics,  by  Zezschwits. 
Joshua,  Judges,  Jonah,  and  other  articles  on  the  Old  Testament,  have 
been  written  by  Professor  Yolck,  of  Dorpat;  the  History  of  Israel  before 
Christ,  by  Oebler;  and  the  History  of  the  Jews  since  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  Era,  by  Pressel ;  St.  John  the  Apostle,  by  Dr.  Ebrard ;  Ireneeus, 
by  Zahn ;  Justinus  the  Martyr,  by  Professor  Engelhard.  Very  learned 
articles  on  the  Canons  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  have  been 
contributed  by  H.  L.  Strack  and  Woldemar  Schmidt;  on  the  Gnosis  and 
Gnostics,  by  Jacobi ;  on  the  Jesuits,  by  Steitz ;  on  Irvingism,  by  Edstlin ;  on 
the  Inquisition,  by  Benrath.  The  articles  on  the  ecclesiastical  statistics 
of  the  several  countries  give  generally  full  information ;  they  embrace 
articles  on  England  and  Ireland,  by  Schdll ;  France,  by  Pfender ;  Holland, 
by  Dr.  Gerth  Van  Wyck ;  Italy,  by  E.  R5nneke.  The  article  on  the  Greek 
Church  has  been  written  by  Dr.  Gass,  well  known  as  one  of  the  best 
writers  on  the  subject.  Nearly  all  the  authors  mentioned  above  are 
favorably  known  in  the  theological  world  as  writers  on  the  subjecta 
which  have  been  assigned  to  them  by  the  editors  of  the  CyclopsBdia,  and 
most  of  them  have  been  referred  to  in  former  numbers  of  the  Methodist 
Quarterly  Review.  As  a  specimen  of  the  articles  on  the  religious  con- 
dition of  foreign  countries  we  give,  on  another  page  of  our  present 
number,  a  translation  of  part  of  the  article  on  Italy. 


'Abt.  XL— quarterly  BOOK -TABLE. 

Religion^    Theology^   cmd  Biblical  Literature. 

The  Higher  CrUicism  €md  the  Bible,  A  Manual  for  Students.  By  William  B. 
BoTCE,  Wesleyan  Minister.  12ino.,  pp.  478.  London:  Wesleyan  Conferenoe 
Office.     1881. 

The  object  of  this  admirable  "  Manual  ^  is  to  furnish  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  great  battle  now  going  on  between  the  self-styled 
"higher  criticism"  and  the  sacred  canon.  It  brings  its  survey 
down  to  the  present  moment,  with  such  rehearsals  of  the  ante- 
cedent facts  as  are  necessary  for  a  complete  understanding  of 
"  the  situation."  Those  readers  and  thinkers  whose  minds  have 
been  disturbed  by  the  distant  cannonade  sending  its  rumble  from 
beyond  ocean,  will  here  find  a  brief,  but  clear  and  comprebenrive, 


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876  MethocUat  QuoHerVy  Beview.  [April, 

summary  of  the  whole  matter.  Mr.  Boyce  seems  to  be  a  fine 
master  of  the  literature  of  the  subject,  German  and  English;  for 
it  is  to  these  two  nations  that  the  great  debate  b  mainly  com- 
mitted. His  survey  is  symmetrically  planned,  his  diction  clear 
and  lively,  his  judgment  acute,  and  his  soundness  in  the  faiih 
unquestionable.  The  student  who  is  alive  to  this,  one  of  the 
most  momentous  discussions  of  our  century,  will  find  in  ad- 
dition to  the  work  of  Bishop  Hurst  on  Rationalism,  and  Pro- . 
fessor  Harman's  volume  on  the  Canon,  a  most  valuable  sup- 
plement in  this  little  "  Manual,"  by  the  "  Wesleyan  Minister," 
Mr.  Boyce. 

It  was  in  1753  that  Astruc,  a  French  physician,  suggested  the 
theory  that  the  book  of  Grenesis  was  composed  of  two  sets  of  doc- 
uments, distinguished  the  one  by  the  use  of  the  term  Elohim  for 
the  divine  name,  and  the  other  by  the  word  Jehovah.  His  sug- 
gestion remained  lifeless  until  1780,  when  it  was  indorsed  by 
Eichhorn,  under  whose  patronage  it  really  introduced  what  was 
termed  by  its  advocates  "  a  new  era  in  the  criticism  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch." On  Astruc's  little  hobby  the  "  higher  criticism  "  has 
ridden,  not  only  into  existence,  but  into  a  battle  of  a  century, 
winning  in  its  own  view  conquest  after  conquest ;  and  it  is  now 
boasting  of  final  victory  in  the  most  complete  destruction  of  all 
authentic  biblical  literature  before  the  building  of  the  second 
temple.  There  is  nothing  in  intellectual  history  so  sweeping 
as  this  result  save,  perhaps.  Father  Hardouin's  annihilation  of 
the  entire  literatures  of  the  classic  ages,  or  Dugald  Stewart's 
resolution  of  Sanscrit  language  and  literature  into  a  manufac- 
tured system  of  so-called  "  Kitchen  Latin,"  invented  by  the'monks 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Astruc's  suggestion  is  harmless  so  far  as  it  implies  that  Moses 
used  patriarchal  documents  in  the  construction  of  his  history  previ- 
ous to  his  own  time.  The  strong  resemblance  to  the  Mosaic  of  the 
Assyrian  cosmogony,  as  exhumed  by  George  Smith,  confirms  this 
view.  The  obvious  probability  is  that  Abraham  came  from  As- 
syria bringing  the  patriarchal  documents  with  him.  Nor  is  there 
any  reason  to  deny  that  the  two  divine  names,  Elohim  and  Je- 
hovah, have  in  themselves  a  difference  of  import  justifying  a 
preference  of  one  over  the  other  in  a  given  connection.  The 
two  designations  of  our  Saviour,  Jesus  and  Christ,  have  different 
meanings,'  suggesting  which  should  be  used  for  a  given  purpose, 
and  yet  either  is  often  used  without  much  regard  to  the  distinc- 
tion.     But  assuming   Astruc's  germinal  idea,  the  rationalistic 


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1881J  Qua/rterh/  Book -Table.  377 

critics  have  run  into  a  strain  of  adventurous  theories  whose  very 
extravagance  is  their  own  refutation.  They  render  a  large  part 
of  the  text  a  patchwork  contributed  not  by  two  different  writers, 
a  Jehovist  and  an  Elohist,  but  by  a  half  dozen  or  more  gentle- 
men, sitting  in  social  symposium,  and  manufacturing  a  verse  by 
piecemeal  scraps.  There  are,  created  by  the  critics'  pure  fancy,  a 
Jehovist,  an  Elohist,  a  Jehovist  Junior,  an  Elohist  Junior,  a  Re- 
dactor, a  Deuteronomist,  and  a  committee  of  Levitical  Legisla- 
tors, all  men  in  buckram,  called  into  existence  like  '*  spirits  from 
the  vasty  deep,"  and  set  to  the  work  by  the  creative  genius  of 
the  "Higher  Criticism."  There  are  two  serious  difficulties  in 
bringing  all  this  scheme  within  the  world  of  common  sense.  The 
first  is  that  no  such  patchwork  ever  occurred  in  human  history; 
the  second  is  that  if  it  ever  took  place  in  the  case  of  our  present 
text,  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  suppose  that  the  different  parts 
could  be  so  distinguished  and  assigned  with  any  certainty  to 
their  respective  contributors. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  coming  down  through  the  long 
centuries  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament  has  been  subjected  to 
modifications  and  interpolations,  most  of  which  cannot,  at  the 
present  time,  be  distinguished  or  corrected.  Mr.  Boyce's  conces- 
sions on  this  point  are  ample  and  yet  judicious.  "  Our  present  text 
is  an  unsafe  guide  on  points  in  which  verbal  accuracy  and  minute 
niceties  are  essential.  We  have  reason  to  infer  that  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  earlier  books  has  been  modified  from  time  to  time, 
to  some  extent,  by  the  removal  of  obsolete  words  and  expressions, 
their  place  being  supplied  by  others  of  modem  date  and  usage. 
And  although  our  present  text  is  a  recension  based  upon  a  thor- 
ough revision  of  the  text  by  Ezra  after  the  captivity,  yet  it  is 
obvious  from  the  differences  in  the  phraseology,  and  in  occasional 
omissions  and  additions  found  in  the  Septuagint  version,  that  of 
this  recension  there  must  have  been  various  exemplars,  from  one 
or  more  of  which,  varying  considerably  from  our  text,  the  Greek 
translation  was  made.  It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  suppose 
with  the  learned  Quarry  that  there  has  been  a  complete  modern- 
ization of  the  old  Hebrew.  That  such  mere  verbal  alterations  in 
the  letter  do  not  affect  the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  Sacred 
Writings  is  obvious,  as  they  do  not  touch  the  facts  or  the  teach- 
ings therein  contained." — Pp.  89,  90.  These  concessions  do  not 
affect  the  great  whole  by  which  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  are 
the  first  and  second  volumes  of  God's  great  Revelation.  The 
great  structures  of  Type  and  Prophecy  still  stand.     And  they 


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378  Mdhodist  QaaHerh/  Heview.  [April, 

stand  authenticated  by  the  ratification  of  our  divine  Teacher, 
who,  upon  thiw  subject,  if  not  an  impostor,  is  a  conclusive  au- 
thority. .  Mr.  Boyce  gives  the  following  summary  of  His  testi- 
mony: 

1.  While  some  learned  scholars  have  decided  that  the  Patriarchs  are  mythical 
personages^  our  Lord  refers  to  them  as  real  persons.  See  Matt,  iii,  9 ;  viii,  1 1 ; 
xxii,  32 ;  Luke  xiii,  28 ;  John  viii,  87,  56-68.  2.  He  represents  Abraham  as  hav- 
ing had  a  glimpse  of  ffis  oflSce  and  work.  Compare  John  viii,  66,  **  Your  father 
Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  My  day,  and  he  saw  it  and  was  glad,"  with  the  following 
verse  (67)  and  with  Gen.  xxii,  8,  13,  14,  and  Heb.  xi,  17-19.  8.  While  Bishop 
Colenso  intimates  that  the  name  of  Moses  may  be  **  regarded  as  merely  that  of 
the  imaginary  leader  of  the  people  out  of  Egypt,  a  person  quite  as  shadowy  and 
unhistorical  as  ^neas  in  the  history  of  Rome,  and  our  own  King  Arthur/*  our 
Lord,  '*  The  Great  Teacher,"  expressly  refers  to  him  as  a  real  living  actor  and 
lawgiver  at  the  period  of  the  Exodus,  and  of  the  residence  of  Israel  in  the  wilder* 
ness.  Look  at  the  following  passages:  "He  saith  unto  them,  Moses,  because  of 
the  hardness  of  your  hearts,  suffered  yoil  to  put  away  your  wives ;  but  from  the 
beginning  it  was  not  so."  Matt,  xix,  8 ;  Mark  x,  3.  "  The  scribes  and  the  Pharisees 
sit  in  Moses*  seat.*'  Matt  xxiii,  2.  "  And  he  said  unto  him,  If  they  hear  not  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 
Luke  xvi,  31.  "Now  that  the  dead  are  raised,  even  Moses  showed  at  the  bush, 
when  he  calleth  the  Lord  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God 
of  Jacob ;  for  he  is  not  a  God  of  the  dead  but  of  the  living ;  for  all  live  unto  him.** 
Luke  xx,'37,  88.  **  And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so 
must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up.'*  John  iii,  14.  "  There  is  one  that  acouaeth 
vou,  even  Moses  in  whom  ye  trust ;  for  had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have  be- 
lieved me;  for  he  wrote  of  me,  (referring  to  Deut.  xviii,  16 ;)  but  if  ye  believe  not 
his  writings,  how  shall  ye  Jjelieve  my  words  ?  **  John  v,  46-47.  "  Then  Jesus  scud 
unto  them.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  Moses  gave  you  not  that  bread  from 
heaven,  but  my  Father  giveth  you  the  true  bread  from  heaven.**  John  vi,  32. 
"Did  not  Moses  give  you  the  law?"  John  vii,  19.  "Moses  therefore  gave  unto 
you  circumcision.**  John  vii,  22.  4.  Our  Ix)rd  pays  special  deference  to  the  writ- 
ings of  Moses,  that  is,  the  Pentateuch,  making  it  the  foundation  of  his  discourse 
to  the  disciples  on  the  road  to  Emmaus :  "  And  beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the 
prophets,  he  expounded  unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  him- 
self,*' and  again  to  the  assembled  disciples,  when  he  told  them  that  "  all  things 
must  be  fulfilled  which  were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and 
in  the  Psalms  concerning  me."  Luke  xxiv,  27,  44.  6.  Our  Lord  refers  in  Matt, 
xxii,  37-40,  to  Deut.  vi,  6,  as  containing  the  Jirst  and  great  commandment,  and  to 
Lev.  xix,  18,  as  containing  the  second.  "Then  one  of  them  which  was  a  lawyer, 
asked  him  a  question,  tempting  him,  and  saying.  Master,  which  is  the  great  com- 
mandment in  the  law  ?  Jesus  said  unto  him.  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first 
and  great  commandment,  and  the  second  is  like  unto  it.  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets.*'  But  our  Lord's  highest  testimony  to  the  book  of  Deuteronomy  is 
found  in  the  fact,  that  in  his  great  temptation  after  his  baptism  (as  recorded  in 
Matthew,  chap,  iv)  he  repels  the  tempter  by  three  quotations  from  that  book : 
the  quotations  are  in  Deut.  viii,  3,  and  vi,  16.  and  18.  Well  may  we  apply  to  the 
Sadducees  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  words  addressed  by  opr  Lord  to  the  Sad- 
dncees  of  Lis  day :  "  Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures  nor  the  power  of  God." 
Matt  xxiu,  29.— Pp.  176-177. 

The  latest  and  most  destructive  theory  is  that  of  Graf,  bus- 
tained  by  Wellhausen,  according  to  which  the  Old  Testament  is 
mainly  the  work  of  Ezra  and  his  compeers  after  the  captivity. 
The  leading  characters  of  old  Hebrew  history  are  myths.    The 


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1881.]  QudiHMy  Booh -Table.  379 

stories  of  Abraham,  the  patriarchs,  the  prophets  Elijah  and  Elisha, 
are  legends.  Of  course  so  sweeping  a  monstrosity,  such  a  massa- 
cre of  the  history  of  this  wonderful  people  of  the  Messiah,  does 
not  stand  unchallenged.  There  are  Christian  scholars  amply  com- 
petent to  meet  the  onslaught.  Our  great  Old  Testament  Com- 
mentaries, Lange  and  The  Speaker's,  perform  well  their  part. 
Nor  are  we  fearful  of  any  surrender  or  in  haste  to  make  any 
concessions  to  the  spirit  of  a  bold  and  licentious  "  criticism  "  on 
the  sacred  canon.     We  purpose  to  "  hold  the  fort." 

The  underlying  secret  of  all  this  movement  is  the  dogma  of 
antisupernaturalism.  With  all  the  ardent  faith  of  a  devotee  the 
critic  first  assumes  as  axiom  the  fatality  of  physics  and  the  abso- 
lute impossibility  of  a  supernatural  event.  There  cannot  be  a 
miracle,  either  of  action  or  of  prophetic  foreknowledge.  In  re- 
gard, then,  to  the  biblical  records  the  problem  is  not  to  ascertain 
whether  they  are  true  or  not;  but,  assuming  their  untruth,  to 
explicate  how  they  came  into  existence  and  credit.  To  secure 
the  triumph  of  the  antisupematural  axiom  the  whole  literature 
of  a  people,  standing  through  ages,  is  to  be  remorselessly  ground 
to  powder.  The  axiom  will  neither  admit  that  prophecy  prefig- 
ured the  person  and  history  of  the  Messiah,  nor  the  miracles  of 
the  Messiah  himself.  The  absurdity  of  the  processes  by  which 
the  conclusions  are  attained,  and  the  monstrosity  of  the  conclu- 
sions themselves,  are  not  fully  felt  until  the  whole  stupendous 
abolition  is  complete,  and  then  comes  a  revolt  of  the  common 
sense.  Father  Hardouin  and  Bishop  Colenso  are  found  to  be 
twin  theorists. 

But  it  is  not  the  Bible,  the  Church,  and  the  religion  alone  that 
are  swept  by  this  axiom  of  unfaith.  Nature  is  by  it  reduced  to 
a  mechanism  and  God  to  a  superfluity.  The  issue  then  is  the 
Bible  or  Atheism.  And  with  the  Bible  and  Theism  goes  immor- 
tality; and  man  is  reduced  to  the  mere  animal.  Our  purest  sen- 
timents become  coarse  and  brutalized,  our  highest  aspirations 
are  bent  downward.  It  is  a  battle  for  our  highest  nature.  Nor 
will  this  degradation  stop  in  thought,  philosophy,  or  religion 
alone.  It  demoralizes  and  brutalizes  private  and  public  charac- 
ter and  life.  It  engenders  ultra-democracy,  anarchy,  and  com- 
munism. Atheistic  revolution  is  the  penalty;  from  which  there 
is  no  recovery  but  on  the  high  plane  of  a  firm  religious  faith 
which  Christ  and  the  Bible  alone  present 


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380  Methodist  Qiuirterh/  Review.  [April, 

The  Sunday  Service  of  the  MethodiaU  in  N^orih  America.  With  other  Occasional 
Services.     Small  12mo.,  pp.  108.     London :  Printed  in  the  year  MDCCLXXXTV. 

Tke  Sunday  Service  of  the  Methodista  in  Hie  Maje»ty*e  Dominions.  With  other  Occa- 
sional Services.  Small  12mo.,  pp.  108.  London:  Printed  bj  Frys  &  Couchman, 
Worship-street,  Upper  Moorsfleld.     1786. 

Though  these  two  volumes  cannot  be  classed  with  "the  latest 
publications,"  being  brown  with  venerable  age,  yet,  both  as  rel- 
ics of  the  primitive  day  of  Methodism  and  suggestive  mementos 
for  our  own  present  and  future,  we  are  glad  to  be  able  to  give 
them  a  clear  place  in  our  "  Quarterly  Book-Table."  The  former 
of  the  two  is  the  property  of  Bishop  Harris,  and  the  latter 
belongs  to  the  library  of  Drew  Seminary.  The  sole  difference 
between  the  two  volumes,  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  is  in  the 
title-pages,  and  the  absence  of  one  of  the  Twenty-five  Articles 
in  the  first  volume.  They  are,  in  every  respect,  two  editions  of 
the  same  book.  The  first  was  printed  without  place  or  name  of 
printer  for  our  American  Church  after  our  National  Independ- 
ence of  Britain;  the  second,  two  years  later,  for  the  British  Meth- 
odists universally. 

Both  volumes  commence  with  the  following  note  of  Introduc- 
tion, with  the  same  date  at  bottom: 

I  believe  there  is  no  Liturgy  in  the  World,  either  in  ancient  or  modem  language, 
which  breathes  more  of  a  solid,  Scriptural,  rational  piety,  than  the  Common  Prayer 
of  the  Church  of  England.  And  though  the  main  of  it  was  compiled  considerably 
more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  yet  is  the  language  of  it,  not  only  pure,  but 
strong  and  elegant  in  the  highest  degree. 

Little  alteration  is  made  in  the  following  edition  of  it,  (which  I  recommend  to 
our  Societies  in  America,)  except  in  the  following  instances:  1.  Most  of  the  holy- 
days  (so  called)  are  omitted,  as  at  present  answering  no  valuable  end.  2.  The 
senrioe  of  the  Lord's  Day,  the  length  of  which  has  beeh  often  complained  of,  is 
considerably  shortened.  8.  Some  sentences  in  the  offices  of  Baptism,  and  for  the 
Burial  of  the  Dead,  are  omitted ;  and,  4.  Many  Psalms  left  out,  and  many  parts  of 
the  others,  as  being  highly  improper  for  the  mouths  of  a  Christian  congregation. 

Bristol,  Septen&er  9,  1784.  John  Wkslit. 

Then  follows  an  index  of  three  pages  for  the  Lessons  to  be 
read.  They  are  designated  by  the  churchly  methods,  "  Sunday 
after  Advent,"  "  Easter,"  "  Whitsunday,"  "  Trinity,"  etc.  Then 
follow  the  prayers  and  lessons  and  psalms  in  full.  The  Ritual 
succeeds,  with  the  forms  of  the  ordinances  and  ordinations,  con- 
cluding with  one  hundred  and  four  psalms  and  hymns.  On  the 
whole  we  suggest  some  notes. 

It  was  American  Methodism  which  first  brought  out  Mr.  Wes- 
ley's purposed  construction  of  his  societies  into  a  Church.  Here 
as  elsewhere  he  acted  upon  the  suggestions  of  Providence.  He 
waited  four  years  before  he  obeyed  the  unanimous  request  of  the 
American  Methodists  to  give  them  an  episcopal  churchdom.    Its 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-TcMe.  381 

form  appears  in  the  first  of  these  two  volumes.  Two  years  later 
he  prescribed  the  same  episcopal  church-form  for  all  the  "  Meth- 
odists in  His  Majesty's  Dominions."  How  false  is  the  talk  that 
Mr.  Wesley  regretted  the  ordination  of  Coke!  So  far  from  re- 
gretting his  establishing  an  Episcopacy  in  America,  he  proceeded 
with  a  firm  and  steady  step  to  prescribe  the  same  Episcopacy 
for  England.  For  that  purpose  he  proceeded  to  ordain  Mather 
as  an  English  Methodist  Bishop  under  the  name  of  Superintend- 
ent, and  the  issue  from  his  hand  of  the  second  of  the  above  vol- 
umes, with  its  threefold  ordinations,  of  three  grades  of  ministers, 
is  conclusive  proof  that  he  intended  those  ordinations  to  be  perpet- 
uated, and  the  universal  establishment  forever  of  one  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  Had  his  purpose  been  completely  accomplished 
our  coming  Ecumenical  Conference  would  have  been  the  assem- 
blage of  a  purely  Episcopal  body  of  Churches.  As  it  is,  we  shall 
have  a  truly  Methodistic,  but  not  perfectly  Wesleyan,  assem- 
blage. The  several  American  Episcopal  Methodisms  are  alone 
in  form  completely  Wesleyan  Churches. 

The  question  was  raised  in  our  last  General  Conference,  When 
does  a  man  become  Bishop— at  and  by  his  election,  or  by  his  or- 
dination ?  Strange  that  such  a  question  should  be  raised  by  any 
Methodist  competent  to  be  elected  to  General  Conference ! 
Wesley  ordained  and  made  Coke  a  Bishop  irrespective  of  any 
election  whatever.  Wesley's  words  of  ordination  were,  "  Re- 
ceive the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  office  and  work  of  a  Superintendent 
in  the  Church  of  God,  now  committed  unto  thee  by  the  imposition 
of  our  hands,"  etc.  It  is  not  by  the  election,  (for  Coke  was  not 
elected  at  all,)  but  by  the  imposition  of  hands  that  the  office  and 
work  of  a  Bishop  are  committed  unto  the  candidate.  Equally 
explicit  is  our  own  modified  form,  "The  Lord  pour  upon  thee 
the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  office  and  work  of  a  Bishop  in  the  Church 
of  God  now  committed  unto  thee  by  the  authority  of  the  Church 
through  the  imposition  of  our  hands,"  etc.  According  to  this 
most  excellent  form,  the  episcopate  is  conferred  by  the  manual 
imposition,  but  cannot  be  conferred  otherwise  than  bj  "the  au- 
thority of  the  Church,"  given  through  the  General  Conference 
election.  The  Church  authorizes  the  officiating  Bishop  to  "  com- 
mit "  the  office  to  the  candidate.  The  election  selects  the  man, 
the  imposition  confers  the  office. 

Our  Bishops  in  1844  said  that  the  action  of  ordination  was  to 
"  confirm  "  the  election  of  the  candidates.  In  the  ordinary  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "  confirm  "  that  statement  is  certainly  not  true. 

FouBTH  Sebies,  Vol.  XXXHI.— 25 


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382  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

Or  at  least  it  does  not  express  the  full  import  of  the  action,  l^e 
election  is  a  complete  act,  a  fact  accomplished,  and  neither  re- 
ceives nor  needs  any  confirmation.  What  the  imposition  of  hands 
does  is  to  "commit"  the  office  to  the  man  already  fully  elected* 
On  the  one  hand,  the  election  does  not  commit  the  office  to  the 
elect  man;  on  the  other,  the  ordaining  Bishop  has  no  power  to 
refuse  to  ordain,  or  to  ordain  a  man  not  elected.  Should  the 
Bishop  refuse  to  ordain  he  would  be  guilty  of  contumacy. 
Should  one  or  more  Bishops,  or  one  or  more  elders,  ordain  a 
man  not  elected  by  the  proper  authority,  no  Annual  Conference 
and  no  part  of  the  Church  could  properly  accept  his  authority. 
If,  however,  some  other  Christian  body  elects,  either  before  or 
after  the  ordination,  the  man  so  ordained,  he  is  indeed  their 
Bishop,  and  may  be  acknowledged  as  such.  It  is  by  the  proper 
imposition  of  hands  that  the  Bishop  is  made,  (as  Coke  by  Wesley;) 
it  is  by  the  election  that  he  is  appropriated  by  a  particular 
Church  as  its  Bishop.  An  ordained  but  not  elected  Bishop  would 
be  Bishop  of  no  Church  and  of  nothing. 


TliirUenth  Annual  Report  of  the  FreedmefCe  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Bpieeopal 
Church,  for  1880.  12mo.,  pp.  64.  Cincinnati:  Western  Methodist  Book  Con- 
cern Press.     1880. 

During  the  thirteen  years  of  its  existence  this  society  has  dis- 
bursed near  nine  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  has  established 
six  chartered  institutions,  being  so-called  colleges  and  universi- 
ties, three  theological  schools,  one  medical,  and  ten  unchartered 
academies  and  schools.  It  has  taught  nearly  half  a  million  schol- 
ars. A  few  Southern  statesmen  and  ministers  have  begun  to 
shed  the  sunshine  of  their  faces  on  the  work.  The  encourage- 
ments appearing  have  created  the  purpose  of  enlarging  the  field 
and  including  the  poor  whites,  whom  the  old  slaveocracy  and  the 
present  remnants  of  that  class  have  stigmatized  as  ^'  white  trash," 
and  given  over  to  bmtalization. 

Bishop  Warren,  in  his  speech  at  the  anniversary,  gives  us  a 
fine  mixture  of  the  figures  of  rhetoric  and  arithmetic.  The  fol- 
lowing illustrates  the  wisdom  of  the  neglect  of  or  opposition  to 
common  schools:  '^Massachusetts  raises  for  each  one  of  its 
school  population  $16  26,  North  Carolina  11  cents,  and  Georgia 
but  95  cents.  We  will  not  compare  States  so  differently  sit- 
uated, but  two  that  lie  almost  along  side,  one  settled  by  North- 
era  and  one  by  Southern  people  and  ideas.  In  1877  Kansas  sent 
87  per  cent,  of  its  children  to  school,  Arkansas  only  8  per  cent. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book -Table.  383 

Kansas  raised  $5  65  per  child  for  edncation,  Arkansas  only  aboQt 
50  cents.  Commissioner  Eaton  says  :  ^  A  sadder  statement  for  a 
single  year  could  hardly  be  penned.'  In  1878  the  school  popula- 
tion of  Arkansas  increased  12,708,  but  the  number  of  pupils 
attending  school  increased  only  877,  In  the  Educational  Report 
of  General  Eaton  for  1877  we  find  that  the  six  States  of  South 
Carolina,  Florida,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  and  Georgia  re- 
duced their  meager  appropriations  for  schools  by  over  $2,000,000. 
In  the  report  of  1878,  the  last  issued,  we  find  that  Alabama, 
Arkansas,  Virginia,  and  Kentucky  are  still  backsliding.  It  is  no 
comfort  that  they  cannot  go  much  farther;  they  are  so  near  bot- 
tom now.  Kentucky  joins  Delaware  in  the  shame  of  giving  peo- 
ple of  color  no  educational  advantage  that  they  do  not  pay  for 
themselves." — ^Pp.  54,  65. 

The  following  illustrates  the  qualifications  of  the  "  Solid  South  " 
to  govern  the  country:  "The  census  of  1870  shall  add  a  fact  or 
two.  By  that  census  Massachusetts  had  $1,463  for  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  on  its  soil;  Alabama  had  $202;  Georgia,  $226; 
North  Carolina,  $243.  The  beggarly  style  in  which  the  gre^ 
mass  of  the  people  live  cannot  be  appreciated  except  by  the  dis- 
comforts of  an  actual  experience.  President  Fairchild,  of  Berea 
College,  Kentucky,  speaks  of  twenty  counties  in  that  State  in 
which  more  than  half  of  the  people  are  unable  to  read.  In  six 
counties  he  says  he  found  but  one  good  school-house,  and  half  of 
the  people  live  in  houses  without  windows.  There  has  not  been 
a  single  year  between  1869  and  1879  when  the  single  State  of 
Illinois  has  not  paid  from  once  to  twice  as  much  internal  rev- 
enue as  the  whole  eleven  Confederate  States  together." — ^P.  5^. 
These  solemn  facts  are  a  striking  comment  on  the  declaration 
made  by  Southern  brethren  that  we  are  "not  needed  in  the  South." 

We  seem  to  hear  of  late  the  premonitory  utterance  of  a  pro. 
posal  on  the  part  of  our  brethren  of  the  Church  South  that  all 
our  work  and  results  in  their  section  should — strange  to  say — ^be 
coolly  and  clearly  cut  off  from  our  own  future  control,  and  handed 
over  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  South.  If  we  rightly  un- 
derstand the  utterance,  our  delegation  to  the  Methodist  Ecumen^ 
ical  Conference  soon  to  be  held  in  London,  may  be  met  by  a 
scheme  to  so  cut  up  our  entire  Methodist  Church  into  sections  aa 
that  the  entire  Episcopal  Methodism  South  will  be  incorporated 
into  the  Church  South.  We  shall  at  present  suggest  but  a  single 
query  as  to  this  transfer  of  all  our  membership^  schools,  and 
churches  to  that  jurisdiction. 


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384  Methodist  Qua/rterhf  Beview.  [April, 

That  query  lies  in  the  total  want  of  sympathy  in  the  Church 
South  with  our  entire  Christian  philanthropic  work  in  the  South. 
That  work  there  exists  in  spite  of  their  very  unanimous  opposition. 
The  election  of  a  line  of  Democratic  instead  of  Republican  Presi- 
dents would  have  probably  enabled  and  induced  the  populace  to 
expel  our  agencies  from  the  South.  And  up  to  the.present  hour  we 
hear  the  report  of  a  speech  from  Bishop  Pierce  maintaining  that 
we  have  no  business  in  the  South.  We  are  not  aware  that  our 
Southern  brethren  have  established,  as  Church  work,  a  single  col- 
ored academy  or  school.  Their  last  General  Conference  withheld 
all  expression,  not  only  of  approval  of  our  work,  but  even  of  any 
colored  educational  work.  They  set  off  from  their  own  communion 
years  ago  a  colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  granted  them 
ordination  and  the  legal  ownership  of  their  Church  property  on 
express  condition  that  they  should  not  join  the  "  North  Church,'* 
but  never,  we  believe,  have  they  given  them  a  penny  or  a  good 
word  for  the  education  of  their  ministry.  We  must  see  a  very 
unanimous  and  total  change  of  heaYt  on  this  subject — we  must  see 
the  creation  of  a  hitherto  non-existent  "  enthusiasm  of  humanity  " 
toward  the  body  and  soul  of  both  negro  and  poor  white — ^before 
we  can  entertain  the  proposal,  or  even  thought,  of  placing  this 
great  and  glorious  enterprise  under  their  control.  When  the 
Bishops  and  ministry  and  press  and  laity  of  the  Church  South 
can  say  to  us  in  genial  sympathy:  "Brethren,  we  appreciate  your 
self-sacrificing  liberalities  and  toils;  we  rejoice  with  bounding 
hearts  at  your  success  ;  we  desire  the  enlightenment  of  the  igno- 
rant and  the  upraising  of  the  poor  and  downtrodden,  of  whatever 
race  or  color;  and  we  exult  in  joining  and  emulating  you  with 
full  heart,  hand,  and  purse  in  your  labor  of  Christian  love  " — then 
we  may  begin  to  think  of  leaving  the  work  in  their  hands.  No 
such  utterances  or  spirit,  and  no  action  in  accordance  with  such 
utterances  or  spirit,  have,  with  a  noble  exception  or  two,  been 
heard  to  this  hour.  The  frown  is  still  upon  the  face,  and  the 
cold  shoulder  is  still  spread,  and  episcopal  announcements  still 
declare  that  we  are  not  needed  in  the  South.  To  this  generous 
proposal  of  theirs,  therefore,  to  take  the  fee-simple  of  the  tem- 
poralities and  spiritualities  of  our  Southern  field  into  their  own 
hands,  we  should  most  cordially  reply:  "Brethren,  we  admit  the 
magnanimity  of  your  offer;  but  your  slavery-bom  propensities 
are  still  too  strong  within  you,  and  we  dare  not  as  yet  trust  our 
humble  wards  in  your  guardianship.'' 


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1881.]  Quarterly  BooJc 'Table.  385 

A  Commentary  <m  St.  PauOt  Epistle  to  the  Homans.     By  Joseph  Aqab  Bjsxr. 
London :  Hodder  &  Stoaghton.     1S11. 

This  is  a  popular  commentary  intended  to  convey  to  its  readers 
the  resnlts  of  critical  study.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  an  eminent 
English  Wesleyan  scholar.  An  Arminian  dogmatic  interest  is 
predominant  in  the  exposition;  yet,  we  think,  in  no  such  manner 
as  to  impair  its  fairness.  The  epistle  is  carefully  analyzed,  and 
the  comment  follows  the  analysis.  The  first  division  extends 
from  chapter  i,  18  to  iii,  20,  with  the  title,  "All  are  guilty.'* 
Division  II,  from  chapter  iii,  21,  to  chapter  v,  includes  "  Sanctifi- 
cation  and  its  Results."  Division  III, "  The  New  Life  in  Christ," 
chapters  vi-viiL  Division  FV,  "The  Harmony  of  the  Old  and 
the  New,"  chapters  ix-xi  Division  V,  "Practical  Lessons," 
chapter  xii  to  the  end  of  the  epistle.  Special  pains  are  taken  to 
explain  leading  terms,  such  as  "faith,  holiness,  election,"  etc. 
On  adoption  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  the  author  is  clear  and 
satisfactory.  "  In  the  order  of  cause  and  effect " — we  give  his 
concluding  sentences  on  the  passage — "the  witness  of  God's 
Spirit  precedes  that  of  our  own  spirit-;  hut  in  the  order  of  our 
thought  our  own  cry  comes  first.  We  are  first  conscious  of  our 
own  filial  confidence,  and  then  remember  that  it  was  wrought  in 
us  by  the  Holy  Spirit."  On  election  and  predestination  the  notes 
are  very  full,  and  the  view  taken  is  both  reasonable  and  logically 
consistent.  The  doctrinal  mistakes  of  Calvin  and  Augustine  are 
pointed  out,  and  at  the  same  time  justice  is  done  to  their  sincere 
effort  to  protect  the  Church  from  Pelagian  error.  The  Predes- 
tinarianism  of  the  fathers  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  was  un- 
doubtedly a  reaction  from  the  Catholic  dogma  of  the  satisfaction 
of  divine  justice  by  human  works.  Their  going  to  the  opposite 
extreme  is  not  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  human  thought. 
The  expression,  "  They  who  put  to  death  the  actions  of  the 
body,"  appears  to  us  to  be  uncouth,  if  not  unmeaning.  The  au- 
thor's desire  to  develop  Wesleyan  theology  leads  him  to  add 
much  matter  to  what  is  strictly  exposition  of  the  text;  but  for 
popular  use  this  is,  perhaps,  no  disadvantage. 


The  Four  Qoepelt ;  or,  The  Gospel  for  All  the  World.  By  D.  S.  Oregort,  Professor 
of  the  Mental  Sciences  and  English  Literatare  in  the  University  of  Worcester. 
CJincinnati:  Walden  k  Stowe.    New  York:  Phillips  k  Hunt. 

In  this  volume  Professor  Gregory  endeavors  to  solve  the  question 
why  we  have  a  fourfold  life  of  Christ.  He  follows  the  classifica- 
tion accepted  by  many  critics,  that  Matthew's  is  the  Gospel  for 


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886  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [April, 

the  JeWy  Mark's  for  tae  Roman,  Luke's  for  the  Greek,  and 
John's  for  the  Churchu  Under  each  head  he  gives,  firsts  the  his- 
torical, and  then  the  critical  view  of  the  adaptation  of  each  to  its 
purpose.  Thus,  for  instance,  it  is  shown  that  the  central  idea  of 
the  Gospel  of  Matthew  is  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah,  and  that  this 
idea  is  the  key  to  its  meaning.  Mark  presents  the  successive 
stages  of  the  work  of  Jesus  as  the  divine  Conqueror  in  establish- 
ing his  universal  empire.  The  historical  testimonies  are  com- 
pactly sunmied  up,  and  a  good  critical  analysis  is  presented  of 
the  Gospels  in  their  turn. 

It  is  possible  to  push  this  theory  too  far ;  and  it  may  be  a  ques- 
tion whether  it  has  not  been  pushed  too  far  by  Professor  Gregory. 
The  three  synoptical  Gospels  were  undoubtedly  intended  each 
for  a  certain  race  or  people;  and  this  fact  may  have  determined 
the  selection  of  matter  and  the  form  of  its  presentation.  But 
that  Mark  had  in  his  mind  the  establishment  of  such  a  thesis  as 
Professor  Gregory  ascribes  to  him  may  well  be  doubted.  All 
the  evangelists  agree  in  the  purpose  to  show  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  but  beyond  this,  in  our  opinion,  they 
attempted  nothing  farther  than  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  per- 
sons among  whom  the  Gospels  were  intended  to  circulate.  John 
affirms  the  purpose  of  his  Gospel  to  be  the  general  one  we  have 
named.  (Chap,  xx,  31.)  He  may  have  intended,  besides,  to  sup- 
plement the  synoptists,  which  he  certainly  did.  But  whatever 
may  be  thought  of  Professor  Gregory's  theory  his  book  is  a  most 
excellent  one  ;  it  condenses  into  a  small  compass  a  large  amount 
of  valuable  information. 


OriiUai  and  Ex^eUcal  Commentary  on  The  Ktw  TtUamenL  Bj  Hiikrich  Avootr 
WiLHELM  METiRf  Th.D.  From  the  Grerman,  with  the  Sanction  of  the  Author. 
The  Translation  Revised  and  Edited  by  William  P.  Dickson,  D.D.  The  J^pikie 
to  the  EphenanM  and  The  EpUUe  to  Fhiiemon.  Sto.,  pp.  388.  The  EpistU  to  ths 
ThettalonianM,  By  Dr.  Gottlsib  Lunemamn.  Translated  from  the  Third  Edition 
of  the  German,  by  Rev.  Paton  J.  Gloao,  D.D.  8vo.,  pp.  264.  Edinburgh :  T.  k 
T.Clark.    1880. 

Biblical  scholars  will  watch  and  welcome  the  progress  of  this 
great  work.  With  the  volume  containing  Ephesians  and  Phile- 
mon the  master-hand  of  Meyer  ceases  its  work.  It  is  marvelous 
that  one  man  should  have  achieved  so  great  a  task.  His  suc- 
cessors, LtinemanUy  Huther,  and  Dtlsterdieck,  though  unequal 
to  the  master,  have  worthily  continued  the  work.  The  Clarks 
will  issue  all  the  volumes  with  the  possible  exception  of  Dds- 
terdieck'is  Apocalypse.     The  accuracy  of  the  translators'  and 


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1881.]  QaaHerVy  Booh -Table.  887 

publishers'  part  of  the  work  is,  we  believe,  very  complete;  and 
the  ezegetical  student  will  rejoice  in  seeing  this  plain  but  hand- 
some set  standing  on  his  library  shelves. 


History  of  Chrutian  Doctrines,  By  the  late  Dr.  K.  R.  Haoimbaoh,  Professor  of 
Theology  at  Basel.  Translated  from  the  fifth  and  last  German  edition,  with 
additions  from  other  sources,  with  Introduction  by  E.  H.  Plumptre,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity  in  King's  College,  London ;  Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Archr 
bishop  of  Canterbury.  8vo.  Vol.  II.  Edinburgh :  T.  &  T.  Clark.  1880.  New 
York :  [Scribners*  imported  edition ;  price,  $8.] 

One  condition  of  being  a  good  theologian  is  a  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  the  history  of  the  doctrinal  thought  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  past  ages.  Ko  author,  on  this  subject,  rivals 
Hagenbach.  We  welcome  the  steady  progress  of  this  new  and 
latest  edition. 


Philosophy  J  Metcuphysica^  amd  General  Science. 

JntroducHon  to  the  Sdenee  of  Zanpuage,  By  A.  H.  8a.tok,  Deputy  Professor  of 
Comparative  Philology  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  In  two  volumes,  crown  8vo., 
pp.  441,  421.    London:  0.  Eegan  Paul  &  Co.     1880. 

The  work  of  Professor  A.  H.  Sayce,  which  he  modestly  styles 
"  An  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Language,"  marks  an  epoch 
in  the  most  fascinating,  and  also  the  most  fruitful,  branch  of  "  The 
New  Learning."  Bopp  published  his  work,  **  Das  Cwijugations- 
system^^  in  1876,  and  this  work  laid  the  first  stone  of  the  science 
of  comparative  philology;  but  his  "Sanskrit  Grammar"  did  not 
appear  until  1827,  and  from  this  latter  event  we  may  more  ap- 
propriately date  the  commencement  of  work  upon  this  new  tem- 
ple of  knowledge.  Professor  Sayce  introduces  the  student  to  a 
science  which  has  been  built  up  in  half  a  century.  Doubtless  a 
good  deal  of  older  knowledge  has  entered  into  the  building;  but, 
as  a  rule,  it  has  had  to  be  taken  out  again.  The  new  science 
rose  upon  the  site  of  the  old  grammar,  and  yet  it  has  entirely 
reconstructed  this  ground  upon  which  it  built.  So  that,  while 
grammar  may  be  said  to  have  grown  into  the  science  of  lan- 
guage, it  may  also  be  said  that  the  science  of  language  has  made 
a  new  system  of  grammars.  It  is  a  very  striking  fact  that  this 
new  science,  which,  though  it  has  a  well-defined  field,  touches  all 
the  great  knowledge  and  faith  questions  of  our  times,  has  been 
kept  so  free  from  entangling  alliances  with  the  sleepless  and  un- 
forgiving controversies  of  the  age.  This  happy  result  is  due  to 
the  genuine  scholarship  and  disciplined  culture  of  those  who 


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388  Methodist  Qtiarterly  Review.  [Apm, 

have  pursued  these  studies  in  language.  While  some  men  can- 
not tsJk  about  light  without  letting  fly  poboned  arrows  at  relig- 
ion, the  professors  of  comparative  philology  have  been  able  to 
express  their  views  upon  collateral  issues  in  all  the  momentous 
debates  with  such  discretion,  candor,  and  modesty  as  to  retain 
the  good-will  of  all  the  fraternities  of  knowledge. 

K  these  two  volumes  be  only  "An  Introduction "  there  must 
be  a  large  place  beyond  their  gates.  In  the  strictest  sense,  it  is 
only  an  introduction  which  Professor  Sayce  has  written.  He 
leads  his  reader  up  to  the  several  problems  presented  by  linguis- 
tics, opens  each  one  of  them  fully  enough  to  make  clear  its  na- 
ture, difficulties,  and  limits,  and  leaves  his  reader  face  to  face 
with  the  work  left  for  the  studies  of  the  future.  Every  knowl- 
edge has  its  impassable  bounds  ;  somewhere  the  discoverer  must 
write  neplus  ultra;  a  science  has  reached  a  certain  stability,  and 
even  venerableness,  when  it  can  say,  "  I  do  not  know  and  I  can- 
not find  out."  Linguistic  study  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  de- 
fined its  limits  so  as  to  be  able  to  confess  its  powerlessness  in 
certain  directions.  It  has  cast  out  of  its  domain  a  number  of 
questions,  (such  as  race,  for  example,)  and  it  has  greatly  changed 
the  forms  of  others,  (the  origin  of  language  is  a  specimen,)  so 
that  what  remains  to  be  studied  is  stated  in  such  terms  as  to  sug- 
gest that  research  may  make  all  things  plain — all,  that  is  to  say, 
which  is  accepted  as  within  the  province  of  the  science  of  language. 

In  this  science  the  first  has  become  last;  its  first  serious  wrestle 
was  with  comparative  morphology,  but  no  sooner  had  the  gram- 
matical forms  yielded  up  their  laws  than  the  student  of  them 
began  to  send  morphology  to  the  rear,  and  now  Professor 
Sayce  hesitatingly  assigns  morphology  a  place  M  the  end  of  the 
line.  Phonology,  the  science  of  intelligent  sounds,  and  sematol- 
ogy,  the  science  of  meanings  in  words,  are  now  the  two  main 
branches  of  the  science.  Morphology,  according  to  Professor 
Sayce,  is  essentially  a  matter  of  syntax,  but  it  retains  in  his 
work  the  office  of  determining  the  classification  of  languages  be- 
cause the  mode  of  constructing  the  sentence  remains  the  best- 
known  principle  of  classification.  Phonology  is  the  region  of 
positive  knowledge,  intelligent  sounds  are  things  of  physics  and 
physiology,  and,  therefore,  ponderable  and  measurable.  Mean- 
ings are  in  the  realm  of  metaphysics,  and  involve  some  of  the 
most  subtle  and  subtile  mental  phenomena.  Morphology  origi- 
nates in  the  metaphysical  re^on,  but  evolves  itself  into  the 
ponderable  facts  of  syntax. 


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1881.1  Quarterly  Booh-Table.  389 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  phonology,  though  it  is  the  phys- 
ical domain,  cannot  afford  ns  a  principle  of  classification.  The 
distribution  of  languages  into  families  has  to  be  effected  by  group- 
ing mental  results  as  they  appear  in  the  sentence.  And  so  per- 
plexingly  common  is  the  mind  of  man  that  all  kinds  of  syntax 
occur  in  all  languages,  so  that  the  groups  have  to  be  made  by 
collating  only  the  predominant  syntactical  characteristics  of 
every  speech.  The  inference  is  unavoidable  that  the  ardor 
with  which  phonology  has  been  pursued,  and  the  hopes  based  upon 
the  microphone  or  other  mirrors  of  sound,  have  met,  and  must 
meet,  disappointment.  Language  does,  indeed,  consist  of  sounds, 
but  the  contents  are  so  much  the  larger  and  more  masterful  part 
that  the  poor  shells  of  sound  sink  into  relative  insignificance.  "  We 
have,"  says  Professor  Sayce,  "  to  discover  the  different  mental 
points  of  view  from  which  the  structure  of  the  sentence  was  re- 
garded by  different  races  of  mankind;  to  investigate  and  compare 
the  various  contrivances  and  processes  through  which  these  points 
of  view  eventually  found  their  fullest  expression;  to  classify  the 
modes  of  denoting  the  relations  of  grammar  at  the  disposal  of 
language;  to  examine  the  nature  of  composition  and  of  stems  in 
the  groups  of  speech  of  which  they  are  characteristic;  to  analyze 
the  conceptions  of  grammar,  and  to  determine  the  elements  and 
germs  out  of  which  they  have  sprung;  and,  finally,  to  ascertain 
the  true  origin  and  meaning  of  the  so-called  rules  of  syntax,  and 
keep  record  of  the  changes  that  take  place  in  the  change  of 
words." — ^Vol.  i,  p.  440.  To  pursue  such  studies  successfully,  we 
must,  according  to  our  author,  give  less  attention  to  roots  and 
single  words.  "  We  shall  never,"  he  says,  "  have  a  satisfactory 
starting-point  for  our  classification  unless  we  put  both  word  and 
root  out  of  sight,  and  confine  ourselves  to  the  sentence  or  propo- 
sition, and  the  ways  in  which  the  sentence  may  be  expressed." 
— Vol.  i,  p.  369.  The  sentence  is,  historically,  anterior  to  the 
words  of  which  it  may  now  be  composed.  Grammar  grew  from 
resolution  of  the  sentence  into  its  elements.  ^'In  the  less  ad- 
vanced American  languages  the  several  members  of  the  sentence 
have  never  attained  the  rank  of  independent  words  which  can  be 
set  apart  and  employed  by  themselves."  The  present  reviewer 
several  years  ago  made  the  suggestion  in  these  pages  that  com-* 
mon  household  speech  consists  of  sentences,  and  he  believes  that 
the  Genoese  peasant  is  incapable  of  resolving  his  speech  into  words. 

Probably  the  most  satisfactory  chapter  in  this  book  is  that  de- 
voted to  roots.    Starting  from  the  endless  discussion  whether  the 


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390  Methodist  Qtca/rte,*ly  Review.  [April, 

first  roots  were  nouns  or  verbs,  Professor  Sayce  advances  to  the 
general  conclusion  that  the  primordial  root  was  rather  a  mental 
type  than  a  real  word ;  "  it  was  an  unexpressed,  unconsciously 
felt  type  which  floated  before  the  mind  of  the  speaker,  and  de- 
termined him  in  the  choice  of  the  words  he  formed."  "The 
primordial  types  which  presented  themselves  almost  unconscious- 
ly before  the  framers  of  language,  which  lay  implicit  in  the 
words  they  created,  must  be  discovered  and  made  explicit  by  the 
comparative  philologist.  Just  as  the  phonologist  breaks  up  words 
into  their  component  sounds,  so  must  the  philologist  break  up 
groups  of  allied  words  into  their  roots,  for  roots  are  to  groups  of 
words  what  the  letters  and  syllables  are  to  each  word  by  itself." 
In  other  terms,  our  search  for  roots  is  an  attempt  to  trace  the 
mental  operations  in  speech  of  those  who  did  not  speak  these 
types,  but  only  had  them  unexpressed  in  their  minds.  Follow- 
ing this  line  of  reasoning  we  see,  of  course,  that  Professor  Whit- 
ney speculated  unprofitably  when  he  told  us  that  the  Aryan  group 
of  languages  were  descended  from  a  monosyllabic  tongue;  that 
our  ancestors  talked  to  each  other  in  single  syllables.  Professor 
Sayce  pronounces  such  a  language  "  a  sheer  impossibility,"  con- 
tradicted by  all  that  we  know  of  savage  and  barbarous  dialects. 
The  general  student  will  be  refreshed  to  know  this;  and  he  may 
also  take  comfort  from  knowing  that  the  so-called  primordial 
roots  are  the  grammatical  children  of  our  philologists.  "  The  so- 
called  *root  period'  of  the  primitive  Aryan  really  means  the 
analysis  of  the  most  ancient  Aryan  vocabulary  which  a  compari- 
son of  the  later  dialects  enables  us  to  make.  Behind  that  root- 
period  lay  another,  of  which  obscure  glimpses  are  given  us  by  the 
roots  we  can  still  further  decompose." — Vol.  ii,  p.  10. 

The  brief  compass  of  a  book  notice  restrains  us  from  much 
comment  upon  the  inferential  views  of  Professor  Sayce  upon  sev- 
eral subjects.  He  is  a  strong  advocate  of  an  improved  spelling 
for  our  language.  For  that  matter,  all  scholars  are  substantially 
agreed  that  our  spelling  is  bad.  The  dijQPerences  among  them  are 
entirely  respecting  the  possibility  of  improving  the  spelling  of  a 
language  written  by  a  hundred  millions  of  people  now  belting 
the  world.  Science  can  make  no  valuable  contributions  to  this 
question  until  the  practical  parts  of  the  problem  seem  less  diffi- 
cult. Perhaps  time  and  the  very  sensible  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject, which  is  now  common,  may  prepare  the  way  for  the  intro- 
duction of  an  improved  spelling.  When  we  want  one,  the  re- 
searches and  experiments  in  phonology,  of  which  Professor  Sayce 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Booh 'Table.  891 

makes  a  asefol  record  in  his  fourth  chapter,  will  furnish  princi- 
ples to  guide  the  reformer.  The  conclusion  which  our  author 
reaches  respecting  the  age  of  human  speech  seem  to  us  less  sat- 
isfactory. He  believes  that  '^  the  antiquity  of  man  as  a  speaker  is 
Tast  and  indefinite."  It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  before  the  old- 
est record  of  spoken  language  there  was  a  vast  period  of  growth  and 
decay,  a  long  struggle  with  imperfect  vocalization,  a  slow  prog- 
ress up  from  interjections  into  sentence  words  and  thence  into 
artificial  grammar;  it  is  possible,  but  it  is  not  proved  or  prova- 
ble. We  have  no  time-piece  for  the  mental  growth  which  under- 
lies grammar.  We  may  come  to  possess  one,  but  it  is,  perhaps, 
hardly  to  be  expected  that  we  shall.  At  all  events,  a  true  stu- 
dent must  continue  to  shrink  from  affirming  that  there  are  ever 
so  nmny  cities  under  the  remains  of  the  last-found  predecessor  of 
Troy.  D.  H.  w. 


History^  Biography^  amd  Topography, 

Tki  Inv€uion  of  the  Crimea  ;  Its  Origin  and  an  Account  of  its  Progress  down  to 
the  Death  of  Lord  Baglan.    Bj  Alexaivdeb  William  Eikolakb.    Vol.  lY. 

The  subject  treated  in  this  volume  is  very  appropriately  desig- 
nated "the  winter  troubles."  The  victory  won  by  the  Allies  at 
Inkerman  did  not  relieve  them  from  the  necessity  of  spending 
the  winter  of  1864-55  on  the  bleak  and  barren  downs  known  as 
the  Chersonese  Heights.  The  battle  of  Alma,  fought  in  Septem- 
ber, had  made  them  virtually  masters  of  the  whole  Crimea,  Se- 
bastapool  and  the  Chersonese  only  excepted,  and  of  these  the  de- 
feated Russians  had  at  that  moment  only  a  very  weak  hold. 
But  when  the  Allies  committed  the  grave  military  blunder  of 
marching  by  the  Russian  flank  to  the  south  of  Sebastapool,  they 
left  all  the  communications  of  their  enemy  open,  and  thereby 
enabled  him  to  pour  in  those  reinforcements  which  put  him  in  a 
condition,  not  merely  to  make  a  most  obstinate  defense  of  the 
fortress,  but  also  to  so  hem  in  the  allied  forces  that  they  could  not 
stir  beyond  the  ground  on  which  they  were  encamped.  Hence 
the  commissariat  of  the  allied  armies  was  wholly  dependent  on 
supplies  sent  from  England  and  France. 

Two  results  followed  this  dependence.  It  demonstrated  the 
incapacity  of  both  the  French  and  English  systems  of  military 
administration,  and  it  involved  both  armies  in  a  depth  of  priva* 
tion  and  suffering  rarely  paralleled  in  the  cruel  records  of  war. 


Digitized  by  VjOOQIC. 


392  MethocUst   QwaHerly  Review.  [April, 

The  volume  before  us  fearlessly,  faithfully  exhibits  the  factors 
which  enter  into  the  demonstration  of  the  former  point;  and  it 
portrays  with  graphic  force  the  terrible  and  long-continued  mis- 
ery so  heroically  and  patiently  endured  by  the  unfortunate  sol- 
diers in  both  camps.  Nor  were  the  sufferings  of  the  Russians 
much  less  severe  than  those  of  their  besiegers.  It  is  true  they 
were  better  sheltered;  but,  owing  to  the  impossibility  of  forward- 
ing suitable  and  sufficient  supplies  for  such  vast  numbers  to  a  point 
so  far  distant  from  the  base  as  the  Crimea,  they  were  subjected  to 
almost  inconceivable  privations.  Taking  into  account  the  length 
of  time  during  which  all  three  armies  suffered  the  horrors  of  that 
terrible  winter,  we  know  of  no  other  leaf  in  the  annals  of  human 
wars  more  painfully  illustrative  of  their  folly  and  cruelty. 

In  nothing  was  the  English  war  department  more  inefficient 
than  in  its  hospital  arrangements.  Hundreds  of  men  died  in 
them  who,  under  better  treatment,  might  have  been  restored  to 
health.  When  the  disgraceful  facts  reached  England,  a  new 
force  arose.  The  women  of  England,  represented  by  Miss  Stan- 
ley, Florence  Nightingale,  and  other  self-sacrificing  ladies,  hast- 
ened to  nurse  the  sick  and  console  the  dying  victims  of  the  war. 
Mr.  Einglake  does  ample  justice  to  those  devoted  women,  as  he 
does  also  to  Lord  Raglan,  the  noble-minded,  patient,  and  sorely 
tried  British  commander.  Though  not  treating  of  brilliant  deeds 
of  arms,  but  of  the  nobler  courage  which  refused  to  yield  in  face 
of  difficulties  so  grim  as  to  invite  despair,  this  volume  wins  the 
reader's  attention  as  readily  as  either  of  its  predecessors. 


MemoridU  of  OUhert  Havett,  one  of  Ou  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcop<d  Church, 
Edited  by  W.  H.  Daniels,  author  of  "The  Dlustrated  History  of  Methodism," 
"  D.  L.  Moody  and  his  Work,"  "  The  Temperance  Reform,"  etc.  With  an  Intro- 
duction by  Rev.  BRAoroRD  K.  Pkirce,  D.D.,  Editor  of  "Zion's  Herald."  12mo., 
pp.  869.  Boston:  B.  B.  Russell  &  Co.  Cincinnati:  Walden  k  Stowe.  Phila- 
delphia: Quaker  City  Publishing  House.     1880. 

Without  waiting  the  deliberate  movements  of  official  biogra- 
phers, Mr.  Daniels  has  here  gathered  the  materials  of  a  beautiful 
memorial  to  the  Bishop.  A  brief  biography,  a  collection  of 
eulogies,  a  series  of  "  Havenisms,''  being  passages  from  his  writ^ 
ings  and  details  of  his  opinions,  illustrated  with  eight  engravings, 
form  its  contents.  It  is  most  tastefully  done  up  by  the  publish- 
ers, in  blue  and  gilt,  on  fine  paper  and  liberal  print,  forming  a 
memento  pleasing  to  the  eye.  The  engraved  likeness  of  the 
Bishop  as  frontispiece  wonderfully  presents  the  blended  force 
and  mildness  of  his  nature. 


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1881.]  Qtca/rterVy  Book 'Table.  393 

Ilios,  the  City  and  Country  of  the  TVojans :  The  Results  of  Researches  and  Dis- 
coveries on  the  Site  of  Troy  and  throughout  the  Troad  in  the  Years  1871-72- 
78-78-79.  Including  an  Autobiography  of  the  Author.  By  Dr.  Henrt  Schlib- 
MANN.  With  a  Preface,  Appendices,  and  Notes,  by  Professors  Rudolph  Vir- 
CHOW,  Max  Muller,  A.  H.  Satck,  J.  P.  Mahafft,  H.  Bruosch-Bet,  P.  Acher- 
80N,  M.  A.  PosTOLACCAS,  M.  E.  BuRNOUF,  Mr.  F.  Calvert,  and  Mr.  A.  J.  Duf- 
riELD.  With  Maps,  Plans,  and  about  1,800  Illustrations.  8vo.,  pp.  800.  New 
Tork :  Harper  k  Brothers.    1881. 

Schliemann,  hb  history,  researches,  and  achievements,  are  a  real- 
life  romance.  The  whole  story  is  marvelous  and  unique — "  truth 
stranger  than  fiction."  He  was  bom  in  1822,  the  son  of  a  Prus- 
sian clergyman,  and  was  early  fired  by  his  father's  conversation 
with  an  enthusiasm  for  Homer  and  Troy,  and  a  desire  to  exhume 
the  buried  remains  of  the  Homeric  city.  His  enthusiastic  talk 
on  the  subject  made  him  the  laughing-stock  of  all  his  young  as- 
sociates save  two  sweet  maidens,  the  younger  of  whom  especially 
utterly  won  his  heart  by  listening  to  and  sympathizing  with  his 
enthusiasm.  His  love  for  her  energized  his  soul  and  body  for  the 
giant  work.  He  learned  languages  in  his  own  unique  way  with 
a  marvelous  rapidity,  and,  entering  into  trade,  grew  rich  with  as 
marvelous  a  facility.  The  moment  he  was  rich  enough  for  mar- 
riage he  sent  hb  offer  to  his  distant  sweetheart,  which  arrived, 
alas  !  a  few  days  after  her  marriage  to  another.  He  subsequently 
married  an  Athenian  lady,  who  not  only  sympathized  in  his 
enthusiasms,  but  heroically  shared  in  the  dangers  and  fatigues  of 
his  labors.  He  believes,  with  a  serene  faith,  that  a  gracious 
providence  guided  him.  He  gave  up  trade  and  traveled  to  all 
the  most  interesting  points  of  the  world.  While  in  California 
the  adoption  of  a  new  constitution  made  all  present  residents 
American  citizens ;  so  that  Schliemann  was  overslaughed  with 
an  American  citizenship,  and  jubilantly  and  proudly,  finds  him- 
self one  of  the  universal  Yankees  !  At  the  proper  time  for  his 
immediate  mission  of  "  resurrecting  "  dead  and  buried  Troy,  he 
obtained  leave  from  the  Turkish  government,  by  aid  of  European 
and  American  ministers,  and,  bringing  a  small  army  of  diggers 
to  the  hill  of  Hissarlik,  he  cut  it  from  summit  to  bottom  with 
enormous  gorges.  The  magnificent  book  before  us  tells  us  his 
latest  and  fullest  story.  Nor  does  he  now  tell  his  simple  story 
alone.  Attended  by  a  body-guard  of  men  like  Virchow,  Max 
MttUer,  and  others  above  named,  he  may  safely  hold  himself  no 
longer  amenable  to  questionings  of  his  honesty  or  even  to  captious 
criticisms  upon  his  work.     His  triumph  is  complete. 

Coming,  then,  to  Hissarlik,  the  mound  of  Troy,  the  spade  of 
Schliemann  pierced  down  through  seven  successive  cities  to  the 


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394 


Methodist  Quarterly  Review. 


[April, 


basal  limestone  rock.     These  successive  urban  strata  are  presented 
to  our  eye  in  the  following 


Diagram. 


Mkrei,    Feet{abL) 


8urfae6. 


10 


to 
16 


Stratum  of  the  7th  City,  the  Aeolio  Blum. 


6f 


Bemalns  of  the  6tlL.  the  Lydtan  City. 


Stratum  of  the  5  th  City. 


18 


Stratum  of  the  4th  City. 


Stratum  of  the  3d,  the  Burnt  City,  the  Homeric 
nios. 


83 


45 


Stratum  of  the  2d  City. 


to      Stratum  of  the  1st  City. 
62J 


Native  rock. — ^Its  present  height  above  the  sea  is 
109^  feet.  Its  present  height  above  the  plain  at  the 
foot  of  the  hill  is  consequently  69J^  feet,  but  it  may 
probably  have  been  16  or  20  feet  more  at  the  time  of 
the  Trojan  war,  the  plain  having  increased  in  height 
by  the  alluvia  of  the  rivers  and  the  detritus  of  veg- 
etable and  animal  matter. 


The  first,  or  bottom  city,  resting  upon  the  rock,  was  without 
walls,  and  abounds  in  pottery,  which,  if  taken  as  a  test  of  civiliz- 
ation, proves  the  bottom  city  to  be  superior  to  the  city  above  it. 
Simple  plastic  clay  seems  divinely  provided  for  man's  earliest  ef- 
forts at  forming  permanent  vessefs  and  utensils  ;  being,  in  fact, 
earlier  accessible  than  metals,  and  more  pliable  to  man's  rude 
hand  than  wood.  Hence  urns,  jars,  and  bowls  of  hand-shaped 
and  sun-dried  or  fire-baked  clay,  stand  in  place  of  wooden  coffins, 


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1881.]  Qttarterly  Book -Table.  895 

boxes,  and  wash-tubs,  haying  the  advantage  of  easier  formation, 
and  then  enduring  to  bear  their  testimony  to  fnture  ages.  Be- 
sides pottery,  there  were  here  found  stone  implements  and  arti- 
cles of  gold,  silver,  and  copper,  but  no  iron.  Gold  readily  re- 
veals itself  to  man  by  its  glitter  and  beauty,  and  copper,  by  its 
purity  in  solid  lumps;  but  iron  lies  concealed  in  the  ore  until 
art  detects  and  develops  it.  Yet  in  Genesis  Tubal-cain  was  an 
iron-dealer  before  the  flood.  Iron,  however,  is  said  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  Pentateuch  but  thirteen  times,  while  brass  (the 
mixture  of  copper  and  tin)  occurs  twenty-four  times.  Of  the  second 
city^ihQ  layer  reveals  a  specimen  of  the  phallus, indicating  that  that 
strange  worship  was  contemporary  with  that  stratum.  Derived, 
probably,  from  Phoenicia,  this  emblem  signalized  the  worship  of 
the  generative  power  of  nature,  having  the  bull  and  the  cow  for 
its  animal  generative  symbols,  and  referring  to  the  sun  as  the 
great  generator  of  life,  and  the  moon  as  his  sister  and  wife. 
These  appear  as  Baal  and  Ashtoreth  in  the  Hebrew  history.  The 
third  city,  "  the  burnt  city,"  is  the  center  of  interest,  as  being  the 
locality  celebrated  in  Homeric  song.  Even  this  city  discloses  no 
iron,  and  not  a  single  specimen  of  a  sword.  It  is  the  opinion  of 
Virchow  that  it  is  not  to  the  West  that  we  must  look  for  corre- 
lated archaeology  with  that  of  Hissarlik,  but  to  the  East — ^to  As- 
syria and  Egypt.  This  accords  with  the  biblical  account,  which 
reveals  the  cradle  of  the  race  in  Asia  pouring  its  migrations 
westward.  Troy  stood  in  the  great  highway  of  transition  across 
the  Hellespont  to  Europe.  And  this  third  city  displays  the  signs 
of  such  a  conflagration  as  every  Latin  student  has  found  depicted 
in  the  early  pages  of  Virgil.  "  Here,"  says  Virchow,  "  was  a 
great  devouring  fire,  in  which  the  clay  walls  of  the  buildings 
were  molten  and  made  fluid  like  wax,  so  that  congealed  drops 
of  glass  bear  witness  at  the  present  day  to  the  mighty  conflagra- 
tion. Only  at  a  few  places  are  cinders  left,  whose  structure  en- 
ables us  to  discover  what  was  burnt — ^whether  wood  or  straw  or 
wheat  or  pease.  A  very  small  part  of  this  city  has  escaped  the 
fire;  and  only  here  and  there  in  the  burned  parts  have  portions 
of  the  houses  remained  uninjured  beneath  the  rubbish  of  the 
foundering  walls.  Almost  the  whole  is  burned  to  ashes.  How 
enormous  must  have  been  the  fire  that  devoured  all  this  splendor! 
And  in  spite  of  all  thb  what  riches  have  been  brought  to  light 
out  of  the  ashes  I  Treasures  of  gold,  one  after  another,  presented 
themselves  to  the  astonished  eye.  The  possession  of  such  treas- 
ures must  have  become  famous  far  and  wide.     The  splendor  of 


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MethocUst  QuaHerT/y  Review.  [April, 

this  chieftain  must  have  awakened  envy  and  covetousnefss;  and 
the  ruin  of  his  high  fortress  can  signify  nothing  less  than-  his  own 
downfall  and  the  destruction  of  his  race." 

Troy  and  its  downfall  were  real  historic  facts.  Magnified  and 
glorified  hy  the  poets  as  they  were,  so  that  we  can  draw  no  clear 
line  between  fact  and  legend,  facts  lay  at  the  base  of  the  le- 
gend. History,  chronology,  and  topography  are  all  too  definite 
and  coincident  to  allow  a  reasonable  doubt.  And  the  burned  city 
exhumed  by  Schliemann's  spade  is  the  locality  and  remnant  of 
the  real  Homeric  Troy.  To  believe  that  all  the  coincidences  that 
unite  in  demonstrating  this  identity  are  fallacious  is  credulity, 
not  healthful  skepticism.  For,  first,  while  all  agree  that  the 
Homeric  locality  was  in  the  Troad,  there  is  no  other  spot  than 
Hissarlik  that  can  raise  pretension.  Two  localities  have  been 
named,  but  the  inevitable  spade  demonstrates  the  fact  that  nei- 
ther of  them  can  show  the  remains  of  an  ancient  city,  and  so  their 
rivalry  has  no  existence.  On  the  contrary,  Hissarlik  has  the  suf- 
frage, unanimous  and  supreme,  of  all  antiquity.  Demetrius,  of 
Scepsis,  a  late  writer,  was  the  first  to  question  this  site,  and  Pro- 
fessor Mahaffy  has  in  the  present  volume  shown  the  motive  and 
fallacy  of  his  falsehood.  The  claims  of  Boumabashi  are  refuted 
by  its  distance  from  ,the  sea-shore,  by  its  want  of  all  ancient  tes- 
timony, and  by  the  unanswerable  logic  of  the  spade.  When 
Xerxes  came  from  Asia  with  his  millions  to  conquer  Europe  he 
went  up  to  the  hill  of  Hissarlik  to  pay  his  homage  to  the  heroes 
of  Troy.  When  Alexander  marched  from  Europe  to  conquer 
Asia  he  stood  upon  the  summit  of  ELissarlik  and  offered  his  hom- 
age alike  to  Achilles  and  to  Homer.  Here,  all  true  antiquity 
said,  was  the  site  of  the  burned  Troy;  and  here  Schliemann,  in 
our  day,  has  thrust  in  his  spade  and  found  it. 

It  seems  a  formidable  objection  to  Hissarlik  as  the  site  of  the 
Homeric  Ilion  that  due  measurement  shows  not  space  enough  for 
more  than  a  respectable  village  of  three  thousand  inhabitants. 
Schliemann's  answer  to  this  objection  is  important  because  appli- 
cable to  other  ancient  foundations  than  those  of  Troy.  Scholars, 
classical  and  biblical,  have  been  too  little  observant  of  the  small- 
ness  of  ancient  cities,  especially  at  their  commencements.  Says 
Schliemann :  ^ 

As  regards  the  size  of  all  the  pre-historic  cities,  I  repeat  that  thej  were  but  verj 
smalL  In  fact,  we  can  hardly  too  much  contract  our  ideas  of  the  dimensions  of 
those  primeval  cities.  ...  So,  according  to  the  Attic  tradition,  Athens  was  built  bj 
the  Pelasgians,  and  was  limited  to  the  small  rock  of  the  Acropolis,  whose  plaieau 
is  of  oval  form,  nine  hundred  feet  long  and  four  hundred  feet  broad  at  its  broadest 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book -Table.  897 

part ;  but  it  was  mnch  smaller  still  until  Cimon  enlarged  it  by  building  the  wall  on 
its  eastern  declivity  and  leveling  the  slope  within  by  means  of  debris.  The  lonians, 
having  captured  the  city,  forced  the  Pelas^ans  to  settle  at  the  southern  foot  of  the 
Acropolis.  According  to  Thucydides,  Athens  was  only  enlarged  by  the  coalescence 
of  the  Attic  demi  there  ((Tvvo4«<o/i6f)  effected  by  Theseus.  In  like  manner  Athens, 
('A^^va*,)  Thebes,  (OfjjSat^)  Mycenae,  (MvK^vai^)  and  all  the  other  cities  whose  names 
are  of  the  plural  form,  were  probably  at  first  limited  to  their  stronghold,  called 
ndXiCy  and  had  their  names  in  the  singular ;  but  t]ie  cities  having  been  enlarged, 
they  received  the  plural  name,  the  citadel  being  then  called  Acropolis,  and  the . 
lower  town  ndXig,  The  most  striking  proof  of  this  is  the  name  of  the  valley  "  Po- 
lls," in  Ithaca,  which,  as  I  have  shown  above,  is  not  derived  from  a  real  city,  or 
acropolis — for  my  excavations  there  have  proved  that  this  sinffle  fertile  valley  in 
the  island  can  never  have  been  the  site  of  a  city — but  from  a  natural  rock,  which 
has  never  been  touched  by  the  hand  of  man.  This  rock,  however,  having — as 
seen  from  below — precisely  the  shape  of  a  citadel,  is  for  this  reason  now  called 
eastran^  and  was,  no  doubt,  in  ancient  times  called  FoliSf  which  name  has  been 
transferred  to  the  valley. 

The  ancient  Polls  or  Asty  (aarv)  was  the  ordinary  habitation  of  the  town-chief 
or  king,  with  his  family  and  dependents,  as  well  as  of  the  richer  classes  of  the 
people ;  it  was  the  site  of  the  Agora  and  the  temples,  and  the  general  place  of 
refuge  in  time  of  danger.  We  have  traces  of  this  fact  in  the  extended  sense  of 
the  Italian  easteUo^  to  einbrace  a  town,  and  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  burh  ;  also,  as  Pro- 
fessor Virchow  suggests  to  me,  in  the  Slavish  gard'^'kortua^  (Burgwall.)  "  What, 
Indeed,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  have  we  to  say  when  we  find  that,  in  the  period  of 
the  ineunalnda  of  Rome,  the  Romans  on  the  Palatine  were  probably  faced  by  the 
Sablnes  on  the  hill  of  the  Capitol  ? "  It  is,  therefore,  not  the  smallness  of  the 
third,  the  burned  city,  which  can  prevent  us  from  identifying  it  with  the  Homeric 
Troy,  because  Homer  is  not  a  historian,  but  an  epic  poet. — Pp.  614,  515. 

These  views  appear  to  solve  some  difficulties  in  biblical  history, 
especially  those  statements  that  seem  to  demand  a  larger  primi- 
tive population  than  the  chronology  appeal's  to  admit.  Thus 
Cain  (Gen.  iv,  17)  "builded  a  city"  in  the  land  of  Nod.  That 
is,  he  fortified  a  nook  which  became,  in  a  few  decades,  his  castle, 
and  in  centuries  a  city  that  boasted  of  him  as  its  founder.  And 
so  "the  beginning"  of  Nimrod's  kingdom,  in  Gen.  x,  10,  were 
three  or  four  hunting  rendezvous  in  the  land  of  Shinar  which  be- 
came the  ultimate  foundation  of  the  Assyrian  Empire.  So  Miz- 
raim  led  a  body  of  emigrants  to  Egypt,  somewhat  larger,  proba- 
bly, than  the  household  of  Jacob,  which  in  a  subsequent  age 
descended  to  the  same  country. 

The  revelations  of  Schliemann  in  regard  to  Troy  come  into  no 
'collision  with  biblical  history.  If  we  suppose  that  Homer  was 
nearly  contemporary  with  Solomon,  the  fall  of  Troy  comes  some- 
where between  Solomon  and  Moses.  The  two  earlier  cities,  with 
their  great  depth  of  stratum,  we  could  afford,  if  necessary,  to 
admit  to  be  antediluvian.  On  the  other  hand,  the  successive  as- 
cending strata,  while  they  reveal  the  fact  of  progress  in  human 
history  as  a  whole,  show  that  progress  to  be  often  interrupted 
by  retrogression. 

The  volume  is  a  specimen  of  splendid  book-making.  Its  wealth 
Fourth  Skkiks,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 26 


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398  Methodist  Quarterly  Heuiew.  [April, 

of  maps,  diagrams,  and  pictures  presents  the  best  possible  means 
for  bringing  the  objects  of  the  narrative  clear  before  the  mind's 
eye  of  the  reader.  It  is  done  up,  externally,  in  the  Harpers'  best 
style,  and  takes  its  place  not  only  as  "  the  book  of  the  season," 
but  as  a  permanent  unique  in  literature. 


Idterature  cmd  Fiction. 


Tales  from  the  Norse  Gh-andnwther.    By  Augusta  Larned.    12mo.,  pp.  482.   New 
York :  Phillips  &  Hunt    Cincinnati :  Walden  k  Stowe.     1880. 

The  literature  of  old  Norse  in  English  has  been  at  the  best  but 
scanty,  and  could  boast  of  scarcely  any  attempt  to  popularize  its 
Eddas  and  Sagas,  until  the  volumes  of  Prof^sor  Anderson  ap- 
peared. These  were  unfortunately  marred  by  exaggerated  praise 
of  the  old  Norse  as  a  literature,  and  immoderate  and  ungraceful 
attacks  upon  our  study  of  Latin,  which  Mr.  Anderson  would  sum- 
marily abolish,  (^^JPrceterea  censeo  Romam  esse  ddendam^'*  he  says,) 
and  replace  with  Norse.  This  book  is  written  with  another  pur- 
pose, is  to  the  point,  and  perhaps  does  not  exaggerate  the  impor- 
tance or  attractiveness  of  the  Norse  remains.  The  worst  thing 
about  it  is  the  title,  which  is  neither  attractive  nor  scientific,  since 
the  word  Edda  is  not  known  to  mean  grandmother,  (or  great 
grandmother,)  though  this  interpretation  has  plausibility  and  a 
good  following  among  scholars.  But  as  to  the  work  itself  it  is 
deserving  of  almost  unqualified  praise.  It  will  not  only  please 
young  readers,  for  whom  it  was  written,  but  every  body,  and 
^11  not  repel  the  learned.  Seldom,  indeed,  do  we  see  a  work  so 
carefully  and  patiently  prepared  for  type.  Our  author  has  also 
very  happily  extended  the  mythology  of  the  North  a  little  way 
into  its  history,  and,  by  making  us  think  of  the  people  when  she 
tells  us  of  their  religious  system,  has  rendered  their  myths  ten- 
fold more  real.  The  volume  is,  therefore,  much  more  than  a 
mythology,  and  vastly  more  interesting.  Nothing  is  more  diffi- 
cult than  to  interest  a  reader,  not  a  Norse  specialist,  or  otherwise 
prepared  to  appreciate  it,  in  Northern  mythology— or,  indeed,  in 
the  modem  masterpieces  of  Scandinavian  literature.  There  is  a 
chill,  a  weirdness  like  that  of  an  opened  barrow,  which  repels. 
We  trust  thb  volume  may  do  much  toward  awakening  an  in- 
terest in  not  only  the  old  Scandinavian  literature,  but  also  the 
treasures  of  the  new.  s. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-Table.  899 


Foreign  Theological  Publications. 

Die  deitUehen  Buchofe  und  der  Aherglatibe,    Eine  Denkschift.     By  Prof.  Br.  Fr. 
Heink.  Rsusch.    Bonn :  1879,  Keusser. 

This  small  octavo  of  109  pages  ("  The  German  Bishops  and  Super- 
stition ")  is  not  only  a  true,  but  a  sad,  and,  in  many  respects,  an 
amusing  record  of  the  duplicity  and  villainy  of  the  Romish 
Church,  as  practiced  upon  their  deluded  followers  by  her  bishops 
and  priests  in  Germany. 

The  dissemination  and  encouragement  of  superstition  among 
the  masses  have  ever  been  a  prolific  source  of  the  power  of  the 
Roman  hierarchy  in  papal  countries. 

The  priest  who  is  the  most  expert  in  exciting  and  affecting  to 
the  greatest  extent  the  credulity  of  the  multitude,  is  the  most 
popular  and  successful  in  his  pastoral  work,  and  never  fails  to  be 
most  acceptable  to  "  the  abomination  that  maketh  desolate." 

Dr.  Reusch  is  an  honest,  zealous,  learned,  and  an  influential 
representative  of  the  Old  Catholic  movement,  and  observes, , 
writes,  and  speaks  in  the  interest  of  truth  and  common  sense,  and 
not,  as  he  expresses  it,  through  any  desire  to  injure  Catholicism, 
or  bring  reproach  on  it  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  do  not  belong  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  but  in  the  hope  that  by  exposing 
the  damage  the  sin  will  cease,  and  the  wish  that  his  publication 
of  the  truth  may  be  honestly  considered  by  all  those  who  have  at 
heart  the  spiritual  welfare  of  German  Catholics,  and  who  are 
called  to  promote  true  religion  among  them. 

He  says,  further,  that  the  substance  of  his  publication  is  made 
up  of  extracts  from  such  writings  as  have  appeared  in  Germany  for 
the  most  part  since  the  year  1870,  and  are  disseminated  among  the 
Catholic  people;  that  he  has  added  to  these  extracts  only  so 
much  as  he  considered  necessary,  in  order  that  such  readers  as 
are  not  acquainted  with  these  things  may  the  more  easily  under- 
stand, and  rightly  estimate,  the  quotations;  that  the  works  from 
which  he  quotes  are  imported  chiefly  from  France;  that  they  ap- 
pear every  year  in  greater  number,  in  the  shops  and  stores  of  the 
best  known  Catholic  booksellers  and  publishers,  and  at  lowest 
possible  price,  so  as  to  insure  most  certainly  the  greatest  possible 
sale  and  quickest  circulation;  that  the  continual  appearance  of 
later  editions  and  later  writings  of  the  same  tendency  is  proof 
that  this  kind  of  literature  finds  large  diffusion;  that  the  German 
bishops  are  fearfully  responsible  for  the  spread  of  superstition  by 


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400  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [April, 

means  of  these  writings,  for  most  of  them  appear  with  their  ap- 
proval; that  they  are  responsible,  too,  for  all  books  and  writings 
that  appear  without  such  express  approval,  since  they  have  the 
power,  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Catholic  Church,  to  demand 
that  all  religious  writ  ings  appearing  in  their  dioceses  shall  be  laid 
before  them  for  exai  lination,  and  that  they  can  thus  prevent  the 
publication,  sale,  and  circulation  of  superstitious  books  among 
the  Catholics.  But  there  is  not  much  to  hope  in  this  direction 
from  the  clergy  of  a  Church  that  is  ever  ready  to  bestow  upon 
its  members  blessings  and  benefits  nowhere  else  to  be  found,  such 
as  indulgences  to  live  to  the  flesh,  and  to  dispense  to  the  living 
safe  passports  to  heaven,  and  for  the  dead  remissions  from  the 
tortures  of  purgatory.  Prayer  to  the  heart  of  Jesus,  Mary,  and 
Joseph  is  recommended  to  all  Catholics  as  an  infallible  medium 
through  which  to  obtain  all  benefits  for  themselves,  and  deliver- 
ance for  their  dead  from  the  flames  of  purgatory.  Aside  from 
this,  prayer-unions  are  organized  with  such  remarkable  effect  that 
one  of  the  wonderful  results  is  not  unfrequently,  in  direct  answer, 
freedom  from  military  duty!  According  to  the  opinion  of  a  cer- 
tain French  bishop,  there  is  no  doubt — ^f  or  tradition  fixes  it — that 
at  his  last  supper  Jesus  either  handed  to  his  mother  or  sent  to 
her  (although  she  was  not  in  the  company  of  the  apostles,  but 
was  certainly  present  in  the  same  house  at  the  Easter  solemnity) 
his  sacrificial  body  and  blood,  in  the  form  of  food  and  drink. 
The  same  remarkably  endowed  prelate  hesitates  not  to  affirm  the 
bodily  ascension  of  the  mother  of  Christ,  and  adduces  as  proof 
incontestable  of  the  fact,  the  very  remarkable  circumstance,  that 
the  remainder  of  her  clothing  is  still  preserved  and  honored  with 
most  reverential  care,  in  the  oldest  churches  of  Christendom.  For 
example,  Aix  La  Chapelle  has  preserved  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years  Mary's  robe  and  girdle,  which  Constantinople  four  hundred 
years  before  had  received  from  Jerusalem,  and  preserved  in  her 
oldest  church,  the  Church  of  the  Virgin;  but  that  no  Christian 
Church  had  ever  been  able  to  show  relics  of  her  body,  and  yet  it 
is  well  known  to  be  purely  impossible  that  the  holy  apostolic 
Church  had  forgotten  or  neglected  the  place  where  such  a  treas- 
ure reposed.  Bishop  Martin,  of  Paderbom,  regards  this  ingen- 
ious argument  of  his  French  brother  bishop  as  so  thoroughly 
convincing  that  he  takes  great  delight  in  imitating  him.  He 
also  affirms  that  he  knows  that  Mary  died  (so  then  dead !)  of  no 
other  sickness  than  that  of  love  to  her  son,  Jesus.  Such  are  but 
a  few  of  many  examples  cited  by  Dr.  Reusch  of  the  unblushing 


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1881.1  Q\yx/rterly  Book-TdbU,  401 

manner  in  which  superstition  and  falsehood  are  systematically 
diffused  among  the  Catholic  population  of  philosophic  Germany, 
in  order  that  the  priest  may  the  more  easily  and  effectually  con- 
trol the  mind  and  conscience  of  his  deluded  flock.  The  book  is 
all  the  more  interesting  and  valuable  since  it  comes  from  one 
who,  having  had  sufficient  experience  in  the  mysteries  of  Roman- 
ism, to  disgust  him,  has  become  awakened  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
long  been  groping  in  thick  darkness,  and  is  now  honestly  seeking 
after  the  true  light.  To  preacher  and  people,  and  to  all  who  are 
interested  in  exposing  the  tricks  of  priestcraft,  branding  the  in- 
famy of  the  Romish  Church,  advancing  the  cause  of  truth,  plant- 
ing pure  and  deep  and  firm  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion, 
and  vindicating  the  purity,  simplicity,  and  power  of  our  glorious 
Christianity,  we  earnestly  advise  a  careful  perusal  of  the  work. 


ArchdoioffUehe  Studien  vher  aUehrisUiehe  Monumente,    Hit  26  Holzsclm.    Bj  Dr. 
Vict.  Schultzi.    Wien :  1880,  Braumuller. 

The  above  work  is  not  from  the  hand  erf  a  flying  traveler  who, 
possessing  little  or  no  previous  preparation  for  archaeological 
investigation,  visits  places  of  historic  importance  and  observes 
and  studies  objects  of  interest  only  long  enough  to  form  wrong 
conceptions,  and  to  give  off  false  impressions;  but  from  the  hand 
of  a  trained  and  an  experienced  master,  whose  great  object  is  to 
interpret  honestly  and  intelligently  the  symbols  of  the  faith  that 
sustained  the  early  Christians,  not  only  in  life,  but  remained  as 
an  anchor  to  the  soul  in  the  hour  and  article  of  death;  and  to  do 
this  not  in  the  interest  of  this  sect  or  that,  or  for  the  propagation 
and  support  of  this  or  that  system  of  dogmatics,  but  in  the  serv- 
ice of  universal  Christian  truth. 

Dr.  Schultze,  who  is  a  fine  classical  archaeologist,  and  is  well 
known  for  his  rare  powers  of  exact  observation,  as  well  as  for 
his  correct  appreciation  of  the  conditions  of  the  historical  devel- 
opment of  the  most  ancient  Christian  art,  has  made,  for  years, 
the  oldest  art  monuments  of  Italy  one  of  his  special  lines  of 
study,  and,  as  one  of  the  results  of  his  labors,  in  this  interesting 
field  of  investigation,  presents  the  reader  in  this  volume  an 
amount  of  information  that  is  not  only  astonishing,  but,  better 
than  all,  entirely  reliable,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  not  to  be  found 
in  any  other  work  on  the  same  subject. 

The  work  consists  of  eight  essays,  preceded  by  an  introduc- 
tion, in  which  the  author  prepares  the  reader  for  the  better  com- 


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402  Methodist  Quwrterh/  Beview.  [April, 

prehension  and  appreciation  of  the  general  principles  of  his  sys- 
tem of  interpretation. 

His  remarks  on  the  symbolism  of  the  BUderkreis  of  the  early 
Christians  are  very  full  of  interest.  In  the  first  essay,  in  which 
the  interest  of  his  remarks  is  much  enhanced  by  a  number  of 
important  illustrations,  the  author,  in  order  to  apply  his  prin- 
ciples the  better,  discusses  and  interprets  very  carefully  the 
frescoes  of  the  Sacrament  Chapels  in  S.  Callisto. 

The  subject  of  the  third  essay  is  the  Juno  Pronuba  Sarcoph- 
agus in  Villa  Ludovisi,  which  the  author  says  has  remained  to 
the  present  unnoticed  by  the  student  of  old  Christian  monu- 
ments. He  assigns  this  stone  coffin  to  the  second  half  of  the 
fourth  century,  and  regards  it  as  a  most  interesting  example  of 
the  syncretism  of  that  period. 

The  fourth  essay  relates  to  the  Catacombs  of  Syracuse. 
These  chambers  of  the  dead,  which  are  as  yet  but  little  known, 
are,  in  the  judgment  of  Dr.  Schultze  and  also  of  the  writer  of 
this  notice,  of  no  little  importance,  as  contributing  to  the  oldest 
history  of  Christianity  in  Sicily, 

In  number  five  the  author  describes  and  interprets  forcibly 
and  clearly,  we  think,  although  differing  in  his  intci*pretation 
from  nearly  all  other  archaeologists,  a  sarcophagus  of  8.  Paolo 
faori  le  mura^  an  old  Christian  monument  about  which  much  has 
been  said  and  written  by  different  critics. 

The  next  number  is  a  treatise  on,  and  critique  of,  the  old 
Christian  art  representations  of  Mary.  In  order  to  this  the 
author  makes  out  a  list  of  forty-two  numbers,  which  he  arranges 
in  chronological  order,  thus  giving  a  general,  and  at  the  same 
time  critical,  view  of  images  of  the  Virgin  preserved  up  to  the 
fifth  century. 

In  number  seven,  which  relates  to  the  grave  of  St.  Peter,  he 
shows  the  traditions  of  the  Church  of  Rome  respecting  the  lo- 
cation of  the  grave,  to  be  utterly  worthless  and  supremely  ri- 
diculous. 

In  number  eight  a  description,  and,  in  many  instances,  short 
explanations,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  numbers  of  the  old 
Christian  sculptures  found  in  the  Museo  KircJieriano  in  Rome, 
are  given. 

The  work  is  an  octavo  of  287  pages,  and  is  furnished  with 
twenty-six  wood  engravings,  and  an  alphabetical  index.  We 
doubt  not  that  all  who  take  an  interest  in  the  discovery,  study, 
and  interpretation  of  old  Christian  monuments,  will  be  pleased 


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1881.]  Qiumi^h/  Book-Table.  403 

to  give  it  a  hearty  welcome.  To  the  student  of  monumental 
theology,  the  Christian  archsBologist,  and  to  the  Churchy  we  can 
recommend  it  as  a  work  of  no  little  value. 


MiscdUmeous. 

Cheat  iV«wA«r«,  Ancient  and  Modern,  By  Rev.  W.  H.  Withrow,  M.A.  12mo., 
pp.  221.    Toronto :  William  Briggs,  Methodist  Book  Boom.    1880. 

Mr.  Withrow's  name  is  well  known  to  our  readers  as  an  accept- 
able contributor  to  our  Quarterly,  and  the  author  of  an  admirable 
work  on  "The  Catacombs."  His  selection  of  "Preachers"  takes 
a  high  range  among  the  tallest  pulpit  orators  of  the  Universal 
Church  of  the  Christian  ages.  Of  ancient  preachers  the  roll  con- 
sists of  Origen,  Athanasius,  Chrysostom,  and  Augustine ;  of  the 
modem,  Francis  Xavier,  John  Knox,  Richard  Baxter,  and  George 
Whitefield.  The  essays  are  attractive  and  elevating  pictures  of 
the  purest  and  noblest  men  of  our  race. 

Letters  io  a  Quaker  Friend  an  Baptism,  By  William  Tatlor,  author  of  **  Christian 
Adventures  in  South  Africa,**  "  Four  Years*  Campaign  in  India,**  "  Our  South 
American  Cousins,**  etc.  18mo.,  pp.  168.  New  Torlc:  Phillips  k  Hunt.  Cin- 
cinnati :  Walden  k  Stowe.     18S0. 

Our  stalwart  evangelist  believes  in  body  as  well  as  in  souL  In 
•letters^  at  once  gentle  and  forcible,  he  refutes  the  erroneous 
spirituality  of  our  Quaker  friends,  who  would  abolish  the  ordi- 
nances and  retain  a  semblance  of  their  import.  The  argument 
against  their  view  has  heretofore  been  seldom  presented,  and 
this  little  manual  is  largely  original,  finding  and  supplying  a 
blank  place  in  our  doctrinal  library. 

Missionary  Concerts  for  tJu  Sunday-Scliool :  A  Collection  of  Declamations,  Select 
Readings,  and  Dialogues.  Compiled  by  Rev.  W.  T.  Smith.  16mo.,  i^.  267. 
Oncinnati:  Walden  &  Stowe.    New  York:  Phillips  &  Hunt     18S1. 

Frankly  Squark  Library  :  7^  Dean^s  Wife.  By  Mrs.  C.  J.  Eiloart.  4to.,  pp. 
58.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

"  The  Human  Race^^^  and  Other  Sermons^  Preached  at  Cheltenham,  Oxford,  and 
Brighton.  By  the  late  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Robertson,  M.A.  12mo.,  pp.  286. 
New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Ihtiy,  With  Illustrations  of  Courage,  Patience,  and  Endurance.  By  Samusi. 
Smiles,  LL.D.    12mo.,  pp.  412.    New  York:  Harper  k  Brothers.    1881. 

A  Key  to  the  Apocalypw;  or,  ReTclation  of  Jesus  Christ  to  St  John  in  the  Isle  of 
Patmos.  By  Rev.  Alitred  Brunson,  A.M.,  D.D.  16mo.,  pp.  216.  Gncinnati : 
Walden  &  Stowe.    New  York:  Harper  ft  Brothers.    1881, 


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404  Methodut  Quarterly  Beview.  [April. 

Hotes  on  Baptism  :  In  which  its  Spirituality  as  a  Gorenant,  Made  or  Kept,  itf  Clearly 
Set  Forth  and  Uniformly  Adhered  to.  By  Rev.  R.  Gbsgg.  16mo.,  pp.  161. 
Springfield,  BL :  H.  W.  Bokker.     1880. 

The  Story  of  the  United  States  Navy,  For  Boys.  By  Bknson  J.  Lossino,  LL.D. 
niustrated.    12mo.,  pp.  418.    New  Tork :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Shakespeare,  A  Critical  Study  of  his  Mind  and  Art  By  Edward  Dowden,  LL.D. 
12mo.,  pp.  886.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

The  Mountain  Movers  ;  or,  A  Criticism  of  so-called  Modem  Miracles,  in  Answer  to 
the  Prayer  of  Faith.  By  Stephen  H.  Ttng,  Jun.,  D.D.  16mo.,  pp.  82.  Paper 
Covers.    New  York :  The  People's  Pulpit  Publishing  Co.     1880. 

Christian  Heroism:  Illustrated  in  the  Life  and  Character  of  St.  Paul,  the  Apostle 
to  the  Gentiles.  A  Discourse.  By  A.  A.  Lipscomb,  D.D.,  LL.D.  SmiUl  8vo.y 
pp.  56.    Paper  covers.     Macon,  6a.:  J.  W.  Burke  &  Co.     1880. 

PUctonism  versus  CTirisUaniiy :  The  Question  of  Immortality,  Historically  Consid- 
ered, with  special  reference  to  the  Apostasy  of  the  Christian  Church.  To  which 
is  annexed  an  Essay  on  The  Unity  of  Man.  By  J.  H.  Pettingbll,  A.  M. 
l6mo.,  pp.  97.  Paper  Covers.  Philadelphia:  The  Bible  Banner  Associa- 
tion.    1881. 

Good  Government.  Appeal  of  Peter  Cooper,  now  in  the  91st  Year  of  his  Age,  to 
all  LegisUtors,  Editors,  Religious  Teachers,  and  Lovers  of  Our  Country.  By 
Peter  Cooper.  8vo.,  pp.  48.  Paper  Covers.  New  York :  J.  J.  little  k  Co., 
Printers.    1880. 

Catholics  and  Protestants  Agreeing  on  the  School  Question.  By  I.  T.  Hecker. 
8vo.,  pp.  16.  Paper  Covers.  New  York:  Catholic  Publication  Society  Co. 
1881. 

The  New  South:  Gratitude,  Amendment,  Hope.  A  Thanksgiving  Sermon,  for  Nov. 
26,  1880.  By  Amous  G.  Hatoood,  D.D.  8vo.,  pp.  16.  Paper  Covers.  Ox- 
ford, Ga.    1880. 

Higher  Education  of  Medical  Men^  and  its  Influence  on  the  Profession  and  the 
Public.  Behig  the  Address  delivered  before  the  American  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine, at  its  Fifth  Annual  Meeting,  held  at  Providence,  R.  L,  Sept  28,  1880.  By 
F.  D.  Lemtb,  A.M.,  M.D.  8vo.,  pp.  16.  Paper  Covers.  New  York:  Chas.  L. 
Bermingham  k  Co.    1880. 

The  Southern  Pulpit.  Jan.,  1881.  Conducted  by  Rev.  H.  M.  Jackson,  and  Rev. 
J.  J.  liAnERTT.    8vo.,  pp.  60.    Paper  Covers.    Richmond,  Va. 


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yVL 


ETHODIST 

Quarterly  Eeview. 

JULY,    1881. 


Art.  I.— the  TERRITORY  OF  ALASKA. 

Report  upon  the  Oustonu  District^  Public  Service,  and  Rewurce^  of  Alaska 
Territory.  By  Willum  Gouterneur  Morris,  Special  Agent  of  Treasury  De- 
partment 

The  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America,    By  H.  H.  Bancroft. 

ContribtUions  to  North  American  Ethnology.  By  W.  H.  Dall.  Issued  by  the 
Department  of  the  Interior. 

Alaska  and  its  Resources,  By  W.  H.  Dall. 

Travel  and  Adventure  in  tlu  Territory  of  Alaska,  and  in  Various  Parts  of  the 
North  Pacific.    By  Frederick  Whtmper. 

Preliminary  Report  on  the  Poptdation,  Industry,  and  Resources  of  Alaska  to  the 
Census  Office.    By  Ivan  Petropf,  Esq. 

Alaska  and  Missions  of  the  North  Pacific  Coast.    By  Rev.  S.  Jackson,  D.D. 

It  is  now  fourteen  years  since  his  majesty,  the  Emperor  of  all 
the  Riissias,  in  consideration  of  the  simi  of  "  seven  million  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  gold,"  ceded  to  the  United  States 
of  America  the  "  territory  and  dominion  "  of  Alaska.  The  geo- 
graphical area  included  in  this  cession  is  vast,  comprising  more 
than  580,107  square  miles,  of  which  548,901  miles  are  on  the 
continent  of  America,  and  nearly  31,206  in  the  Aleutian,  Ka- 
diak,  Behring  Sea,  Chugdch,  and  Alexander  Archipelagos. 
These  are  the  dimensions  of  an  empire. 

Alaska  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  British  Columbia,  on  the 
west  by  Behring  Sea,  An  air  line,  drawn  across  at  its  greatest 
breadth  from  east  to  west,  would  be  2,200  miles  long.  An- 
other line  drawn  from  the  Arctic  Sea,  its  northern  boundary, 
to  Attou  Island,  its  southern  extremity  in  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
would  measure  1,400  miles.     Its  shore  line,  as  ascertained  by 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 27 


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406  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [July, 

the  United  States  Coast  Survey,  including  its  bays  and  islands, 
measures  25,000  miles.  Its  entire  area  is  "  nearly  equal  to  one 
sixth  of  the  whole  United  States  and  Territories."  The  na- 
tives named  it  Alrdh^hak^  or  Al-dy-ek-sa,  which  signifies  "a 
great  country  or  continent."  Alaska  is  an  English  cpmiption 
of  its  native  designation. 

The  physical  aspect  of  this  broad  domain  is  graphically  de- 
scribed by  Hubert  H.  Bancroft  in  the  following  paragraph : 

Midway  between  Mount  St.  Elias  and  the  Arctic  sea-board  rise 
three  mountain  chains.  One,  the  Rocky  Mountain  range,  cross- 
ing from  the  Yukon  to  the  Mackenzie  River,  deflects  southward, 
and,  taking  up  its  mighty  line  of  march,  throws  a  barrier  be- 
tween the  east  and  the  west,  which  extends  throughout  the  en- 
tire length  of  the  continent.  Between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
the  Pacific  interposes  another,  called  in  Oregon  the  Cascade 
range,  and  in  California  the  Sierra  Nevada;  while  from  the  same 
starting-point  the  Alaskan  range  stretches  out  to  the  south-west 
along  the  Alaskan  Peninsula,  and  breaks  into  fragments  in 
the  Aleutian  Archipelago.  Three  noble  streams  —  the  Mac- 
kenzie, the  Yukon,  and  the  Kuskoquim,  float  the  boats  of  the 
inland  hyperboreans,  and  supply  them  with  food.  .  .  .  The  north- 
em  border  of  this  territory  is  treeless  ;  the  southern  shore,  ab- 
sorbing more  warmth  and  moisture  from  the  Japan  current,  is 
fringed  with  dense  forests,  while  the  interior,  interspersed  with 
hills  and  lakes  and  woods  and  grassy  plains,  during  the  short 
summer  is  clothed  in  luxuriant  vegetation. 

Perhaps  no  act  of  Secretary  Seward's  official  life  has  been  so 
severely  and  generally  censured  by  the  American  public  as  his 
negotiation  of  the  treaty  by  which  Alaska  was  added  to  our 
territorial  possessions.  It  has  been  ridiculed  as  "  Seward's 
folly,"  and  condemned  as  a  bad  bargain,  by  which  valuable 
gold  was  given  in  return  for  a  title  to  a  vast  but  useless  pos- 
session. Yet  Mr.  Seward  never  questioned  thcwisdom  of  his 
act,  nor  the  value  of  the  country  purchased.  And  when  asked, 
at  the  close  of  his  public  career,  what  he  considered  the  most 
important  act  of  his  official  life,  he  promptly  replied,  "  The 
purchase  of  Alaska ;  but  it  may  take  two  generations  before 
the  purchase  is  appreciated." 

Those  who  know  most  of  this  "  great  country  "  concur  in  the 
judgment  of  Mr.  Seward,  with  the  single  exception  that,  in- 
stead of  requiring  two  generations  to  demonstrate  its  value,  it 
will  take  but  a  short  time  to  convince  the  public  that  its  pur- 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  407 

chase  was  a  wise,  politic,  and  profitable  transaction.  Mr. 
William  H.  Dall,  one  of  the  most  scientific  of  its  recent  ex- 
plorers, says  of  it :  *'  We  have  bought  for  a  nominal  price  the 
key  to  the  North  Pacific.  It  can  no  longer  be  said  that  three 
iron-clads  can  blockade  onr  entire  western  coast.  .  .  .  The  time 
may  come  when  we  shall  call  our  Pacific  fishermen  to  man  our 
fleets,  or  the  lumbermen  of  Alaska  and  our  hardy  northern 
trappers  to  don  the  blue  and  strike  another  blow  for  unity  and 
freedom."  Mr.  William  Gouvemeur  Morris,  special  agent  of 
the  Treasury  Department  in  Alaska,  says  in  his  report  that  its 
best  modem  explorers  have  "  demonstrated  that  Alaska  is  not 
the  '  desert  watery  waste '  hitherto  supposed ;  but  that,  instead 
of  being  only  fit  jfor  polar  bears  to  live  in,  it  has,  if  properly 
protected  and  nurtured  by  the  government,  a  bright  and  useful 
future  before  it."  To  the  same  eflfect  is  the  more  recent  state- 
ment of  Ivan  PetroflP,  Esq.,  special  agent  of  the  census,  who, 
after  making  very  extensive  explorations,  says,  in  his  report  to 
General  F.  A.  Walker,  "  It  thus  becomes  apparent  that  we 
possess  in  Alaska  an  immense  area  of  land  and  sea,  which,  dur- 
ing the  twelve  years  of  our  occupation,  has  impressed  our  peo- 
ple .  .  '.  that  though,  as  far  as  we  know,  it  does  not  invite 
emigration  from  our  more  favored  States  and  Territories,  yet 
there  are  still  stored  up  in  the  recesses  of  its  lonely  coast  and 
deep  interior,  resources  which  may  prove  of  great  value." 

The  opinions  of  these  gentlemen  do  not  rest  on  mere  hear- 
say reports,  but  are  deduced  from  personal  observations  and 
investigations  covering  the  coast-line  from  Sitka  to  the  delta  of 
the  majestic  Yukon  River,  the  greater  part  of  the  valley  of  the 
Yukon,  and  the  Aleutian  Islands.  Their  testimony  justifies 
Mr.  Seward,  Senator  Sumner,  and  other  senators  who  voted 
for  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  and  proves,  we  think,  that  in  this 
thing  at  least  they  were  wiser  than  their  generation. 

The  skepticism  of  the  American  public  with  respect  to  the 
value  of  this  territory  was,  no  doabt,  largely  founded  on  the 
idea  that,  if  Alaska  had  been  worth  keeping,  Russia  would  not 
have  sold  it.  This  at  first  sight  seems  plausible ;  nevertheless 
it  may  be  true  that  a  very  thinly  populated  country,  situated 
at  a  vast  distance  from  the  populous  parts  of  Russia,  and  from 
the  seat  of  its  government,  might  for  these  reasons  be  so  diflB- 
cult  for  it  to  develop,  as  to  be  of  little  value  to  such  a  great 


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408  Methodist  Qita/rterly  Review,  [July, 

empire ;  yet  that  same  territory,  being  near  to  the  western 
portions  of  the  United  States,  and  accessible  to  their  popula- 
tion by  water,  might  be  so  easily  developed  as  to  be  to  them  a 
desirable  possession  on  economic  grounds,  provided  that  it  pos- 
sesses resources  intrinsically  valuable,  and  in  sufficient  abun- 
dance. And  this  appears  to  have  been  the  actual  condition  of 
things.  Russia,  from  1Y79,  when  Catherine  II.  issued  her  first 
ukase  subjecting  the  Aleuts  to  tribute,  down  to  the  date  of 
the  cession  of  Alaska,  governed  it  through  the  agency  and  in 
the  interests  of  the  great  fur  companies,  to  which  from  time  to 
time  she  granted  charters.  In  one  decade  the  fur  company 
paid  only  $1,500,000  taxes  into  the  imperial  treasury,  most,  if 
not  all  of  which,  must  have  been  required  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  colonial  officials.  Being  therefore  of  small  economic 
value  to  its  revenue,  Russia  could  spare  it  without  pecuniary  loss. 

If  Russia  had  been  as  eager  to  push  her  conquests  in  Amer- 
ica as  she  is  to  extend  the  area  of  her  sovereignty  in  Europe 
and  Asia,  she  would  have  had  a  political  motive  for  retaining 
Alaska.  But  her  policy  is  not  to  acquire  any  thing  in  America 
but  the  good-will  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  she 
"  being  desirous,"  says  the  treaty,  "  of  strengthening,  if  possi- 
ble, the  good  understanding  which  exists  "  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias.  Possibly  this 
desire  on  the  part  of  his  Russian  majesty  arises  out  of  his  con- 
viction that  in  the  conflict  for  Asiatic  ascendency,  which  is 
sure  to  take  place  sooner  or  later  between  Russia  and  England, 
the  "good  understanding"  between  him  and  the  United  States 
may  be  of  great  pohtical  value  to  him,  and  a  serious  disadvan- 
tage to  his  enemy.  Here,  then,  is  a  diplomatic  reason  for 
selling  us  a  territory  which,  owing  to  its  character  and  geo- 
graphical position,  could  add  nothing  either  to  the  strength  or 
wealth  of  Russia,  notwithstanding  it  possesses  resources  from 
which  we,  on  account  of  its  contiguity  to  our  Pacific  States, 
may  ultimately  derive  very  great  benefits. 

Because  the  continental  portions  of  Alaska  lie  principally  be- 
tween the  parallel  of  fifty- four  degrees  and  forty  minutes  north 
latitude  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  there  is  a  widely  prevalent  opin- 
ion that  its  climate  is  too  frigid  to  permit  its  settlement  by 
white  men.  This,  though  a  natural,  is  a  false  impression.  It 
is  true  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  its  interior  is  so  cold  as 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  409 

to  give  no  promise  of  ever  being  more  than  a  vast  breeding- 
place  for  fur-bearing  animals,  and  a  hnnting-gronnd  for  the  In- 
dian nomad  and  the  white  trapper.  But  its  coast,  from  Sitka 
to  Behring  Sea,  has  a  climate  which  is  as  moderate  as  that  of 
New  York.  As  the  Atlantic  Gulf  Stream  modifies  the  climate 
of  England,  Ireland,  and  Western  Europe,  so  an  analogous 
stream,  known  as  the  Kurosiwo,  or  Japanese  Gulf  Stream,  rises 
a  little  south  of  the  island  of  Formosa,  flows  east  of  Japan,  and 
then  divides  into  two  currents.  One  of  these  tropically  heated 
streams  enters  Behring  Sea ;  the  other  passes  south  of  the  Aleu- 
tian Islands,  and  ameliorates  the  climate  of  Southern  Alaska  to 
such  a  degree,  that  the  annual  temperature  of  Sitka,  in  latitude 
fifty-seven  degrees,  is  higher  than  that  of  Ottawa,  in  latitude 
forty-five  degrees,  twenty-five  minutes.*  This  warm  current, 
which  first  strikes  our  continent  near  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia River  in  Oregon,  sweeps  along  the  coast  line  of  Alaska 
westward  until  it  reaches  the  peninsula  of  Aliaska,  where  it 
"bends  back  upon  itself."  West  of  that  peninsula,  and  run- 
ning north  as  far  as  Behring  Strait,  the  other  arm  of  the  Gulf 
Stream  modifies  the  climate,  though  in  a  lesser  degree,  as  far 
north  as  the  delta  of  the  Yukon  and  Norton's  Sound,  Even 
Behring  Strait  is  so  much  affected  by  it,  that  icebergs  from  the 
Polar  Sea  never  pass  through  its  waters. 

But  while  this  stream  gives  warmth  to  the  sea-board  of  Alaska, 
it  is  also  a  cause  of  extreme  humidity.  Fog,  sleet,  and  rain 
characterize  the  climate,  and  make  it  less  agreeable  than  it 
would  be  if  favored  with  a  clearer  atmosphere.  As  to  its  tem- 
perature, Dr.  Dall,  in  his  "  Alaska  and  its  Resources,"  says  that 
at  Sitka  "the  average  of  many  years'  observation  places  the 
mean  winter  temperature  about  thirty-three  Fahrenheit,  which 
is  nearly  that  of  Mannheim  on  the  Rhine,  and  warmer  than 
Munich,  Vienna,  or  Berlin.  The  maadmum  temperature  in 
1868  was  seventy-one  degrees,  the  minimum  eleven  degrees. 
On  the  island  of  UnalAshka,  in  the  Aleutian  district,  the  average 
m^dximum,  for  five  years  was  seventy-seven  degrees,  m,vnimum 
zero.  Further  north,  at  St.  Michael's,  on  Norton's  Sound,  in 
latitude  sixty-three  degrees,  twenty-eight  minutes,  the  m^an 
for  the  summer  was  fifty-three  degrees,  for  the  winter,  eight 
degrees,  six  minutes.     At  Fort  Yukon,  in  the  interior,  latitude 

♦See  Dr.  Lyell*8  "Report  on  the  Geological  Survey  of  Canada,''  1876-76. 


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410  Methodist  QuaHeTly  Review.  [Julj, 

sixty-six  degrees,  thirty-fonr  minutes,  the  mecm  for  the  summer 
was  fifty-nine  degrees,  sixty-seven  minutes,  for  the  winter, 
twenty-three  degrees,  eighty  minutes.  These  figures  show 
great  climatic  differences,  especially  between  the  coast  line  and 
the  interior.  They  also  justify  Mr.  Dall  in  saying,  "  I  have  seen 
with  surprise  and  regret  that  men  whose  forefathers  wielded 
the  ax  in  the  forests  of  Maine,  or  gathered  scanty  crops  on  the 
granite  hill-sides  of  Massachusetts,  have  seen  fit  to  throw  con- 
tempt and  derision  on  the  acquisition  of  a  great  territory  far 
richer  than  that  in  which  they  themselves  originated,  princi- 
pally on  the  ground  that  it  is  a  '  cold '  country.  This  complaint 
is  but  half-true,  since  on  half  of  the  coast  of  the  new  territory 
the  thermometer  was  never  known  to  fall  below  zero.  Icebergs 
are  unknown  in  Alaska  from  Dixon's  Entrance  to  Behring 
Strait,  and  no  polar  bear  ever  came  within  a  thousand  miles  of 
Sitka." 

The  resources  of  Alaska  must  be  sought,  not  in  its  agricult- 
ural possibilities,  but  in  its  timber,  fisheries,  fur-producing  ani- 
mals, and  mineral  deposits.  There  is  a  quite  general  agreement 
among  its  explorers  that  it  can  never  become  an  agricultural 
country.  On  account  of  its  great  humidity,  not  because  of  a 
generally  barren  soil,  in  no  part  of  it  can  cereals  be  cultivated 
successfully,  except  perhaps  on  a  few  of  the  Aleutian  Islands. 
Such  vegetables  as  turnips,  beets,  carrots,  radishes,  salads,  and 
cabbages  have  been  grown  with  varying  success  from  Sitka  to 
the  Yukon  Yalley.  Potatoes  have  not  done  well,  though  the 
Russians  say  that  the  Aleuts  have  grown  them  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century.  Grass  is  of  fine  quality  and  abundant 
every-where,  except  in  the  southern  part  of  the  district  of 
Sitka,  where  the  rugged  mountains  leave  very  few  patches  of 
land  sufficiently  level  for  cultivation.  "  There  appears  to  be  no 
doubt,"  says  Dall,  "  that  cattle  may  be  advantageously  kept  in 
the  Aleutian  District,"  if  propei-ly  treated.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  sheep.  No  trees  bearing  fruit  fit  for  food  have  been 
found  in  Alaska,  but  its  small  fruits  are  numerous  in  variety, 
of  excellent  quality,  and  grow  in  profusion.  The  islands  of 
Kadiak  and  Cook's  Inlet  are  unquestionably  the  best  agricult- 
ural portions  in  our  new  possessions. 

In  timber  Alaska  is  very  rich.  It  is  found  as  far  north  as 
the  Yukon  Yalley  in  abundance.     In  the  Southern  Sitkan  Dis- 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  411 

trict  it  grows  in  great  profusion,  covering  the  rugged,  lofty 
mountains  and  valleys  of  the  Alexander  Archipelago,  and  also 
of  the  mainland  to  distances  ranging  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  its  sea-board.  The  Aleutian  Islands,  how- 
ever, are  absolutely  treeless.  Though  they  are  mountainous, 
and  have  a  climate  like  Scotland,  they  produce  no  timber  larger 
than  a  shrub.  Mr.  Petroff  observes  of  the  whole  country  that, 
"  the  timber  of  Alaska  extends  over  a  much  larger  area  than  a 
great  many  surmise.  .  .  .  The  area  thus  clothed  is  very  great." 
And  this  statement  harmonizes  with  the  testimony  of  Dall, 
Whymper,  and  all  other  intelligent  explorers. 

As  to  the  cormnerciaZ  value  of  its  timber  there  is  a  diversity 
of  opinion.  Petroff  does  not  rate  it  very  high,  because,  as  he 
afiirms,  excepting  the  Yellow  Cedar,  which,  in  his  opinion,  is 
not  very  abundant,  "  the  lumber  sawed  from  it  is  not  of  the 
first  quality."  Mr.  W.  H.  Seward,  after  visiting  the  country, 
said,  "I  venture  to  predict  that  the  North  Pacific  cdast  will 
become  a  common  ship-yard  for  the  American  continent,  and, 
speedily,  for  the  whole  world."  This  was  probably  a  some- 
what optimistic  statement.  Nevertheless,  it  is  largely  borne 
out  by  the  observations  of  Dr.  Dall,  who  found,  even  in  the 
Yukon  Valley,  an  abundance  of  white  spruce,  (Abies  aHa,)  a 
beautiful  conifer  growing  from  a  height  of  from  iifty  to  a 
hundred  feet,  "  valuable  for  building  purposes"  and  for  "  spars." 
He  also  found  the  birch  {Betula  glandulosa)  very  plentiful, 
and  fitted  to  be  put  to  "a  multiplicity  of  uses."  The  black 
birch,  poplars,  willows,  larches,  alders,  and  junipers  also  abound 
in  the  Yukon  Valley.  The  most  valuable  tree  in  the  Sitkan 
district,  and,  indeed,  on  the  entire  Pacific  coast,  is  the  yellow 
cedar,  (C.  Nutkomds  Spach,)  The  "  noble  thuja,"  {T  excdsa^) 
the  Sitka  spruce,  {Ahies  Sitkensis^)  the  hemlock,  and  the  bal- 
sam fir,  are  there  also,  but  in  what  relative  proportions  cannot 
be  determined  until  experienced  lumbermen  shall  penetrate 
those  dense  unexplored  forests.  Then  it  may  appear  that  the 
truth  lies  between  the  opposite  opinions  of  Mr.  Petroff  and 
Mr.  Seward. 

The  coasts  and  "rivers  of  Alaska  are  so  rich  in  fish  that  the 
accounts  given  by  many  witnesses  read  like  fairy  tales.  There 
is,  probably,  no  good  reason  for  doubting  that  its  salmon,  cod, 
herring,  halibut,  clam,  and  perhaps  mackerel  fisheries,  both  as 


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412  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

to  the  numbers  and  quality  of  the  fish,  are  equal  to  any 
and  superior  to  most  other  fisheries  in  the  world.  When  de- 
veloped in  a  systematic  manner,  they  must  become  a  source  of 
great  wealth  to  such  of  our  citizens  as  may  hereafter  become 
settlers  in  this  distant  territory. 

Alaska  has  in  the  number  and  variety  of  its  fur-bearing  ani- 
mals a  sure  source  of  wealth,  provided  their  hunting  be  judi- 
ciously regulated.  The  fur-bearing  seal  {Callorhinus  ursinus, 
Gray)  and  the  sea-otter  {E7ihydra  marina^  Flem.)  are  marine 
animals.  The  former  are  taken  principally  on  two  small  isl- 
ands in  Behring  Sea,  known  as  the  PribyloflE  Islands,  and  the 
latter  in  the  waters  adjacent  to  the  Aleutian  Islands.  The  fur 
seal  was  formerly  found  in  many  other  parts,  but  the  irrational 
greed  of  its  captors  has  destroyed  nearly  all  its  "  rookeries," 
except  in  the  above-named  islands,  which  are  now  the  best 
sealing  grounds  in  the  world.  The  regulations  enforced  by 
our  Government  with  respect  to  the  number  which  may  be 
annually  captured  are  well  fitted  to  maintain  those  islands  as 
"  a  government  stock  farm  from  which  it  will  derive,  as  it  has 
derived,  an  annual  revenue  of  $317,000,  without  diminution 
of  the  seals." 

Besides  these  marine  fur-bearing  animals,  Alaska  contains 
the  fox,  marten,  mink,  beaver,  otter,  lynx,  black  bear,  and 
wolverine.  Upward  of  40,000  skins  of  these  fauna  were 
known  to  be  shipped  from  the  country  last  year,  besides  an 
unknown  number  obtained  by  whalers. 

Concerning  the  mineral  riches  of  Alaska  it  is  diflScult  to 
write  with  certainty,  because  there  is  so  much  conti'adictory 
testimony  and  so  little  has  been  done  toward  determining  the 
question.  It  is  claimed  by  some,  apparently  on  good  grounds, 
that  coal,  iron,  copper,  cinnabar,  silver,  and  gold  are  abundant 
in  many  pai*ts  of  the  territory.  But  whether  the  coal  is  fit 
for  use,  or  the  precious  metals  are  in  quantity  suflScient  for 
profitable  mining,  is  uncertain.  Until  our  Government  pro- 
vides laws  for  securing  titles  to  land  this  uncertainty  must 
continue,  inasmuch  as  capitalists  are  not  likelv  to  invest  money 
in  a  soil  to  which  they  can  gain  no  legal  title.  Why  Congress 
does  not  give  Alaska  either  a  territorial  government  or  attach 
it  to  Washington  Territory,  is  a  problem  which  many  find  im- 
possible of  solution  on  any  principle  creditable  to  its  wisdom. 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  413 

That  the  scattered  locations  of  the  natives  and  the  difficulty  of 
intercommnnication  between  their  widely  separated  villages 
make  the  problem  a  difficult  one  to  solve  must  be  conceded. 
Nevertheless,  our  people  having  become  its  owners,  it  would 
seem  eminently  just  and  proper  that  our  legislators  should 
place  it  under  special  laws  and  administrators  suited  to  the 
condition  of  its  population,  and  to  the  ascertainment,  if  not  to 
the  speedy  development,  of  its  resources,  which  may  prove  to 
be  of  incalculable  value. 

The  most  important  question  to  the  Christian  philanthropist, 
with  respect  to  Alaska,  is  the  number,  condition,  and  prospects 
of  its  population.  Its  material  wealth  is  but  as  a  fleck  of  foam 
in  comparison  with  the  moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  its 
native  population,  and  with  the  demand  which  its  prospective 
settlement  by  emigrants  from  the  States  makes  on  the  Chris- 
tian Church  to  suitably  provide  for  planting  itself  at  such 
points  as  are  best  fitted  for  evangelizing  work  among  both 
natives  and  settlers.  That  its  vast  fisheries  and  untrodden 
forests  will,  sooner  or  later,  attract  white  settlers  scai'cely  ad- 
mits of  doubt.  That  the  grazing  facilities  in  many  of  its 
islands  will  prove  equally  attractive  to  growers  of  cattle  is,  to 
say  the  least,  highly  probable.  And  should  its  mineral  deposits 
prove  equal  to  geological  and  other  indications,  it  will  very 
soon  become  our  new  El  Dorado,  to  which  thousands  of  men, 
stimulated  by  golden  dreams,  will  be  allured. 

But  whether  emigrants  shun  or  seek  Alaska,  the  American 
Church  should  occupy  its  central  points  of  population  and 
trade.  The  debased  condition  of  its  native  tribes  calls  loudly 
for  the  Christian  missionary.  By  prompt  response  to  this 
demand  the  Church  would  not  only  meet  her  obligation  to 
preach  Jesus  to  the  native  Alaskan,  but  she  would  also  place 
herself  in  position  to  exert  her  influence  on  white  emigrants, 
should  they  chance  to  rush  thither.  The  philanthropist  who 
recognizes  the  significant  truth  that  "  emigration  tends  to  bar- 
barism," will  readily  perceive  that  the  Church  owes  it  both  to 
the  native  and  to  the  emigrant  to  provide  that  Christian  teach- 
ing without  whith  the  vices  of  the  latter,  mingling  with  the 
sensuality  of  the  f onner,  sink  both  into  the  depths  of  an  almost 
irretrievable  debasement. 

fhe  numbers  of   the  native  tribes  in  Alaska  have  been 


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414  Methodist   QuaHerly  Reoiew.  fJnlj, 

variously  estimated.  The  Russians,  at  the  time  of  its  transfer, 
claimed  a  population  of  about  66,000,  of  which  about  3,000 
were  Creoles,  or  half-breeds,  and  Russians.  General  Halleck, 
in  liis  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War  in  1869,  makes  the  entire 
native  population  about  60,000.  Mr.  W.  H.  Dall,  in  his 
"  North  American  Ethnology,"  estimates  it  as  low  as  26,843. 
These  figures,  added  to  the  Creoles  and  whites,  which  he  sets 
down  as  numbering  3,254,  make  the  total  population  29,097. 

Mr.  Dall's  estimate,  though  differing  so  widely  from  the 
others,  is  confirmed  by  the  partial  census  taken  last  year  by 
Ivan  Petroff,  Esq.,  special  agent  of  the  Census  Oflice,  after 
extensive  explorations,  which  required  him  to  travel  8,700 
miles  by  steamer,  sailing  vessel,  and  canoe.  That  gentleman's 
observations  and  inquiries,  with  some  estimates  for  parts  of  the 
territory  yet  to  be  visited,  led  him  to  enumerate  the  natives  at 
28,103,  the  whites  and  Creoles  at  2,075,  making  a  total  of 
30,178  as  the  present  aggregate  population  of  the  territory.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  a  large  portion  of  its  in- 
terior remains  unexplored  by  white  men.  Hence  the  estimates 
of  the  unknown  region,  though  based  on  careful  inquiries 
among  the  Indians  on  its  border,  must  be  accepted  as  some- 
what uncertain  quantities. 

Of  the  28,000  natives  Mr.  Petroff  enumerates  2,214  Aleuts, 
17,488  Innuits,  or  Esquimaux,  and  8,401  Indians  proper.  The 
first  inhabit  the  Aleutian  Islands,  which  lie  in  the  Pacific  ocean 
along  a  curved  line  over  a  thousand  miles  in  length,  reaching 
from  the  south-western  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  Aliaska 
almost  to  Asia.  The  second  occupy  the  coast  line  from  Mount 
St.  EHas,  in  the  North  Pacific,  and  along  Behring  Sea,  to  the 
British  boundary  line  in  the  Arctic  Sea.  The  third,  or  Indians 
proper,  are  found  in  the  part  known  as  the  Sitkan  District,  in 
south-eastern  Alaska,  and  in  the  vast  valleys  of  the  interior, 
behind  the  limits  of  the  Innuit  villages.  The  varied  character 
of  these  three  divisions  of  the  Alaskan  people  will  be  made  ap- 
parent in  the  following  condensed  sketches.  We  begin  with 
the  most  numerous  body,  the  Innuits,  or  Esquimaux. 

The  Innuit  of  Alaska  is  a  true  Esquimau,  though  taller  and 
more  shapely  than  his  brethren  of  the  Arctic  seji-coasts.  He  is 
five  feet  six  or  seven  inches  in  height,  possesses  a  "  fair  skin 
dightly  Mongolian  in  complexion."     His  face  is  broad,  his 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  415 

cheek  bones  prominent,  his  month  large,  with  full  lips ;  his 
eyes,  which  are  small  and  black,  are  set  rather  prominently  in 
their  sockets  almost  in  a  line  with  the  bridge  of  his  small  and 
much-depressed  nose.  But  in  some  of  the  Innnit  tribes  the 
nose  is  straight  and  prominent,  and  their  members,  if  suitably 
dressed,  might  easily  pass  as  Anglo-Saxons  in  the  streets  of 
our  Eastern  cities.  The  women  are  smaller  than  the  males, 
and,  while  young,  are  often  comely  and  attractive.  Like  the 
men,  they  have  handsome  feet  and  hands.  Except  around  the 
trading-posts  the  Innuit  of  both  sexes  dresses  in  a  coat  called 
a  "parka,"  which  covers  the  body  from  the  neck  to  the 
ankles,  and  is  made  either  of  the  skin  of  the  reindeer,  the 
marmot,  the  mink,  or  the  breast  skins  of  birds.  They  wear 
trowsers  made  of  either  skin  or  cotton  drill,  and  cover  their 
feet  with  either  moccasins  or  reindeer  boots. 

The  Innuit  house  is  an  excavation  covered  with  a  mound  of 
earth,  having  a  small  hole  in  its  apex  for  the  escape  of  smoke 
and  the  admission  of  light.  Slender  frames  raised  above  the 
floor,  and  running  round  the  interior,  serve  to  hold  the  skins 
on  which  he  sleeps.  He  makes  the  dog  his  beast  of  draught. 
He  is  both  a  hunter  and  a  fisherman.  He  loves  independence, 
is  brave,  light-hearted,  talkative,  fond  of  dancing,  enjoys  eat- 
ing, raw  or  stewed,  the  flesh  and  blubber  of  the  walrus,  seal, 
and  whale.  He  is  hospitable,  but  will  steal  without  compunc- 
tion if  he  has  the.  opportunity,  though  the  sentiment  of  his  peo- 
ple is  opposed  to  more  serious  crimes.  He  has  no  laws,  but 
public  opinion  favors  the  punishment  of  a  murderer  with 
death.  He  loves  the  vice  of  intoxication.  His  treatment  of 
the  old  and  infirm  is  cruel.  Regarding  them  as  useless,  he 
often  puts  them  to  death.  He  burns  the  dead  bodies  of  good 
men,  buries  those  of  women,  and  leaves  the  remains  of  bad 
men  to  rot  or  to  be  eaten  by  birds  and  beasts. 

Like  his  Indian  cousins,  the  Innuit  believes  in  evil  spirits, 
and  in  the  power  of  the  shAman,  and  is,  therefore,  much  under 
his  power.  He  has  a  vague  notion  of  immortality,  but  no  defi- 
nite conception  of  rewards  and  punishments. 

Russian  infiuence  over  the  Innuit  tribes  accomplished  little 
or  nothing  toward  their  civilization.  The  Greek  Church  made 
but  few  converts  among  them.  Perhaps  its  failure  grew  out 
of  the  hatred  which  the  Innuit  cherishes  against  the  Russians 


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416  Methodic  Qua/rterly  Review.  [July, 

because  of  their  former  barbarities.  Possibly,  as  Petroff  sug- 
gests, its  priests  so  misconceived  the  Innuit  character  as  to 
make  no  impression  upon  it.  And  more  probably,  their 
preaching,  being  in  word  and  not  in  spiritual  power,  could  not 
reach  either  the  consciences  or  hearts  of  these  good-natured 


The  Aleut  is  of  smaller  stature  than  the  Innuit.  Petroff 
says  of  him :  "  He  wears  the  expression  which  we  ascribe  to 
the  Mongolian  race,  to  the  Japanese  more  particularly.  The 
hair  is  long,  coarse,  and  black ;  the  beard  is  scanty ;  the  face 
broad  ;  the  cheek  bones  high  and  very  prominent ;  the  nose  is 
insignificant  and  flattened ;  the  eyes  are  black  and  small,  set 
wide  in  the  head  under  faintly  marked  eyebrows — just  a  sug- 
gestion of  obliquity,  and  that  is  all ;  the  Ups  are  full,  the 
mouth  large,  and  the  lower  jaw  square  and  prominent ;  the 
ears  are  small,  and  the  skin. a  light  yellowish  brown."  The 
women,  though  not  handsome,  are  far  from  being  repulsive. 
Except  when  on  hunting  excursions,  and  when  about  the  vil- 
lage, at  which  times  they  wear  the  ancient  waterproof  gar- 
ments made  from  the  intestines  of  marine  mammalia,  the 
Aleuts  dress  in  our  modem  style,  their  clothing  stores  being 
supplied  by  traders  with  goods  from  San  Francisco.  Not  un- 
frequently  the  latest  fashions  may  be  seen  adorning  the  per- 
sons of  the  belles  of  an  Aleutian  village. 

The  houses  of  these  people,  called  barrabaras,  were  formerly 
half  underground.  Their  walls  were  of  earth,  laid  upon 
wooden  frames,  and  from  two  to  three  feet  thick.  They  were 
warm  and  comfortable  if  kept  in  good  repair,  albeit  the  air 
within  them  was  close  and  foul.  But  the  barrabara  is  now 
being  rapidly  replaced  by  the  frame  cottage  of  civilized  society. 
The  materials  for  their  construction  are  procured  at  San  Fran- 
cisco by  means  of  traders,  who  visit  the  islands  to  purchase  the 
^oils  of  the  Aleutian  hunters. 

The  Aleutians  are  no  longer  idolaters.  The  Greek  Church, 
which  began  its  missions  in  Alaska  in  1Y93,  under  the  authority 
of  a  ukaae  issued  by  the  reigning  Eussian  empress,  is  estab- 
lished in  all  their  islands.  They  are  all  nominally  members  of 
that  communion ;  but,  says  Dall,  "  there  is  very  little  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  principles  of  Christianity  among  them." 
Petroff  confirms  Dall,  saying,  "  The  piety  of  the  Aleutian  peo- 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  417 

pie  is  very  pronounced,  so  far  as  outward  signs  and  professions 
go.  They  greet  you  with  a  blessing  and  a  prayer  for  your 
health.  They  part  from  you  murmuring  a  benediction.  They 
never  sit  down  to  the  table  without  invoking  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  them.  In  a  great  many  other  respects  down  to  trifling 
details,  they  carry  the  precepts  and  phraseology  of  the  Church 
upon  their  lips  incessantly."  They  have  a  place  of  worship  in 
every  settlement,  and  in  two  of  their  villages  there  are  parish 
priests  supported  by  funds  supplied  by  the  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities in  Russia,  and  administered  through  the  Greek  Bishop 
of  the  Diocese  of  Alaska,  whose  residence  is  in  San  Francisco, 
but  who,  it  is  said,  intends  shortly  to  remove  into  the  territory. 
The  parish  priests  mentioned  above  make  an  annual  tour 
among  the  islands  to  administer  the  sacraments  and  solemnize 
marriages.  In  the  intervals  the  services  of  the  churches  are 
conducted  by  their  local  imordained  oflScers.  The  only  real 
apostle  (Father  Lmocentius  Veniaminoff)  the  Greek  Church 
has  ever  had  in  Alaska  established  schools  after  his  coming,  in 
1824,  in  all  the  Aleutian  villages,  by  means  of  which  large 
numbers  learned  to  read  and  write  Eussian,  and  some  their 
native  tongue.  But  since  his  death  the  schools  have  been 
abandoned,  and  the  children  are  mostly  growing  up  untaught. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  notwithstanding  their  devotion  to 
religious  forms,  the  Aleutians  are  utterly  ignorant  of  their 
spiritual  meaning  and  ethical  demands.  Dall  says :  "  They  are 
greatly  addicted  to  the  use  of  snuff  and  liquor  when  they  can 
obtain  it.  For  the  latter  they  would  sell  themselves  as  slaves, 
or  dispose  of  all  their  property.  .  .  .  Crime  is  almost  unknown 
among  them,  but  there  is  a  strong  sensual  element  in  their 
characters."  PetrofE  confirms  Dall.  After  speaking  of  their 
"  improvident  extravagance,"  he  describes  their  habit  of  spend- 
ing their  surplus  funds,  at  the  close  of  a  successful  himting 
season,  in  procuring  a  vile  drink  called  kvass,  inviting  their 
friends,  and  drinking  first  to  stupid  intoxication,  and  then  to 
"  frenzied  riots  and  a  rumpus,"  during  which  they  dance  and 
howl,  pull  each  other's  hair,  tight,  and  drive  their  wives  and 
children  from  their  houses  into  hiding  places.  By  these  ex- 
cesses they  destroy  the  comforts  of  their  homes,  and  finally 
shatter  their  health  and  lose  much  of  their  skill  as  hunters. 
Nevertheless,  while  stating  these  facts,  so  demonstrative  of  the 


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418  Methodist  QuaHerh/  Review.  [July, 

worthlessness  of  the  Bpiritnal  and  ethical  influence  of  the 
Greek  Church,  Mr.  Petroff  says,  "  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  any  new  missionary  work  among  these  people  I " 

The  Indians  of  Alaska  in  their  general  features  resemble 
those  of  Oregon  and  British  Columbia.  Dall  separates  them 
into  two  principal  stocks^  the  Thlinkets  and  the  Tinneh,  each 
of  which  is  subdivided  into  several  tribes.  The  Thlinket 
tribe,  which  inhabit  Sitka  Bay  and  the  neighboring  islands,  he 
describes  as  having  coarse  black  hair,  small  eyebrows,  and  fine 
large  eyes : 

Their  complexion  is  dark,  teeth  white  and  good,  hands  and 
feet  soft  and  small ; .  .  .  they  have  generally  adopted  a  style  of 
dress  somewhat  civilized  in  appearance,  and  it  is  now  impossible 
to  find  any  of  them  dressed  in  their  original  style,  which  is  quite 
forgotten.  At  present  men  and  women  wear  much  the  same 
clothing.  It  consists  of  a  long  skirt  or  chemise,  and  a  blanket, 
ornamented  with  buttons,  which  covers  the  whole  body.  .  .  . 
They  all  paint,  and,  while  naturally  not  ugly,  become  fearfully 
so  in  consequence.  Lampblack  or  vermilion  mixed  with  oil  is 
rubbed  over  the  whole  face,  and  the  color  is  removed  by  small 
brushes,  leaving  patterns  on  the  skin.  .  .  .  They  perforate  their 
noses,  wearing  a  ring  adorned  with  feathers.  They  make  a  suc- 
cession of  perforations  all  around  the  edge  of  the  ears,  which  are 
ornamented  with  scarlet  thread,  sharks'  teeth,  or  pieces  of  a  shell. 
Each  hole  is  usually  the  record,  of  a  deed  performed,  or  a  feast 
given  by  the  person  so  adorned. 

The  Tinneh  tribes,  which  inhabit  the  northern  interior,  all 
possess  these  general  characteristics,  varied  by  habits  which 
climatic  differences  and  their  greater  or  less  intercourse  with 
Russian  traders  have  contributed  to  form.  Hence  some  of 
them — the  Slav6  Indians,  for  example — are  nomadic,  moving 
from  place  to  place.  They  have  no  permanent  dwelling,  and 
"  live  in  skin  tents  throughout  the  year.  Others,  such  as  the 
Unakhotana,  have  settled  villages,  and  build  houses,  though 
they  leave  them  during  the  hunting  season."  Some  of  these 
tribes  are  quite  intelligent,  others  are  "  very  low  in  the  scale  of 
intelligence." 

"Indian  character,  with  some  modifications,  is  the  same 
every-where."  Among  some  of  the  tribes  theft  is  not  consid- 
ered a  crime.  Murder  demands  blood  for  blood.  Licentious- 
ness is  universal ;  gambling  is  a  prevailing  vice.  Polygamy 
is  common  among  those  tribes  who  are  able  to  keep  more  than 


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1881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  419 

one  wife.  Infanticide  is  often  practiced,  many  mothers  de- 
stroying their  infant  girls  to  save  them  from  the  intolerable 
hardships  which  fall  to  the  lot  of  Indian  women.  They  make 
slaves  of  captives  taken  in  wars,  which,  however,  are  not  fre- 
quent among  them.  They  also  obtain  slaves  by  purchase,  and 
the  children  of  slaves  are  held  in  servitude.  They  do  not  be- 
lieve, says  Dall,  in  a  Supreme  Being,  but  in  an  obscure  poly- 
theism, which  peoples  the  earth  with  multitudes  of  good  and 
evil  spirits.  Out  of  this  belief  arises  their  faith  in  the  sh&- 
mans,  or  sorcerers,  who  are  supposed  to  have  control  of  the 
spirits.  In  consequence  of  this  superstition  the  sh4mans  exer- 
cise an  authority  over  them  which  often  amounts  to  chief- 
tainship, albeit  most  of  them  are  represented  by  Petroff  and 
others  as  being  "  tmmitigated  scamps."  The  idea  of  transmi- 
gration of  souls  into  other  human  bodies  is  common  among  the 
people. 

Most  of  the  Indian  tribes  cremate  their  dead,  except  the 
bodies  of  sh&mans,  which  are  inclosed  in  boxes  set  on  four 
poles  near  the  sea-shore.  The  remains  of  slaves  are  thrown 
into  the  sea.  Slaves  are  not  unfrequently  killed  as  sacrifices 
to  the  totems^  or  caste  symbols  of  the  tribes. 

The  ethnology  of  the  Alaskan  and  other  American  aborig- 
ines must,  for  the  present,  be  regarded  as  an  unsolved  problem. 
Some  ethnologists  accept  the  theory  of  their  Mongolian-  or 
Tartar  origin.  Their  opinion,  with  its  grounds,  is  summarized 
by  Schoolcraft  in  his  great  work  on  the  history  of  our  Indian 
tribes,  as  follows.     Referring  to  the  Aleutian  Islands,  he  says : 

The  chain  of  islands  connects  the  Continents  of  Europe  and 
Asia  at  the  most  practicable  points,  and  it  begins  preciselv  oppo- 
site to  that  part  of  the  Asiatic  coast  north-east  of  the  Chinese 
Empire,  and  quite  above  the  Japanese  groups,  where  we  should 
expect  the  Mongolian  and  Tartar  hordes  to  have  been  precipitated 
on  their  shores  on  the  American  side  of  the  trajet  extending 
south  of  the  peninsula  of  Onalaska.  There  is  evidence  in  the 
existing  dialects  of  the  tribes  of  their  being  of  the  same  general 
group  with  the  Toltec  stock. 

Professor  Van  Rhyn,  in  "  Appleton's  Cyclopaedia/'  inclines 
to  a  theory  very  ably  presented  by  Mr.  Markham  in  the 
"  Arctic  Papers  "  of  the  London  Geographical  Society.  He 
says,  "  It  is  probable  that  America  was  first  peopled  by  Mon- 


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420  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review,  [Jnly, 

golians  who  entered  over  the  N".  N.  E.  point  of  Asia,  and  from 
whom  the  Arctics  probably  descend."  Bnt,  in  taking  this 
view,  Professor  Khyn  does  not  wholly  reject  that  of  School- 
craft, for  he  adds,  "  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Polynesians  also 
entered  America  from  the  west." 

Mr.  W.  H.  Dall,  in  his  contributions  to  Indian  ethnology, 
agrees  with  Dr.  Rink,  of  England,  in  rejecting  the  theory  of 
the  original  peopling  of  the  American  Continent  by  way  of 
the  Aleutian  Islands,  aflSrming  that  it  is  "  totally  indefensible." 
Concerning  the  Tartar,  Japanese,  or  Chinese  origin  of  the  In- 
nuit  tribes,  he  declares  that  it  finds  no  coiToboration  in  their 
manners,  dress,  or  language.  Yet  he  considers  it  highly  prob- 
able that,  in  the  "  far  and  distant  past,"  the  first  population  of 
America  was  derived  from  Asia  by  way  of  Behring  Strait. 
After  spreading  southward  and  eastward,  and  developing  into 
numerous  stocks  and  tribes,  it  finally,  by  a  reflex  movement, 
occasioned  by  tribal  wars,  returned  to  the  north-west.  But 
the  history  of  its  intermediate  migrations  and  of  its  varied  de- 
velopment is  hidden  by  mists  so  dense  aa  to  be  at  present 
impenetrable.  Even  the  original  identity  of  our  Innuit  and 
Indian  tribes  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  question  beyond  dispute, 
although  Mr.  Dall  asserts  that  "  linguistically  no  ultimate  dis- 
tinction can  be  traced  between  the  American  Innuit  and  the 
American  Indian."  Future  investigations  by  students  of  eth- 
nology may  or  may  not  settle  these  interesting  problems,  but 
for  the  present  it  must  be  admitted,  as  Bancroft  observes,  that 
"  their  opinions  are  intrinsically  not  of  much  value,  except  as 
showing  the  different  fancies  of  different  men  and  times. 
Fancies  I  say,  for  modem  scholars,  with  the  aid  of  all  the  new 
revelations  of  science,  do  not  appear  in  their  investigations  to 
arrive  one  whit  nearer  an  indubitable  conclusion." 

But  wliile  their  ethnological  relations  are  uncertain,  the  fact 
that  in  this  great  land  over  which  our  flag  now  waves  there 
are  some  thirty  thousand  souls  in  sore  need  of  the  Gospel  is 
indubitable,  and  ought  to  startle  the  Christian  conscience  of 
the  nation.  That  most  of  them  are  accessible  is  also  certain. 
Their  villages  lie  along  the  coasts  and  on  the  island  shores  from 
Sitka  to  the  Yukon  delta.  That  the  Greek  Church  failed  to 
evangelize  them  should  not  be  accepted  as  proof  that  they  can- 
not be  Christianized.     That  Church  has  a  form  of  Christianity, 


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1*881.]  The  Territory  of  Alaska.  421 

but  possesses  little  of  its  power.  Its  missionary  efforts,  though 
partial  failures,  are,  nevertheless,  scathing  rebukes  to  our 
American  Churches.  It  did  what  it  could ;  but  these,  with 
the  praiseworthy  exception  of  the  Presbyterians,  have  hitherto 
refused  even  to  try  the  effect  of  spiritual  teaching  on  their 
fellow-countrymen  in  Alaska. 

It  is  only  four  years  since  the  Presbyterian  missionary  set 
his  feet  on  the  soil  of  Alaska.  Yet  his  success  goes  far  to 
prove  that  the  Indians  are  eager  to  learn  Christian  tnith,  and 
susceptible  to  its  regenerating  power.  Their  desire  for  Chris- 
tian instruction  cannpt  be  more  impressively  expressed  than  in 
the  language  of  some  of  their  representative  men. 

The  following  pregnant  words  were  spoken  by  a  Thlinket 
chief  named  Moses  M'Donald  at  a  meeting  held  by  the  Meth- 
odist mission  at  Fort  Simpson,  in  British  Columbia,  across  the 
border  of  Alaska.  It  was  called  to  welcome  a  visit  made  by 
secretaries  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Missions  in  1879. 
Chief  M'Donald  said  :  .  ^ 

We  are  glad  that  you  are  coming  to  help  the  poor  people  our 
neighbors,  the  Stickeens,  (in  Alaska.)  When  we  heard  of  the 
ffreat  American  nation — its  large  cities,  its  great  business  houses, 
its  vast  wealth  and  Churches — we  were  amazed  that  you  did  not 
do  something  for  this  people  a  long  time  ago. 

In  the  same  vein,  yet  with  greater  force,  the  Chief  Toy-a-att 
said,  at  a  public  meeting  in  Fort  Wrangell : 

.  .  .  We  have  been  told  that  the  British  government  is  a 
powerful  one,  and  we  have  also  been  told  that  the  American 
government  is  a  more  powerful  one.  We  have  been  told  that 
the  President  of  the  United  States  has  control  over  all  the  peo- 
ple, both  whites  and  Indians.  We  have  been  told  how  he  came 
to  be  our  great  chief.  He  purchased  this  country  from  Russia, 
and  in  purchasing  it  he  purchased  us.  We  had  no  choice  or  say 
in  change  of  masters.  The  change  has  been  made,  and  we  are 
content.    All  we  ask  is  justice. 

We  ask  of  our  father  at  Washington  that  we  be  recognized  as 
a  people,  inasmuch  as  he  recognizes  all  other  Indians  in  other 
portions  of  the  United  States. 

We  ask  that  we  be  civilized,  Christianized,  and  educated. 
Give  us  a  chance,  and  we  will  show  to  the  world  that  we  can 
become  peaceable  citizens  and  good  Christians,  An  effort  has 
already  been  made  by  Christian  friends  to  better  our  condition, 
and  may  God  bless  them  in  their  work  I 

FoFKTH  Seeiks,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 28 


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422  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [July, 

These  cries  from  the  mouths  of  heathens  living  nnder  our 
own  flag,  from  men  whose  conversion  demonstrates  the  power, 
of  the  Gospel  to  elevate  and  save  their  people,  are  unique  in 
that  they  appeal  not  only  to  our  Christian  charity,  but  to  our 
sense  of  justice.  Our  government  is  doing  the  aborigines  of 
Alaska  great  wrong  by  neglecting  its  duties  to  a  people  over 
whom  it  claims  rights  of  sovereignty.  It  is  a  burning  shame, 
a  blot  on  our  national  reputation,  that  there  is  no  law  in  Alaska, 
no  court  of  justice,  no  administration  by  which  crime  can  be 
punished — ^nothing  but  our  flag,  our  custom-houses,  and  a  few 
revenue  oflScers  to  collect  an  insignificant  revenue  from  the 
fur  trade.  Surely  that  cry  of  the  Indian  chief  for  justice  to 
himself  and  his  fellow-Indians  is  grounded  in  righteousness. 
It  ought  to  quicken  our  national  pride  of  character,  if  not  the 
public  conscience,  and  inspire  an  irresistible  demand  from  the 
American  people  that  Congress  shall  throw  the  segis  of  law 
over  that  great  land  and  its  thousands  of  ignorant  heathen, 
many  of  whom  are  actually  begging  for  the  educational  insti- 
tutions which  are  the  conditions  of  civilization. 

The  thoroughly  evangelical  character  of  the  experience  of 
the  Indians,  converted  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Pres- 
byterian missionaries,  is  delightfully  illustrated  in  the  follow- 
ing extracts  from  speeches  made  at  a  public  entertainment  they 
gave  to  those  men  of  God.  Toy-a-att,  the  chief  mentioned 
above,  said : 

.When  I  was  young  I  was  a  great  fighter;  now  I  have  learned 
from  Christianity  to  fight  no  more.  Christianity  has  changed  us. 
Formerly  we  thought  the  crow  made  us,  and  made  these  mount- 
ains, .  .  .  and  every  thing;  now  we  know  God  made  us,  .  .  .  made 
them  all  with  his  strong  arm.  ...  I  have  a  Saviour.  He  died 
on  the  cross  to  save  me.  I  believe  on  God.  .  .  .  When  I  die  I 
know  where  I  go.  I  go  to  God  my  Saviour.  My  heart  is  very 
happy  now.  I  am  in  a  bay  where  no  wind;  no  wmd  now  to  up- 
set my  canoe  and  trouble  me.  I  am  in  a  safe  harbor.  The  Lord 
is  my  light  and  peace. 

Another  chief,  named  Kadeshan,  said : 

You  have  heard  how  bad  I  was  long  ago.  ...  I  had  a  proud 
heart.  ...  I  do  what  devil  tell  me.  How  great  the  change  now. 
Some  one  whisper  in  my  ear  and  humble  mv  heart  to  God.  For- 
merly white  men  come  here  and  blind  our  hearts.  They  learned 
us  more  badness.  We  knew  no  God  in  heaven,  and  they  did  not 
teU  us.    Then  we  hear  a  little  about  God  at  Fort  Simpson,  and 


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1881.]  TU  Territory  of  Alaska.  423 

they  tell  us  to  pray  God  to  send  us  a  teacher.  We  then  cry  to 
God  ;  we  ask  God,  he  answer  our  prayer.  He  never  forget  us 
while  sinners,  .  .  .  See  how  kind  God  is.  •  .  .  See  with  your  own 
eyes  what  God  has  done  for  us.  .  .  .  White  men  laugh  at  us  be- 
cause we  Christians.  We  don't  care;  we  not  ashamed.  They 
laugh  against  God,  and  cry  down  us.  But  we  must  strong  our 
hearts,  and  not  care  for  what  they  say. 

A  chief  from  Buffalo  Island,  named  Hotchcox,  visited  a  school 
of  the  Presbyterian  Mission  at  Fort  Wrangell,  and  while  the 
tears  streamed  down  his  face,  he  placed  His  hand  upon  his  heart 
and  said :  "  Me  much  sick  heart.  You  come  teach  all  Stickeens, 
aU  Hydahs,  all  Tongas  about  God.  My  people  all  dark  heart. 
Nobody  tell  them  tiiat  Jesus  died.  By  and  by  all  my  people 
die,  (pointing  down,)  go  down,  down,  dark." 

The  voices  of  these  Alaskan  chiefs,  coming  across  the  conti- 
nent, ought  not  to  fall  on  heedless  ears.  From  the  depths  of 
their  deep  debasement  they  appeal  to  the  charity  of  the  Amer- 
ican Church,  begging  for  the  missionary,  the  Bible,  and  the 
Clmrch,  that  their  people  may  become  "  peaceable  citizens  and 
good  Christians."  Thus  far,  though  more  than  fourteen  years 
have  passed  since  they  and  their  tribes  became  our  fellow- 
countrymen,  only  one  branch  of  the  American  Church  has  re- 
sponded to  their  thrilling  call.  Who  is  to  blame  for  this  cruel 
indifference  we  will  not  pretend  to  decide.  We  incline  to  at- 
tribute it  to  want  of  thought,  rather  than  to  want  of  heart. 
Yet,  when  closely  analyzed,  what  is  want  of  thought  but  want 
of  heart?  Were  our  American  Churches  fuLy  imbued  with 
the  missionary  spirit,  would  they  have  suffered  thirty  thousand 
of  their  fellow-countrymen  to  remain  a  decade  and  a  half  in  the 
depths  of  heathenish  debasement,  almost  wholly  tmsuppHed 
with  the  teachers  and  preachers  which  many  of  them  are  so 
earnestly  longing  to  receive  ?  Submitting  this  inquiry  to  the 
conscience  of  the  Church,  especially  to  that  of  our  own  branch, 
which,  because  of  its  circuit  and  itinerant  system,  is  peculiarly 
fitted  to  work  among  a  people  living  in  small  villages,  scat- 
tered over  a  vast  extent  of  coimtry,  we  close  this  paper,  with 
the  hope  that  the  condition  of  our  missionary  treasury  will  be 
such  next  autumn,  as  to  justify  our  General  Missionary  Com- 
mittee in  making  a  favorable  response  to  these  pleading  voices, 
which  are  still  crying,  "  Come  over  into  Alaska  and  help  us  I" 


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424  Methodist  Q^wrterVy  Review.  [July, 


Akt.  n.— are  INDIAN  MISSIONS  A  FAILURE  f 

AUahabad  Misnonary  Confermee  Report^  18Y2. 
Bangalore  Mutionary  Conferene€  Rqiori^  1879. 
Indian  Mitsionary  Directory. 
Lueknow  Witness, 

Varioub  unfavorable  opinions  are  expressed  in  India  and  out 
of  it,  concerning  the  thirty-one  missions  and  over  six  hundred 
missionaries  at  work  among  the  two  hundred  and  forty  million 
non-Christians  throughout  the  empire,  from  the  unqualified 
belief,  coming  down  from  the  old  East  India  Company,  that 
they  should  be  suppressed  as  endangering  her  majesty's  govern- 
ment in  the  East,  and  the  statement  of  the  "  Hindu  Patriot," 
the  organ  of  educated  Bengal,  that  "  missionary  labors  in  India 
have  practically  come  to  a  dead-lock,  and  our  countrymen  are 
not  therefore  particularly  anxious  about  them,"  to  the  general 
commiseration  and  skeptical  contempt  and  ridicule  of  the 
"Pioneer,"  re-echoed  by  the  average  Anglo-Indian  and  En- 
glish-speaking Bdbu  up  and  down  the  land,  whose  chief  moral 
nourishment  is  Buckle's  "History  of  Civilization"  and  the 
works  of  Theodore  Parker. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper,  therefore,  in  order  to  furnish 
a  plain,  brief  statement  of  facts,  and  correct  such  erroneous 
opinions,  to  notice,  first,  the  direct  progress  of  the  Indian 
native  Church,  (1,)  in  numerical  strength,  and  (2)  in  morals; 
second,  the  educational  progress  of  missions  in  India,  school 
statistics  and  influence,  and  the  indirect  influence  of  the  mis- 
sions of  the  land ;  and  lastly,  the  assurance  of  their  ultimate 
and  complete  success  not  only  in  the  Indian  Empire,  but  in  the 
whole  world. 

I.  Direct  Pbooeess  of  the  Native  Chuboh. 

1.  In  Numerical  8t/rength, 

(1.)  Periodical  Statistics.  The  statistics  of  the  native  Church 
have  been  taken  from  time  to  time,  showing  marked  success  in 
the  efforts  of  missions  to  Christianize  the  land.  In  1861  there 
were  in  the  Protestant  native  Church,  in  the  whole  of  India, 
97  native  ordained  agents,  24,976  communicants,  and  138,731 
native  Christians.  In  1871  these  had  increased  to  226,  52,816, 
and  224,258,  respectively.    In  1875  they  had  still  further  in- 


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1881.]  Are  Indicm  Missions  a  Fa/UMre  t  425 

creased  to  311,  68,689,  and  266,391.  The  general  Btatistics,  so 
far  as  taken  in  1878,  revealed  350,000  native  Christians,  and 
such  has  been  the  remarkable  progress  during  the  last  two 
,  years,  especially  among  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  South  India, 
that  it  is  almost  certain  that  when  the  statistics  are  taken  in 
1881  it  will  be  foimd  that  there  are  500,000  native  Christians 
belonging  to  the  Protestant  missions  of  the  land.  The  Eoman 
Catholics  claim  above  1,000,000  souls  as  belonging  to  their 
communion,  and  the  Syrian  Church  numbers  sojne  600,000 ;  so 
that  without  exaggeration  the  statement  can  be  made  that  to- 
day there  are  2,000,000  native  Christians  in  India. 

(2.)  Local  Statistics.  The  increase  of  the  Protestant  Church 
in  particular  localities  is  interesting,  as  showing  the  success  of 
missions  in  India.  In  the  Nellore  district  the  American  Baptist 
Mission  has  the  great  responsibility  of  building  up  into  a  new 
Church  60,000  converts,  who  have  almost  all  come  over  in  the 
last  two  years.  In  TinneveUy,  in  1878,  19,000  natives  joined 
the  mission  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel ; 
and  during  the  same  time  11,000  were  baptized  by  the  Church 
Mission  Society.  In  the  Ougole  mission  field  1,000  candidates 
came  forward  in  a  single  day,  and  in  three  months  10,000  had 
joined  the  mission  and  were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  holy 
Trinity.  In  TinneveUy  and  the  Telugu  country  alone  60,000 
souls  became  Christians  in  1878.  In  the  North-west  Provinces, 
during  the  decade  between  1861  and  1872,  the  Christian  commu- 
nity nearly  doubled.  In  Oudh  the  increase  was  175  per  cent. ;  in 
the  Punjab,  64  per  cent. ;  in  Central  India,  400  per  cent.  The 
Christians  of  the  American  Methodist  Mission,  during  that  dec- 
ade, gained  500  per  cent.  In  South  India,  where  missions  have 
had  the  greatest  success,  the  increase  has  been  (a)  C(mvpa/ra;(nA)eh/ 
ra/pid.  During  the  time  between  the  Ootacamund  Missionary 
Conference,  held  in  1857,  and  the  Bangalore  Conference,  in 
1879,  or  in  about  two  decades,  the  Church  had  increased  three- 
fold, namely :  increase  of  native  ordained  agents,  186 ;  communi- 
cants, 41,000 ;  baptisms,  93,000 ;  and  of  unbaptized  adherents, 
about  95,000;  showing  a  total  of  200,000  baptized  Christians 
and  127,500  unbaptized  adherents,  the  whole  amounting  to 
about  one  per  cent,  of  the  population.  (J.)  Steady.  In  1857 
there  were  95,000  native  Christians;  in  1861, 125,000;  in  1871, 
192,000 ;  and  in  1878,  327,500 ;  which  shows  an  increase  in  four 


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426  Methodist  Qy^a/rterly  Review.  [July, 

years,  from  1857-61,  of  30,000;  in  ten  years,  from  1861-71,  of 
70,000 ;  and  in  seven  years,  from  1871-78,  of  135,500.  {c)  Gm- 
eral.  As  shown  in  the  table  below,  giving  the  increafle  in  four 
principal  countries,  during  the  twenty-one  years,  between  the 
two  South  India  Missionary  Conferences : 

CoinnsT.  186T.  1878.  InareaBO. 

TamU 76,000  172,000  97,000 

Telugu 8,800  88,000  79,200 

Malayalam 9.600  84,000  24,000 

Oanareso 8,200  6,600  2,800 

(3.)  Eate*of  Increase,  {a.)  Compared  with  the  Christian 
community.  From  1850  to  1861  the  rate  of  increase  in  the 
Protestant  Church  in  India  was  53  per  cent.,  and  from  1861  to 
1871  the  rate  was  61  per  cent.,  and  it  is  not  by  any  means 
visionary  to  state  that  the  general  statistics  of  missions  in  1881 
will  show  a  rate  of  increase  nearly  if  not  quite  equal  to  70  per 
cent.,  and  that  the  rate  will  continue  to  increase  in  the  future. 
(J.)  Compared  with  the  whole  population.  In  South  India  the 
native  Christians  of  the  Protestant  Church  amount  to  nearly 
one  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population,  and  when  the  Christian 
community  of  all  India,  Protestants,  Koman  Catholics,  and 
Syrians,  are  considered  as  one  body,  as  those  who  acknowledge 
Jesus  Christ  as  their  Lord  and  Saviour,  they  amount  to  nearly 
one  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population  of  the  empire.  It  may  in- 
crease the  force  of  the  above  statistics  to  state  that  nearly  all  the 
350,000  native  Christians  belonging  to  the  Protestant  missions 
of  India  have  been  brought  over  during  the  last  seventy  years, 
and  that  every  year  shows  increased  numbers  of  accessions. 

2.  In  Morals, 

The  oft-repeated  and  most  ignorant  assertion  of  half-skep- 
tical and  ill-informed  white  Christians,  that  there  are  no  na- 
tive Christians  in  India,  I  believe  to  have  an  abundant  and 
suflScient  answer  in  the  foregoing  statistics ;  and  now  it  seems 
proper  to  drive  persistent  and  ungenerous  maligners  of  Chris- 
tian missions  and  missionaries  from  that  other  place  of  refuge, 
namely,  if  there  a/re  am,y  native  Christians  in  India  they  are 
false  ones.  "  Such  persons  not  unfrequently  point  to  some  of 
ihQ.waifs  and  stra/ys^  the  ne'er-do-weels  of  the  native  Chris- 
tian community;  and,  taking  their  cue  from  these  hapless, 
restless,  Christless  wanderers,  they  .throw  obloquy  upon  the 


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1881.]  Are  Indian,  Missions  a  FoMv/re  f  427 

whole  native  Church — ^as  if  the  Church  in  Christian  lands  had 
not  the  counterparts  of  these  to  bewail,  and  as  if  it  would  be 
honest  and  fair  to  stamp  the  character  of  the  Church  from  what 
is  seen  of  its  worthless  members." 

In  showing  the  true  state  of  the  native  Christian  Church  in 
India  I  produce  statements  of  some  of  the  oldest,  wisest,  and 
most  experienced  missionaries,  who,  during  a  long  stay  in  the 
land  in  the  midst  of  the  native  Church,  have  had  abundant  oppor- 
txmity  to  know  whereof  they  speak.  A  committee  of  the  Ban- 
galore Missionary  Conference  has  just  recorded,  as  their  candid 
opinion,  that  "  the  native  Church  has  made  progress  in  other 
respects,"  (besides  numbers.)  "  The  Christian  faith  is  proving 
itself  still  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  Those  who 
receive  it  are  drawing  from  it  new  health  and  life,  and  are  mani- 
festing some,  at  least,  of  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  in  their  moral 
conduct  and  social  condition."  The  Rev.  J.  Vaughan,  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  after  seventeen  years'  experience 
among  the  people,  states : 

As  regards  the  moral  standard  of  the  whole  Christian  commu- 
nity, communicants  and  non-communicants,  my  experience  leads 
me,  without  hesitation,  to  affirm  that  the  native  Christians  of 
Bengal  are,  upon  the  whole,  as  moral,  as  regular  in  their  conduct, 
as  is  the  great  mass  of  nominal  Christians  at  home. 

Dr.  George  Smith,  after  a  residence  of  seventeen  years, 

testifies: 

Of  the  great  body  of  the  native  Church  it  may  be  said  that 
their  Christianity  is  much  of  the  same  type  as  that  of  the  rest  of 
Christendom.  ISeither  from  our  example  nor  in  fairness,  from  a 
consideration  of  the  origin  and  position  of  the  native  Christian 
converts,  are  the  Churches  of  Europe  and  America  entitled  to 
expect  a  higher  spirituality  than  theirs,  or,  at  present,  more  rapid 
and  extensive  defections  from  heathenism  and  Islam. 

The  following  emphatic  statement  \^a8  made  before  the 
Madras  Diocesan  Conference  in  1879  by  Bishop  Caldwell, 
whose  large  practical  experience  in  mission  affairs  gives  him  a 
right  to  testify.    He  remarked : 

I  maintain  that  the  Christians  of  our  Indian  missions  have  no 
need  to  shrink  from  comparison  with  Christians  in  a  similar  sta- 
tion in  life  and  similarly  circumstanced  in  England  or  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  The  style  of  character  they  exhibit  is  one 
which  those  who  are  well  acquainted  with  them  cannot  but  like. 


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428  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [July, 

I  think  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  affirm  that  they  appear  to  me 
in  general  more  teachable  and  tractable,  more  considerate  of  the 
feelings  of  others,  and  more  respectful  to  superiors,  and  more 
uniformly  temperate,  more  patient  and  gentle,  more  trustful  in 
Providence,  better  church-goers,  yet  free  from  religious  bigotry, 
and,  in  proportion  to  their  means,  more  liberal,  than  Christians  m 
England  holding  a  similar  position  in  the  social  scale.  I  do  not 
say  that  they  are  free  from  imperfections,  but  I  am  bound  to  say 
that  when  1  have  gone  away  anywhere,  and  look  back  upon  the 
Christians  of  this  country  from  a  distance — when  I  have  com- 
pared them  with  what  I  have  seen  and  known  of  Christians  in 
other  countries,  I  find  that  their  good  qualities  have  left  a  deeper 
impression  on  my  mind  than  their  imperfections.  I  do  not  know 
any  perfect  native  Christians,  and  I  may  add  that  perfect  En- 
glish Christians,  if  they  do  exist,  must  be  admitted  to  be  exceed- 
mgly  rare. 

Now,  add  to  these  statements  two  facts,  (1.)  that  the  native 
Church  is  growing  in  liberality  and  Christian  giving.  From 
1851  to  1861  the  Church  gave  the  sum  of  93,438  rupees,  but  in 
1871  alone  it  gave  the  almost  equal  amount  of  85,131  rupees, 
which  was  more  than  one  rupee  for  each  communicant.  In 
1878,  in  South  India  alone,  the  native  Church  gave  75,000 
rupees.  The  Church  at  Nagarcoil,  through  the  example  of  one 
good  native  deacon,  gave  nearly  1,000  rupees  more  than  the 
whole  Travancore  London  Missionary  Society  Mission  at  the 
date  of  the  Ootacamund  Conference  in  1857.  Dr.  Jewett,  of 
the  Baptist  Mission  in  Ougale,  states  that  the  new  converts 
contribute  about  400  rupees  per  month,  a  fact  which  not  only 
shows  their  sincerity,  but  proves  their  liberality.  From  a  re- 
view of  the  Karen  Missions  for  1877-78,  it  appears  that  the 
people  have  done  remarkably  well  in  the  way  of  approach  to- 
ward general  financial  independence  and  self-support,  the  entire 
appropriations  of  the  home  society  of  the  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union  to  the  Karen  work  for  the  year  being  66,094 
rupees,  while  the  Karen  Churches  contributed  72,695  rupees 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  work  of  God  in  their  midst. 
They  have  also  given  76,154  rupees  toward  lands,  buildings, 
and  presses,  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  (2.)  The  number 
of  voluntary  workers  and  unpaid  agents  is  increasing.  An 
experienced  missionary,  in  an  essay  on  the  native  Church, 
read  before  the  Bangalore  Missionary  Conference  in  1879, 
remarked : 


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1881.]  Are  Ind/icm  Missions  a  Failure  ?  429 

We  see  individuals  here  and  there  showing  very  remarkable 
seal  in  evangelistic  work.  I  know  such  in  Travancore,  and  our 
Reports  speak  of  others  whom  I  do  not  personally  know.  We 
do  see  members  of  the  Church,  then,  both  men  and  women,  en- 
gaging in  voluntary  work  for  Christ.  I  hear  of  the  same  thing 
m  Tinnevelly,  as  when,  a  short  time  back,  at  the  annual  meeting 
at  Mengnanapuram,  on  Bishop  Sargent's  expressing  a  wish  to  ad- 
dress a  few  words  of  encouragement  to  the  voluntary  workers 
then  present,  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  men 
stood  up,  and  thirty-eight  others  offered  themselves  as  fresh  vol- 
unteers. And  not  only  men,  but  women  too — women,  as  I  have 
heard,  in  the  Mbsion  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  being  even  more  forward  than  the  men.  The  brethren 
in  the  Madura  and  Nellore  Missions  bear  emphatic  testimony  to 
the  same  effect. 

When  such  can  be  said  of  the  native  Church  in  India  by  can- 
did and  careful  men,  who  know  whereof  they  affirm,  and  when 
there  is  such  liberality  and  voluntary  work  on  the  part  of  the 
Christians,  there  must  be  vitality  and  life  and  confequent  success. 

II.  Educational  Advancement  and  Indibeot  Influence 
OF  IndlalN  Missions. 

1.  Educdtional  Advcmcement. 

(1.)  In  the  paper  on  the  "  Progress  and  Prospects  of  India 
Missions,"  prepared  by  that  careful  author  and  experienced  mis- 
sionary, the  Rev.  M.  A.  Sherring,  of  Benares,  and  read  before 
the  Allahabad  Missionary  Conference  in  1872,  the  statement  is 
made  that  "  in  the  year  1861  there  were  in  all  the  missions 
75,975  pupils  under  instruction ;  in  1871  there  were  122,372, 
of  whom  22,611  were  young  women  and  girls.  This  shows  an 
increase  of  49,367.  In  the  previous  ten  years,  from  1851  to 
1861,  the  increase  was  less  than  12,000." 

In  South  India,  during  the  last  twenty  years,  all  missionary 
bodies,  and  especially  all  missionaries,  have  become  even  more 
deeply  convinced  of  the  necessity  and  importance  of  Christian 
schools  as  a  missionary  agency,  and  especially  as  the  influence  of 
government  schools  is  for  the  most  part  non-Christian.  Below 
are  some  of  the  comparative  school  statistics  for  South  India : 

No.  of  Soholan. 

SOHOOU.  i ' i 

1867.  1878.  Inereaaa. 

Anglo- Vernacular 6,827  19,669  18,382 

Vernacular 28,029  62,482  24,458 

Girls' schools 8,990  26,209  17,219 


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430  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

Between  1861  and  1871  1,621  pupils,  educated  in  Indian  mis- 
sion schools,  passed  the  university  entrance  examination,  513 
passed  the  first  arts  examination,  154  took  the  degree  of  Bach- 
elor of  Arts,  18  that  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  6  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Lawp.  During  the  last  twenty  years  mission 
schools  have  in  every  way  increased  threefold. 
(2.)  Influence  of  Mission  Schools. 

The  influence  of  mission  schools  on  the  thousands  who  pass 
through  them  it  is  impossible  to  estimate.  But  testimony  comes 
frona  all  quarters  as  to  the  good  they  effect  in  various  ways, 
(a.)  There  are  always  instances  now  and  again  of  young  men  of 
the  highest  castes,  and  possessed  of  all  the  advantages  and  safe- 
guards of  an  exclusive  Hinduism,  who  are  led  to  burst  the  bonds 
by  which  they  are  bound  to  their  society  and  family,  and  all  that 
is  most  precious  to  them  on  earth,  and  under  the  influence  of  the 
truth  alone,  and  for  Christ's  sake,  are  led  to  acknowledge  him  as 
their  Lord,  and  unite  themselves  to  his  Church.  The  influence 
and  usefulness  of  such  men  in  the  native  Church  is  far  beyond 
their  numbers,  {h,)  But  besides  the  winning  of  these  converts, 
Christian  education  is  exerting  an  inmiense  influence  on  thou- 
sands who  are  not  yet  brought  to  the  point  of  confessing  Christ. 
Through  means  of  them  the  conscience  of  native  society  is  being 
enlightened  and  quickened,  its  ideas  are  being  modified,  its  feel- 
ings elevated  and  purified,  and  a  congenial  soil  prepared  for  the 
reception  of  the  saving  seed  of  the  kingdom,  (c.)  Another  bene- 
fit of  the  higher  Christian  education,  which  must  not  be  over- 
looked, is  that  whitjh  it  confers  on  the  native  Church,  not  only  in 
advancing  temporally  those  who  are  prepared  to  take  advantage 
of  it,  but  in  qualifying  Christian  men,  both  laity  and  clergy,  to 
be  teachers  and  guides  of  the  growing  Christian  Church.  It  is  a 
promising  sign  for  the  future  of  the  native  Church  that,  along 
with  the  immense  increase  from  the  lower  castes,  there  is  also  a 
resolution  to  maintain  a  high  standard  of  instruction,  general  and 
theological,  for  its  pastors  and  catechists.* 

2.  Indirect  Infnience  of  Missions. 

Indian  missions  have  started  a  thousand  influences,  whose 
power  cannot  be  directly  measured,  but  which  are  telling 
mightily  upon  the  great  systems  of  the  empire,  and  which, 
silent,  gradual,  and  pervading,  are  destined  to  permeate  and 
change  the  whole  mass  of  heathenism  and  Islamism.  Among 
these  may  be  mentioned : 

(1.)  The  General  Enlightenment  of  the  Masses.  There  are 
many  things  in  India  which  cannot  stand  the  light,  and  the 

*  "  General  Review,  Bang.  Con.,"  1879. 


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1881.]  Are  Indian  Missions  a  Faikure  t  431 

moral  and  intellectual  light  poured  in  by  mission  preaching 
and  teaching  has  caused  thousands  to  be  ashamed  of  many  of 
their  social  and  religious  habits,  customs,  rites,  and  ceremonies, 
and  to  renounce  all  faith  in  them,  and  many,  although  not  yet 
baptized,  are  intellectually  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion. 

(2.)  Influence  upon  Idolatry.  During  the  last  half  century 
marked  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  Hindu's  reverence  for 
his  gods,  and  it  is  a  known  fact  that  not  a  few  have  entirely 
renounced  idolatrous  practices,  and  others  only  continue  them 
through  family  associations,  superstitious  fear,  and  caste  preju- 
dices, not  having  suflScient  moral  courage  to  avow  their  senti- 
ments. 

(3.)  The  Decay  of  Caste.  Caste  distinctions  are  not  held  so 
strongly  as  they  were,  and  castes  are  drawing  nearer  together, 
while  many  are  free  to  admit  the  absurdity  and  foolishness, 
not  to  say  sinfulness,  of  them  altogether. 

(4.)  Public  Spirit.  The  people  have  a  desire  to  learn. 
There  is  increased  popidar  inquiry  after  truth.  Thought  is 
stimulated  and  quickened.  Whenever  missions  are  in  progress 
justice  and  morality  increase,  and  the  people  think  more  about 
religion,  and  many  become  earnest  and  sincere  inquirers. 

(5.)  Treatment  of  Women.  Through  the  influence  of  mis- 
sions the  female  sex  is  being  blessed  and  benefited.  Women 
and  girls  by  the  thousand  are  being  educated  and  made  com- 
panions for,  and  not  slaves  of,  their  husbands.  Said  a  learned 
Mohammedan  in  Turkey  to  a  missionary :  "  You  are  right ;  we 
must  educate  our  girls ;  on  that  depends  the  welfare  of  our 
country.  We  have  lost  our  place  among  the  nations  because 
our  sons  have  no  mothers."  In  India  missions  are  endeavoring 
to  correct  that,  and  give  woman  the  place  she  should  occupy. 
All  women  are  now  honored,  widows  are  being  permitted  to 
remarry,  and  thousands  of  girls  are  at  school. 

(6.)  The  Personal  and  Literary  Influence  of  Missionaries. 
Six  hundred  cultivated  Christian  gentlemen,  with  their  wives 
and  families,  scattered  up  and  down  the  land,  must,  in  their 
constant  contact  with  the  people,  exert  an  influence  upon  them 
for  good.*  The  literary  and  philological  achievements  of  mis- 
sionaries cannot  be  overlooked.  "  Since  the  beginning  of  mod- 
em missions  the  Bible  has  been  translated  into  212  languages, 


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482  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [July, 

spoken  by  850,000,000  htunan  beings,  and  distributed  at  the 
rate  of  nearly  twelve  copies  every  minute.  It  will  not  be  long 
before  the  Bible  will  be  published  in  every  language  on  earth. 
All  this  has  been  done  by  missionaries.  Thirty-nine  of  the 
languages  referred  to  never  had  a  written  form  until  the  mis- 
sionaries created  it." 

Now,  is  any  one  prepared  to  shut  his  eyes  to  all  these  influ- 
ences, and  pronounce  Christian  missions,  by  means  of  which  all 
these  influences  were  set  in  motion,  a  failure  ?  Are  the  more 
than  150,000  boys  and  girls  under  Chiistian  instruction  not 
being  bettered  thereby?  And  will  the  learning  of  mission 
schools  have  no  effect  upon  their  religion  ?  Should  not  the 
fact  be  acknowledged  that,  besides  the  visible  signs  of  progress 
there  are  a  thousand  secret  forces  at  work  by  means  of  which 
India  is  undergoing  a  great  moral  change  ?  And  all  these  in- 
dicate the  success  of  Indian  missions. 

III.  The  Ultimate  Success  of  Missions. 

I  now  come  lastly  to  assert  this  fact,  that  if  during  the  whole 
history  of  Protestant  missions  in  India,  since  Ziegenbalg  and 
Plutschan  landed  at  Tranquibar,  in  1Y06,  or  William  Carey  first 
set  foot  on  the  soil  of  Bengal,  on  the  11th  of  November,  1793, 
there  had  not  been  one  single  convert  to  the  Christian  faith,  it 
would  be,  although  natural  and  human,  still  illogical  and  pre- 
mature to  announce  the  failure  of  Christian  missions  in  India. 

1.  Those  who  pronounce  modem  missions  a  failure  must 
first  undertake  the  task  of  proving  the  failure  of  Christianity, 
for  missions  are  not  a  failure  unless  Christianity  is.  Those, 
therefore,  who  recommend  missionaries  to  give  up  the  work  as 
hopeless  should,  first  of  all,  prove  the  Christian  religion  to  be 
false,  and  then,  with  the  downfall  of  the  Christian  edifice,  will 
be  carried  in  utter  ruin  the  whole  scaffolding  of  Christian 
missions.  But  it  is  a  most  encouraging  fact  that  while  the 
ultimate  success  of  missions  is  wrapped  up  in  the  genuineness 
and  divinity  of  the  Christian  system,  that  the  triumph  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  world  is  most  clearly  and  em- 
phatically revealed.  "  Every  knee  must  bow  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord."  "  He  must  reign  until  he 
hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet."  The  world  is  given  by 
covenant  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  it  has  been  said  to  Him,  by  Him 


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1881.]  Are  Indian  Missions  a  Failure  ?  433 

who  hath  power  to  fulfill  the  promise,  "  Ask  of  me,  and  I  shall 
give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession."  "  The  isles  wait  for  his 
law.  The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  places  shall  be  glad  for 
them ;  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice,  and  blossom  as  the  rose." 
"  And  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbor,  and 
every  man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the  Lord :  for  they  shall 
all  know  me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them, 
saith  the  Lord." 

2.  Again,  God's  commands  and  promises  to  us  concerning 
mission  work  are  an  abundant  assurance  of  its  ultimate  success. 
The  marching  orders  of  the  Church  are :  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.  Go  ye  there- 
fore, and  teach  all  nations ...  to  observe  aU  things  whatsoever  I 
have  commanded  you :  and,  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world."  And  the  additional  promise  of  Him 
who  sends  the  messenger  forth  into  all  the  world  is  that  "  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  leaven  which  a  woman  took  and 
hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  till  the  whole  was  leavened," 
showing  that  the  silent,  hidden,  active,  pervading,  growing 
principle  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  presented  by  the 
commissioned  agents,  will  spread  and  permeate  and  overcome 
until  the  whole  world  is  full  of  the  glory  of  God. 

3.  As  to  Indian  missions  in  particular,  it  may  be  said  of  them, 
in  the  language  of  an  experienced  Indian  missionary,  that  "  the 
enlarged  activity  of  the  native  mind,  the  thirst  for  education 
pervading  large  masses  of  the  people,  the  earnestness  being 
manifested  in  the  native  Church,  the  energy  and  zeal  and  love 
for  souls  which  some  of  its  members  are  displaying,  the  growth 
of  a  liberal  spirit  among  the  Christian  communities,  the  in- 
creasing number  of  catechists,  Christian  teachers,  and  ordained 
native  ministers — all  these  circumstances,  while  irrefragable 
signs  and  proofs  of  progress,  are  also  bases  on  which  to  build 
our  hopes  for  the  future." 

I  cannot  better  conclude  this  paper  than  by  using  the  lan- 
guage of  that  grand  Oriental  scholar.  Professor  Monier  Will- 
iams, with  which  he  concludes  his  recent  book  on  Hinduism : 

Then  let  the  Christian  missionary,  without  despising  the  for- 
midable Goliaths  to  which  he  is  opposed,  but  with  the  qui^t  con- 
fidence of  a  David  in  the  strength  of  his  own  weapons,  go  forth 


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484  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

fearlessly,  with  the  simple  sling  and  stone  of  the  Gospel  in  his  hand, 
and  do  battle  with  his  enemies,  not  forgetting  to  use  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit,  Much  ground,  indeed,  has  been  won  already  by 
the  soldiers  of  the  cross;  but  to  secure  a  more  hopeful  advance 
of  Christianity  throughout  India,  a  large  accession  to  the  mis- 
sionary ranks  of  well-trained  men,  thoroughly  conversant  with 
the  systems  against  which  they  have  to  contend,  and  prepared  to 
live  as  well  as  preach  the  simple  story  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  is 
urgently  needed.  And  far  more  than  this  is  needed  for  the  com- 
plete triumph  of  God's  truth  in  India.  Nothing  less  is  demanded 
of  us  Englishmen,  t6  whose  charge  the  Almighty  has  committed 
the  souls  and  bodies  of  two  hundred  and  forty  millions  of  his 
creatures,  than  that  every  man  among  us,  whether  clerical  or  lay, 
should  strive  to  be  a  missionary  according  to  the  standard  set  up 
by  the  first  great  Missionary — Christ  himsell  Let  no  lower  stand- 
ard of  duty  satisfy  us.  So  will  the  good  time  arrive  when  not  only 
every  ear  shall  have  heard  the  good  news  of  the  reconciliation  of 
man  to  his  Maker,  but  every  tongue  also  of  every  native  in  India, 
from  Cape  Comorin  to  the  Himalaya  Mountams,  shall  confess 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 


Art.  m.— the  FREEDOM  OF  CHOICE. 

Choioe  is  the  rational  election  of  an  end.  It  is  rational  in  the 
sense  that  it  is  for  a  reason  mentally  apprehended  and  approved. 
The  reason  so  apprehended  and  approved  is  the  motive  for  the 
choice.  There  can  be  no  proper  choice  without  such  a  motive, 
whatever  may  be  actual  or  possible  in  mere  arbitrary  volition. 
Rational  motive  really  conditions  choice.  Hence,  there  is  for 
us  no  law  of  freedom  in  a  power  of  choosing  without  motive, 
or  with  the  less  motive,  or  against  all  motive  There  is  no 
such  power.  There  may  be  arbitrary  volitions  under  such 
conditions,  but  they  cannot  be  choices,  because  without  the 
necessary  rational  element  of  choice. 

The  supposition  that  without  actual  motive  to  the  good,  or 
with  all  our  motives,  or  even*our  stronger  motives,  persist- 
ently holding  for  the  evil,  a  good  life  is  yet  practicable  through 
choice,  is  utterly  groundless.  There  could  be  no  choice  of  the 
good  in  such  a  state.  Hence,  a  good  life  would  be  impossible. 
The  assumption  of  an  available  and  responsible  natural  ability 
to  choose  the  good  in  such  a  state  is  equally  groundless.  In 
the  theory  of  natural  ability  and  moral  inability,  the  former 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice,  435 

does  not  exclude  the  latter,  but  the  two  exist  together.  The 
moral  inability  is  specifically  and  definitely  an  incapacity  for 
the  proper  and  necessary  motive  to  the  choice  oi  the  good.  If 
the  alleged  natural  ability,  whatever  it  may  be,  can  command 
the  proper  and  necessary  moral  motive,  then  the  moral  in- 
ability is  not  a  fact ;  if  it  cannot,  then,  respecting  the  good,  it 
can  be  nothing  more  than  a  power  of  mere  ai'bitrary  volition ; 
and,  therefore,  utterly  insuflicient  for  the  good.  No  mere 
arbitrary  power  of  volition,  however  great,  can  be  a  power 
unto  a  good  life ;  for  life,  to  be  good,  must  be  chosen  as  such, 
and  for  its  own  proper  motives.  Only  for  such  motives  is  it 
rationally  eligible.  Whoever  would  practice  the  deeds  of  a 
good  life  must,  as  a  conditioning  fact,  find  his  higher  motives 
of  choice  in  the  motives  to  the  good.  On  a  like  principle, 
whoever  would  practice  the  deeds  of  an  evil  life  through 
choice  must,  as  a  conditioning  fact,  find  his  higher  motives  of 
choice  in  the  motives  to  the  evil.  These  motives,  as  com- 
pared with  the  possible  motives  to  the  good,  may  be  infinitelh 
the  weaker;  but  actually,  or  as  realized  in  experience,  they 
must  be  the  stronger  at  the  time  of  choosing.  This  is  the  law 
of  an  evil  life  as  chosen,  whatever  may  be  practicable  therein 
— and  very  much  is  practicable — ^through  mere  arbitrary  or 
executive  volition. 

Thus  motives  stand  between  us  and  our  choices,  not,  in- 
deed, as  determining  forces,  because  we  are  rational  and 
moral  agents  with  power  over  them,  but  as  conditioning  facts 
of  choice.  Clearly,  there  is  this  requirement  within  the  moral 
sphere,  the  only  sphere  in  which  the  question  of  freedom  has 
any  profound  interest.  We  allege,  not  the  necessity  of  rational 
motive  to  volition,  but  only  to  volition  as  choice. 

Volition  simply  from  motive-impulse  is  as  the  stronger  im- 
pulse. As  a  mere  executive  volition,  put  forth  for  the  attain- 
ment of  the  end  of  the  impulse,  there  is  no  reason  why  it 
should  not  follow  the  stronger.  There  is  no  sufficient  operat- 
ing force  to  the  contrary.  This  is  no  concession  either  for 
the  approval  of  such  as  maintain  the  domination  of  motive  over 
choice,  or  for  the  reprehension  of  such  as,  in  the  interest  of 
freedom,  deny  that  domination.  Mere  impulse  inducing 
volition  without  refiection  or  judgment  is  in  no  true  sense  the 
proper  and  necessary  motive  of  choice ;  neither  is  the  volition 


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436  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

so  put  forth  for  the  attainment  of  the  end  of  the  impulse  in 
any  true  sense  a  choice.  Hence,  there  is  no  concession  re- 
specting choice,  but  simply  the  statement  of  a  law  of  volitional 
results  from  certain  mental  states,  in  none  of  which  has  choice 
any  active  part.  But  mental  facts  in  which  choice  has  no 
active  part  are  without  doctrinal  consequence  in  the  question 
of  its  freedom. 

Choice  is  as  the  stronger  motive  at  the  time  of  choosing. 
The  fact  is  not  from  the  determining  force  of  the  stronger 
motive,  but  from  the  rational  nature  of  choice.  With  two 
ends  alternatively  eligible,  and  a  higher  reason  for  one  than 
the  other,  choice,  if  we  make  a  choice,  must  go  with  the 
higher.  We  are  under  no  necessity  to  choose.  We  may 
decide  against  both  ends  or  with  the  less  reason,  but  this  de- 
cision would  be  an  arbitraiy  volition,  not  a  choice. 

Many  of  our  motive  states  are  involuntary,  and  arise  in 
purely  spontaneous  appetence  or  impulse.  Strong  incentives 
to  evil  so  arise.  Cleafly  this  is  the  fact  with  many.  It  is 
more  or  less  the  fact  with  all  until  the  goo4  is  chosen,  and  so 
chosen  that  the  choice  becomes  an  immanent  state  of  the  mind. 
These  passionate  impulses  or  appetences  are  urgent  for  speedy 
satisfaction,  and,  therefore,  for  the  volitions  through  which  the 
satisfaction  may  be  realized.  The  tendency  of  such  a  state 
may  be  toward  the  indulgence  of  the  evil  through  a  mere 
executive  volition  in  immediate  sequence  to  the  motive-im- 
pulse ;  or  it  may  be  to  the  choice  of  the  evil  against  the  good. 
The  latter  is  possible  only  with  the  notion  of  the  good  and 
some  sense  of  its  eligibility.  Without  these  facts  we  cannot  be 
the  proper  subjects  of  a  moral  probation.  But,  with  our 
spontaneous  tendencies  toward  the  evil,  unless  we  have  power 
over  these  motive  states,  power  to  control  the  appetent  and 
impulsive  through  the  motives  of  reason  and  religion,  and  to 
conduct  life  rationally  and  morally  through  choice  from  these 
higher  motives,  we  have  no  valid  and  available  law  of  freedom 
in  choice.  If  we  have  power  over  these  motive  states,  and 
over  motives  in  their  higher  and  truer  sense ;  power  to  con- 
trol the  former  through  the  latter,  to  overcome  the  one  with 
the  other,  to  replace  the  one  with  the  other,  then  have  we 
power  over  our  choices ;  and,  therefore,  a  true  freedom  in 
choice.     Here  is  the  vital  question  of  freedom. 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  437 

TVe  allege  this  power  over  motives  on  the  ground  of  certain 
laws  and  facts  of  mental  action  which  vitally  concern  both  the 
freedom  of  choice  and  the  reality  of  rational  and  moral  agency. 
These  laws  and  facts  mnst  be  treated  severally  and  in  proper 
order,  but  may  be  summarily  stated  thus: 

1.  Choice  is  the  election  of  an  end  for  a  motive  rationally 
apprehended.  Hence,  with  exceptional  cases,  reflection  and 
judgment  must  precede  and  qualify  the  elective  volition,  with- 
out which  facts  it  cannot  be  a  choice. 

2.  Choice,  with  all  volition  toward  the  end  of  a  motive  im- 
pulse, may  be  rationally  suspended  when  one  is  under  that 
influence.  The  suspension  is  rational  when  for  the  purpose  of 
reflection  and  judgment  upon  end  and  motive  in  order  to  a 
proper  election. 

3.  The  rational  suspension  of  all  volition  toward  the  end  of 
any  motive  influence  is  neither  choice  itself  nor  dependent 
upon  a  motive  of  choice  in  any  specific  sense,  but  is  from  an 
immediate  and  essential  power  of  personal  agency. 

4.  With  the  suspension  of  choice  and  all  mere  executive 
volition,  then,  through  a  proper  use  of  our  rational  and  moral 
agency,  we  have  power  over  our  motives. 

5.  There  are  sufficient  motives  for  the  required  choices  of  a 
rational  and  good  life  —  sufficient,  not  only  as  objectively 
viewed,  but  also  as  realizable  in  experience. 

6.  With  power  over  our  motives,  we  have  power  over  our 
choices,  and,  therefore,  a  true  freedom  of  choice. 

The  RATioNALrrr  op  Choice. 

Motive  and  choice  are  so  vitally  related  that  their  true  in- 
terpretation  must  place  them  in  scientific  accord.  Any  inter- 
pretation on  which  they  will  not  answer  each  to  the  other 
must  be  erroneous.  The  true  interpretation  must  find  a  rational 
element  in  each. 

There  is  »  rational  element  in  the  proper  motive  of  choice. 
Any  appetence  of  the  sensibilities,  operative  toward  some 
voluntary  act  for  its  satisfaction,  may  be  called  a  motive.  It 
is  such  in  a  primary  sense  and  in  popular  usage.  It  is  com- 
monly treated  as  a  motive^  or  included  in  the  definition  of 
motive,  in  discussions  of  the  will  or  the  freedom  of  choice.  It 
is  a  motive  only  in  the  sense^f  an  instinctive  impulse  toward 

FouBTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXHI. — 29 

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438  Methodist  Qawrterly  Bemew.  [July, 

Bome  volition  as  the  means  of  its  own  satisfaction.  But  a 
volition  following  immediately  npon  such  an  appetence,  and 
simply  for  its  gratification,  is  merely  an  executive  volition,  and 
in  no  true  sense  a  choice.  Neither  is  such  an  instinctive  im- 
pulse in  itself  a  true  and  sufficient  motive  of  choice.  It  lacks 
the  necessary,  rational  element.  Hunger  and  thirst  are  instinc- 
tive impulses  toward  eating  and  drinking.  The  mere  satisfac- 
tion of  these  appetites  is  neither  the  whole  nor  the  true  motive 
of  self-government  in  the  case.  Were  this  so  we  might  always 
eat  and  drink  just  according  to  our  appetence — whenever  it 
craves,  whatever  it  craves,  all  that  it  craves.  .  This  might  be  a 
law  of  life  for  an  animal,  but  cannot  be  a  law  for  a  rational 
man.  Were  these  appetites  always  normal  and  healthful  in  tone 
and  tendency,  with  a  happy  adjustment  to  our  higher  good, 
then  might  we  always  follow  them,  but  only  for  the  reason  that 
they  were  such,  and,  therefore,  for  a  rational  motive.  When 
the  appetites  are  excessive  or  wayward  and  their  free  indul- 
gence would  be  harmful,  the  real  and  only  true  motive  of  self- 
government  is  one  of  prudence  or  duty,  a  rational  motive.  Only 
with  such  a  motive  can  there  be  self-government  through  chojpe. 
The  same  law  applies  in  all  the  circles  of  our  spontaneous 
emotions  and  desires.  Sympathy  is  an  instinctive  impulse  to- 
ward voluntary  action,  but  not  in  itself  a  law  of  rational  action 
nor  a  motive  according  to  which  we  may  act  with  choice.  Be- 
fore the  action  can  be  chosen  the  end  of  it  must  appear  to  be 
rationally  eligible.  Parental  aflEection,  followed  simply  as  a 
motive  tendency,  often  leads  astray  from  both  prudence  and 
duty.  The  proper  conduct  under  this  instinctive  motive  im- 
pulse is,  in  the  prof  oundest  sense,  a  question  of  prudence  and 
duty  in  the  light  of  truth  and  conscience.  The  motive  on 
which  the  proper  conduct  may  be  chosen  is  in  this  rational  ele- 
ment. Avarice  is  a  motive-impulse  toward  hoarding  money, 
but  not  in  itself  simply  a  motive  to  the  choice  of  the  hoarding. 
With  the  common  facts  of  moral  reason  and  conscience  and 
grave  self-questioning,  presumably  there  was  a  time  when  the 
miser  chose  his  life ;  while  now,  as  dominated  by  a  morbid 
passion,  his  deeds  are  no  longer  chosen,  but  merely  executed 
through  volitions  in  immediate  sequence  to  the  blind  impulses 
of  his  avarice.  Yet  are  they  evil  to  him  under  moral  law,  be- 
cause he  might  have  chosen,  And,  if  yet  in  a  probationary  state, 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  GJunce.  439 

might  still  choose,  a  life  of  generosity  and  benevolence  through 
the  motives  of  reason  and  religion.  The  quick  resentment 
arising  upon  wrongful  injury,  and  instantly  operative  toward 
the  infliction  of  injury  in  return,  is  not  such  a  motive  in  itself 
that  the  retaliation  may  be  through  choice.  A  motive  in  the 
proper  sense,  and  as  the  condition  of  choice,  could  arise  only  in 
such  reason  or  reasons  as  might  appear  to  require  or  justify  the 
infliction.  Thus  in  any  and  every  view  a  rational  element  is 
necessary  to  the  motive  of  choice. 

As  motive  in  its  Iiigher  and  truer  sense  must  have  a  rational 
element,  so  must  choice  be  rational.  It  may  be  for  a  reason  in- 
finitely less  than  is  possible  for  a  contrary  election ;  still  it  can 
be  a  choice  only  with  the  rational  comprehension  of  its  motive 
or  end.  When  end  and  impulse  are  taken  into  reflection  and 
judgment,  and  the  end  appears  to  be  rationally  eligible,  then 
its  election  for  that  reason  is  a  choice.  It  may  not  be  judi- 
cious or  wise,  but  so  far  it  is  rational,  and,  therefore,  properly  a 
choice.  Life  is  rational  only  as  it  is  chosen.  The  choice 
which  renders  life  rational  must  be  for  a  reason  rationally  ap- 
prehended, however  inferior  that  reason.  Every  true  and  noble 
life  is  the  formation  of  rational  choice  from  the* higher  motives 
of  life.    No  such  life  is  otherwise  practicable. 

Every  one,  properly  under  a  law  of  moral  probation,  at 
some  time  chooses  between  an  evil  and  a  good  life.  In  the 
subsequent  habits  of  life,  one  may  act  immediately  from  his 
evil  impulses  and  tendencies.  He  may  thus  pursue  an  evil  life 
with  strong  and  persistent  willing ;  but  if  without  reflection  or 
the  apprehension  of  any  rational  eligibility  therein,  he  no  long\ 
er  chooses  it  in  any  proper  sense  of  choice.  His  volitions 
which  take  him  to  the  ends  of  his  motive-impulses  are  imme- 
diately from  these  impulses,  and  simply  executive,  not  elective. 
Yet  are  they  morally  evil  and  responsible  because  "of  a  power 
in  the  agent  to  apprehend  the  suflicient  motives  to  a  good 
life  and  to  choose  it.  But  a  good  life  is  ever  impossible  through 
any  mere  executive  volition.  In  a  life  of  good  deeds  the  choice 
of  the  good  is  the  vital  and  necessary  fact  of  goodness.  But 
this  choice  of  the  good  is  possible  only  from  its  own  proper 
motives.  These  motives  must  lie  in  the  obligation  and  value 
of  the  good.  Only  as  these  motives  are  apprehended  in  the 
moral  reason  can  the  good  be  so  chosen  that  there  shall  be 


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440  Methodist  QicoHerly  JRevtew,  [July, 

goodness  in  the  choice  and  in  the  deeds  which  follow.  Thus 
in  this  highest,  best  sphere  of  volition,  choice  is  rational. 
It  is  not  simply  from  a  moral  impulse,  but  also  from  a  moral 
reason  as  the  motive. 

Only  an  agent  rationally  constituted  is  capable  of  ordering 
his  life  through  choice.  "We-  have  the  powers  o;f  a  rational 
agency ;  but  our  Kf e  is  conducted  though  choice  only  in  the  ra- 
tional usdof  these  powers.  An  animal  has  motive  impulse  and 
volitional  power.  It  wills  an  end  with  executive  energy. 
But  it  does  not  choose  the  end  and  cannot,  because  without 
faculties  for  its  rational  apprehension.  Its  volitions  are  im- 
mediately from  the  impulses  of  instinct.  The  operation  is 
irrational  Such  are  our  own  volitions  when  there  is  no  exer- 
cise of  reason  between  motive-impulse  and  volition,  whatever 
its  end.  The  intervention  of  reason,  either  as  intuitively  act- 
ive or  as  exercised  in  reflection  and  judgment  upon  end  and 
motive,  is  the  one  fact  essentially  differentiating  rational  agen- 
cy in  volition  from  the  operation  of  mere  animal  instinct- 
As  between  the  two,  there  are  different  powers  and  cognitions, 
different  ends,  different  motive-impulses  in  operation;  but, 
except  on  the  proper  use  of  our  rational  faculties,  mere  im- 
pulse is  equally  the  determining  law  of  volition  in  the  two 
cases.  Mind  thus  moves  vohtionally  in  the  sphere  of  animal 
instinct.  Its  only  possible  movement  in  the  higher  sphere  of 
rational  agency  is  by  making  reason  the  law  of  its  choices. 

It  does  not  hence  follow  that  on  every  instance  of  a  new 
motive-impulse,  even  where  morality  is  concerned,  a  season  of 
rational  reflection  is  requisite.  Life  is  not  thus  in  separate 
deeds,  but  according  to  some  rule  Or  law.  A  good  life  must 
be  ordered  on  principle  and  in  obedience  to  a  recognized  law 
of  duty.  A  good  man  may  have  a  sudden  motive-impulse 
toward  some  wrong  volition  or  deed,  but  reflection  and  judg- 
ment have  gone  before  and  settled  the  principle  to  which  his 
present  action  must  conform.  "With  these  facts,  the  instant 
application  of  this  principle  answers  for  all  the  requirements 
of  reason  in  choice. 

Such  is  the  law  of  rational  agei^cy,  an  agency  that  is  a  nulli- 
ty without  a  power  over  motives  and  volitions.  There  is  no 
power  over  motives  and  volitions  unless  we  may  subject  them 
to  reflection  and  judgment    "Without  this  i^ncy  there  can  be 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  441 

no  power  of  self-government  through  choice.  There  is  no 
other  rational  self-government.  The  only  alternative  must  be 
a  succession  of  irrational  volitions  and  deeds  in  immediate  and 
necessary  sequence  to  the  stronger  motive-impulses.  In  any 
motive  state,  other  impulses  may  arise  to  influence  the  pending 
volition ;  but,  Except  as  responsive  to  thj  call  of  our  rational 
agency  and  subject  to  its  control,  they  must  be  purely  sponta- 
n^us,  and,  therefore,  powerless  to  release  our  volitions  and 
consequent  deeds  from  the  absolute  domination  of  mere  mo- 
tive-impulse. Nothing,  else  than  reflection  and  judgment  as 
possibly  influencing  choice  in  any  rational  sense  can  come  be- 
tween motive  and  choice.  Their  interposition  is  the  oflSce  of 
rational  agency.  Without  that  interposition  there  is  no  proper 
use  of  this  agency,  and,  therefore,  no  rational  self-government 
through  choice. 

The  Kational  Suspension  of  Ohoiob. 

Choice,  with  all  volition  toward  the  attainment  of  the  motive 
end,  may  be  suspended  when  one  is  under  motive  influence. 
The  suspension  is  rational  when  for  the  purpose  of  reflection 
and  judgment  upon  end  and  motive,  that  the  election  may  be 
prudent,  or  wise,  or  responsive  to  the  requirement  of  duty. 

What  is  rational  agency,  or  what  can  it  avail  for  the  higher 
ends  of  life,  if,  under  the  laws  of  mental  action,  there  be  no 
place  for  the  proper  use  of  its  powers  ?  Where  can  this  use 
be  so  important  as  in  the  controlment  of  mental  states  and 
facts  which  vitally  concern  the  power  of  rational  self -govern 
ment?  Life  is  worthy  of  man  only  as  it  is  from  his  own 
rational  and  moral  agency.  As  such,  it  must  be  rationally 
chosen.  Our  choices  are  our  most  important,  our  morally 
responsible  volitions.  Through  them  we  determine  the  ends 
of  our  life  and  the  deeds  for  their  attainment.  Our  character 
and  destiny  are  in  our  choices.  But  if  there  be  no  power  of 
rationally  suspending  choice,  with  all  volition  toward  the 
motive  end,  when  under  motive  influence,  there  can  be  no 
place  for  the  reflection  and  judgment  necessary  to  rational 
self-government  or  to  the  proper  choice  of  life.  Our  sponta- 
neous motive-impulses  must  be  the  immediate  determining 
causes  of  our  volitions.  Hence,  the  power  of  rationally  sus- 
pending choice,  with  all  volition  toward  the  attainment  of  the 


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4A2  Methodist  Qicarterly  Review.  [July, 

motive  end,  is  necessary  to  choice  itself,  and  the  proper  use 
of  it  a  necessary  mode  of  conducting  life  rationally. 

In  the  habits  of  human  life  many  omit  this  rational  suspen- 
sion of  choice  and  mostly  act  immediately  from  spontaneous 
motive-impulse.  They  do  this  when  the  conduct  is  profoimdly 
important,  morally  responsible  even,  and  the  call  loud  and 
urgent  for  the  most  'reflective  and  rational  action.  Their  con- 
duct is  simply  executed,  not  chosen.  This  is  consistent  with 
personal  agency,  rational  and  moral,  as  constituted,  though  not 
with  the  proper  use  of  its  powers.  These  powers  are  not  self- 
acting,  but  simply  an  investment  which  as  personal  agents  we 
may  and  should  use.  If  self-acting  they  could  not  be  the  powers 
of  a  proper  rational  and  moral  agency.  "Without  their  use  our 
life  is  not  from  our  own  agency.  Without  their  possession  we 
are  incapable  of  choosing  our  life  or  of  conducting  it  rationally 
and  morally. 

The  fact  that  many  live  with  little  reflection  or  rational  self- 
control,  and  act  merely  and  immediately  from  the  motive- 
impulses  of  spontaneous  appetence  or  desire,  is  often  alleged 
in  their  reprehension.  They  should  not  be  reprehended  if 
without  the  power  of  rationally  postponing  all  volition  toward 
the  end  of  their  appetences  when  under  such  motive  influence. 
For,  if  without  this  power,  they  are  utterly  incapable  of  con- 
ducting life  rationally.  Their  only  law  of  life  must  be  one  of 
mere  spontaneous  motive  forces,  commonly  more  wayward  and 
violent,  and  far  more  ruinous,  than  the  impulses  of  mere  animal 
instinct. 

This  power  of  rational  agency  is  manifest  in  the  relative 
facts  of  psychology  and  human  life.  It  is  a  fact  above  ques- 
tion, that  often  under  motive  influence  all  volition  toward  the 
end  is  deferred  and  held  under  deliberation.  How  shaU  the 
fact  be  explained  ?  On  a  denial  of  rational  deferment,  there 
are  only  two  modes  in  which  an  explanation  can  even  be 
attempted.  One  is  to  account  the  delaj^  to  a  mental  state  of 
indiflference.  But  this  is  utterly  inadmissible,  because  the 
motive  state  is  manifest  in  the  fact  of  deliberation.  No  one 
deliberates  on  questions  of  indifference  in  order  to  a  judicious 
election  or  choice.  The  other  is  to  account  the  delay  to  an 
exact  balance  of  opposing  motive  influences.  This  would  be 
practically  the  same  as  a  state  of  indifference,  though  psycho- 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  443 

logically  different.  The  case  is  hypothetically  admissible  on 
the  theory  that  volition  or  choice  is  absolutely  determined  by 
motive  force.  On  the  denial  of  rational  deferment  and  re- 
flection, motive  influences  or  tendencies  are  the  only  forces 
practically  operative  in  the  mind.  There  is  a  motive  tendency 
toward  a  given  volition  or  choice.  The  only  force  which  can 
prevent  this  result  is  a  counter  motive  influence.  Hence,  the 
continuance  of  the  delay  requires  for  all  that  time  an  exact 
balance  of  opposing  motive  forces.  The  slightest  preponder- 
ance of  either  would  at  once  determine  the  volitional  result, 
just  as  the  heavier  weight  immediately  preponderates  the 
scale.  Is  this,  then,  a  rational  account  of  the  case?  This 
mental  state  of  interested  deferment  runs  through  hours  and 
days,  sometimes  through  months  and  years,  even.  Can  the 
fact  be  explained  simply  as  the  result  of  an  exact  balance  of 
opposing  motive  forces  ?  This  is  the  only  possible  account,  if 
we  deny  the  power  of  rational  deferment.  Its  utter  insuf- 
ficiency concludes  the  reality  of  this  power. 

The  denial  of  this  law  of  rational  agency  is  by  logical  con- 
sequence the  assumption  that  all  great  and  worthy  lives  in  the 
various  spheres  of  human  activity  and  achievement,  in  science 
and  philosophy,  in  statesmanship  and  patriotism,  in  philan- 
thropy and  piety,  are  the  formation  of  volitions  in  immediate 
sequence  to  motive-impulses  or  tendencies,  and  without  any 
power  of  peraonal  agency  in  the  proper  choice  of  ends.  The 
assumption  is,  and  must  be,  that  all  the  truer  and  nobler  lives, 
wrought  in  patience  and  self-denial,  in  an  ever-enduring  forti- 
tude and  the  loftiest  moral  heroism,  are  the  formation  of 
purely  spontaneous  motive-impulses,  each  determining  its  own 
volitional  result,  just  as  it  may  exceed  others  in  the  force  of  its 
impulsion.  But  no  true  philosophy  of  such  lives  is  possible 
with  the  notion  that  their  formative  law  is  in  purely  sponta- 
neous motive  forces,  no  one  of  which,  as  it  may  be  the  stronger, 
will  submit  to  any  restraint  or  delay  under  the  immediate 
power  of  personal  agency,  but  must  of  its  own  energy  go  at 
once  to  the  volitional  result  of  its  own  impulsion.  In  truth, 
reflection  must  be  the  habit,  and  the  highest  practical  reason 
the  guide  of  every  such  life.  Its  formation  is  possible  only  as 
the  spontaneous  motive  tendencies  may  be  subject  to  the  per- 
sonal agency.     Over  all  the  exigences  of  weakness  and  trial 


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444  Methodist  Qu^a/rterly  Remew.  tJuly, 

and  adverse  tendency  this  agency  mnst  be  sovereign,  and 
have  in  command  the  weightier  motives  of  reason  and  con- 
science, which  may  ever  re-enforce  the  high  purposes  of  a  great 
and  good  life.  Hence,  the  power  of  rationally  suspending  all 
volition  toward  a  motive  end  when  under  the  motive  influence 
must  be  a  power  of  personal  agency.  The  philosophy  of  every 
great  and  good  life  is  a  conclusive  witness  to  its  reality. 

Immediatb  Powkb  of  Suspending  Choiob. 

TVe  here  face  the  most  subtle  and  perplexing  objection  to  this 
vital  law  of  freedom  in  choice.  It  is  very  easy  most  plausibly 
and  persistently  to  affirm,  that  the  position  maintained  respect- 
ing the  suspension  of  choice  gives  no  releasement  either  from 
an  absolute  dependence  upon  motive  or  from  its  determining 
influence  upon  our  volitions.  But  most  that  may  be  thus  said 
must  be  mete  assertion,  without  possible  verification  in  the 
facts  of  psychology  or  the  laws  of  mind.  Such  assertion  may 
be  met  with  counter  assertion  equally  broad  and  plausible.  So 
far,  if  nothing  is  gained,  neither  is  any  thing  lost.  However, 
we  shall  not  thus  rest  the  question,  but  maintain  our  position 
on  the  ground  of  facts  both  of  psychology  and  a  true  personal 
agency.  The  result  will  give  us  the  rational  suspension  of  choice, 
not  as  choice,  but  as  immediately  from  rational  agency  itself. 

The  contrary  assumption  is  that  the  suspension  of  all  voli- 
tion toward  the  end  of  any  motive-impulse  for  the  purpose  of 
reflection  and  judgment  upon  end  and  motive,  must  itself  be 
a  choice  and  from  some  motive  of  choice.  The  mental  action 
is  not  otherwise  possible.  Some  reason  operative  as  a  motive 
of  choice  is  necessary  to  its  rationality.  If  a  sufficient  motive 
reason  be  present  to  the  mind,  it  must  pause  and  reflect.  Such 
are  the  ready,  plausible  assertions  in  the  case.  Their  sense  is 
that  any  rational  deferment  of  elective  or  executive  volition, 
when  under  motive  influence,  with  all  the  intervening  rational 
action,  is  absolutely  dependent  upon  motive  and  necessarily 
determined  according  to  its  stronger  impulse. 

On  the  truth  of  this  assumption  the  mind,  when  under 
motive-impulse,  cannot  pause  and  reflect,  nor  take  account  of 
any  relative  fact  or  principle  which  might  influence  the  pend- 
ing volition,  except  another  motive  intervene  to  determine  the 
rational  action.     But  such  motive  must  be  assumed  to  arise 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  445 

Bpontaneously,  if  at  all.  No  intrinsic  power  of  immediate  sns- 
peneion  and  reflection  can  be  conceded  to  rational  agency 
because  it  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  alleged  dependence 
upon  motive.  There  can  be  no  delay  and  no  casting  about  for 
any  motive  or  reason  counter  to  the  present  inclination,  simply 
as  the  rational  action  of  the  personal  agent.  If  so  conditioned 
by  spontaneous  motive  influence,  why  should  he,  or  how 
can  he,  pause  and  reflect  whether  there  be  any  reason  against 
following  a  present  inclination,  except  some  motive  impulse 
spontaneously  arise  which  so  determines  his  mental  action  ? 

If  such  be  the  law  of  mental  action  in  this  case,  our  volitions 
are  not  in  any  true  sense  from  our  own  agency,  but  are  imme- 
diately determined  by  our  purely  spontaneous  motive  states. 
Indeed,  the  mind  is  no  longer  a  rational  agent,  because  with- 
out the  power  of  rational  action  from  itself.  The  fact  is  not 
other  because  some  spontaneous  motive-impulse,  opportunely 
arising,  may  determine  the  mind  to  pause,  or  even  turn  it 
away  to  reflection  and  the  apprehension  of  reasons  counter  to 
the  present  inclination.  There  is  still  wanting  the  essential 
power  of  rational  self-movement.  The  mind  cannot  act  from 
itself  as  a  rational  agent,  but  is  absolutely  conditioned  by  a  law 
of  spontaneous  motive  influence.  The  irrational  soul  of  an 
animal  is  not  more  dependent  upon  the  impulse  of  instinct  or 
passive  under  its  dominance.  That  the  mental  movemelit  de- 
termined by  the  spontaneous  motive  is  to  reflection  and  the 
apprehension  of  reasons  counter  to  the  present  motive-tend- 
ency brings  no  relief,  because  even  in  such  facts  the  mind  is 
none  the  less  dependent  upon  the  spontaneous  motive  or  pas- 
sive under  its  power.  This  is  the  fact  of  necessitation  in  the 
case,  and  the  fact  exclusive  of  a  true  rational  agency,  whatever 
the  mental  action  induced.  It  behooves  all  who  hold  such  a 
philosophy  to  explain  the  consistency  of  this  necessitation  with 
rational  agency,  or  how  it  is  that  an  agency  intrinsically  free — 
free  in  the  power  of  rational  self-action — can  be  rationally 
active  only  through  the  determination  of  purely  spontaneous 
motive.    But  this  explanation  never  can  be  given. 

Thus  a  proper  rational  agency  is  excluded.  There  is  some- 
thing far  higher  and  other  in  this  agency  than  is  possible  under 
a  law  of  absolute  dependence  upon  purely  spontaneous  motive. 
It  consists  in  an  intrinsic  power  of  immediate  self-movement, 


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446  Methodist  Quarterly  Remew,  [July, 

a  power  to  pause  and  reflect  when  under  the  impulse  of  mo- 
tive, a  power  whereby  the  mind  may  turn  itself  to  such  facts 
or  principles  as  may  concern  the  present  inclination,  or  call 
them  up  and  hold  them  under  deliberation.  For  all  this 
there  is  required  no  other  power  or  reason  than  what  is  ever 
at  the  command  of  a  rational  agent,  so  long  as  his  proper 
agency  remains.  But  the  law  of  an  absolute  dependence  upon 
spontaneous  motive-impulse  for  any  reflection  or  judgment 
while  under  that  impulse  utterly  precludes  this  power,  and 
leaves  the  mind  to  be  driven  helplessly  onward  in  an  endless 
succession  of  motive  states,  while  its  volitions  are  as  determin- 
ately  swayed  by  these  spontaneous  impulses  as  are  the  orbital 
movements  of  the  planets  by  the  forces  of  gravitation.  We 
have  no  power  over  our  motive  states  or  motives  in  their 
higher  sense ;  no  power  against  them,  or  to  modify  them,  or  to 
replace  one  with  another,  and,  therefore,  no  power  to  avoid  or 
in  the  least  modify  any  volition  which  they  may  induce.  The 
concession  of  such  a  power  would  be  a  surrender  of  the  whole 
assumption  of  our  dependence  upon  spontaneous  motive  influ- 
ence. But  if  we  have  not  this  power  we  have  no  true  rational 
agency.  It  is  really  and  utterly  excluded.  Now  any  position 
which,  either  by  assertion  or  logical  consequence,  denies  to 
personal  mind  a  true  rational  agency,  or  any  power  necessary 
to  it,' must  be  a  false  position.  Hence  rational  agency  is,  and 
must  be,  independent  of  spontaneous  motive  for  its  rational 
action  when  under  motive  influence. 

The  rational  deferment  of  all  volition  toward  the  motive 
end  when  under  motive-impulse  is,  as  previously  stated,  for 
the  purpose  of  reflection  and  judgment  upon  impulse  and  end, 
that  the  action  in  the  case  may  be  judicious  or  wise.  It  is  the 
proper  course  for  an  agent  rationally  constituted  and  responsi- 
ble for  his  volitions.  Often  the  instant  application  of  a  prin- 
ciple previously  settled  may  answer  for  the  law  of  rational 
conduct.  In  many  cases  the  proper  action  may  be  intuitively 
or  instantly  clear.  But  when  it  is  not  clear,  as  often  it  is  not, 
our  conduct  is  rational  only  as  we  take  time  and  give  the  ques- 
tion such  reflection  as  may  be  requisite  to  a  proper  judgment. 

This  deferment  is  not  choice.  The  mental  action  is  not  the 
same  in  the  two  cases.  The  question  may  be  appealed  to  con- 
sciousness or  tested  by  the  most  searching  analysis  of  all  the 


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188L]  The  FreecUmi  of  Choice.  447 

mental  facts  concerned,  and  the  result  will  verify  our  position, 
Cihoice  has  its  own  mental  form,  well-known  in  consciousness, 
but  really  known  only  there.  Simply  as  an  elective  volition  it 
is  the  act  of  an  instant.  The  pre-elective  rational  action  is  of 
the  choice  simply  as  the  prerequisite  of  its  rational  quality. 
Tet  the  relation  is  vital  to  choice  itself.  "We  hold  this  view 
of  choice ;  while  the  theory  on  which  the  single  or  stronger 
motive  impulse  must  immediately  determine  the  volitional 
result  cannot  hold  it,  because  it  would  thereby  concede  all  the 
power  and  requirement  of  rational  agency  which  we  maintain. 
But  in  no  sense  does  our  view  identify  the  rational  deferment 
of  choice  with  the  elective  volition  as  mental  acts.  They  are 
not  the  same.  In  the  light  of  consciousness  they  are  distinct 
and  different.  Hence  the  rational  deferment  of  choice  has  not 
the  same  relation  to  motive  as  choice  itself.  It  is  not  from  an 
elective  motive,  nor  dependent  upon  it,  but  is  from  an  imma- 
nent power  of  rational  self-action  in  personal  agency. 

Motive,  in  its  higher  and  truer  sense,  is  the  reason  for  choice, 
but  it  is  a  specific  kind  of  reason,  because  both  motive  and  choice 
are  specific  mental  facts.  Motives,  however  diverse,  are  aU  one 
in  kind,  and  operative  in  one  mode.  They  all  exist  in  a  form 
of  conscious  interest  in  some  end,  and  as  a  rational  inducement 
toward  its  choice.  They  are  motives  because  such  an  induce- 
ment. Thus  the  motive  of  choice  is  a  specific  mental  state, 
and  operative  toward  a  specific  mental  act  in  the  election  of  a 
definite  end.  Now  consciousness,  however  searchingly  ques 
tioned,  will  ever  deny  that  such  a  motive  is  either  the  actual 
or  the  necessary  inducement  of  that  rational  action  which  must 
precede  choice  as  the  prerequisite  of  its  rational  quality. 

Consciousness  is  witness  to  the  fact  that  this  pre-elective 
rational  action  is  immediately  from  the  rational  agency  itself. 
The  power  so  to  act  is  intrinsic  and  necessary  to  this  agency. 
It  is  an  ever-usable  power,  so  long  as  a  true  rational  agency 
remains.  Hence  this  agency  may  ever  find  in  itself  the  spring 
of  rational  action.  A  power  to  pause  and  reflect  when  brought 
under  motive  influence,  and  before  our  important  volitions  or 
choices  is  the  essential  power  of  rational  agency.  We  assert 
only  the  same  truth  when  we  affirm  that  a  rational  agent  can 
act  rationally.  With  this  true  and  simple  statement  our  posi- 
tion scarcely  requires  illustration  or  proof.     For  to  admit  the 


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448  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [July, 

reality  of  rational  agency,  and  then  deny  it«  necessary  power,  is 
a  contradiction.  Who  would  attempt  a  philosophy  of  choice 
or  pretend  to  build  up  a  doctrine  of  responsible  freedom  on  the 
denial  of  a  true  rational  agency  to  the  mind  ?  But  with  the 
admission  of  this  agency,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  mind 
can  act  rationally.  Hence  it  must  be  independent  of  specific 
motive  states,  and  have  the  power  of  rational  action  imme- 
diately from  itself. 

Objections  may  be  urged  against  the  reality  of  this  power  in 
view  of  the  blindness  of  ignorance,  the  perversion  of  errer, 
the  enervation  of  vice,  the  thralldom  of  evil  habit ;  but  these 
are  incidental  questions  or  side  issues,  which  in  no  sense  antag- 
onize our  position.  There  are  such  instances,  as  many  facts 
witness.  Hence  it  is  clear  that  rational  agency  may  be  greatly 
enfeebled,  or,  possibly,  entirely  overborne  by  the  force  of  evil 
habit  and  vicious  tendency.  But  this  does  not  affect  our  posi- 
tion, for  it  is  aflBrmed  of  a  true  rational  agency,  and  not  of  a 
mind  in  such  a  state  of  thralldom  from  a  wrong  use  of  its  pow- 
ers, that  its  proper  agency  no  longer  remains. 

There  are  results  of  benefit  to  freedom^  from  proper  rational 
and  moral  conduct,  as  well  as  results  of  evil  from  wrong  conduct. 
By  a  right  use  of  the  powers  of  our  personal  agency — a  use  just 
according  to  its  constitution  and  our  own  obligation — we  may 
reach  the  highest  measure  of  seH-command  and  moral  freedom. 

We  are  not  constantly  in  some  special  motive  state  or  under 
some  strong  motive  impulse,  urgent  for  the  volition  which  will 
carry  us  to  its  end.  Kor  is  such  a  motive  state  either  the  limit 
of  our  rational  agency  or  its  highest  sphere.  In  the  hours  of 
freedom  from  these  special  motive  states  this  agency  remains, 
with  the  power  of  reflection  upon  the  laws  and  duties  of  life. 
In  these  hours  of  mental  quietude  and  self-command,  duty  in 
all  its  relations  and  requirements  may  be  calmly  considered 
and  rules  of  right  conduct  settled.  We  may  thus  give  to  the 
purpose  of  a  reflective  and  upright  life  the  strength  and  per- 
sistence of  habit.  We  may  so  make  it  a  law  of  life  always  to 
pause  and  reflect  imder  any  doubtful  solicitation,  that  this  law 
shall  become  an  immanent  state  of  our  mind.  It  will  thus  be 
easy  for  us,  even  when  suddenly  brought  under  strong  motive 
impulse  or  temptation,  to  pause  and  reflect,  and  so  take  to  our- 
selves strength  from  the  weightiest  reasons  against  the  wrong 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  449 

doing  to  which  we  may  be  solicited.  "We  need  no  elective 
motive  for  so  doing ;  we  need  only  the  power  which  is  intrin- 
sic to  rational  agency.  Nor  is  the  action  through  choice  in 
any  strict  sense. 

Thus  the  proper  rational  action  when  under  motive-impulse, 
the  reflection  and  judgment  upon  end  and  impulse  which 
should  precede  any  volition  toward  the  end,  and  must  precede 
it  if  life  is  to  be  conducted  rationally,  is  from  an  immediate 
power  of  rational  self-action  in  rational  agency.  The  denial  of 
this  power  is  the  denial  of  rational  agency  itself.  Logically, 
the  consequence  must  be  a  helpless  passivity  of  life  under  an 
absolute  law  of  purely  spontaneous  motive-impulse. 

PowEB  ovEB  Motives. 

"With  an  immediate  power  of  rational  agency  to  postpone 
all  volition  toward  any  motive  end,  and  to  take  end  and  mo- 
tive with  relative  practical  facts  and  principles  under  reflection 
and  judgment,  we  have  power  over  our  motives.  Power  over 
motives  is  power  over  choices.  Power  over  choices  is  true  free- 
dom in  choice. 

An  analytic  presentation  of  the  laws  and  facts  of  mind  with 
which  this  power  of  personal  agency  is  vitally  concerned  will 
evince  the  reality  of  the  power  itself,  and  also  conclude  its 
sufficiency  as  a  law  of  freedom  in  choice.  It  is  proper,  there- 
fore, to  treat,  severally  and  in  order,  motive  states  of  mind, 
laws  of  motive  states,  power  over  laws  of  motive  states,  power 
over  motive  states  and  motives. 

There  is  a  distinction  between  motive  states,  simply  as  such,, 
and  motives  in  their  higher  sense  or  as  the  condition  of  choice. 
The  former  may  be  simply  a  spontaneous  appetence  or  im- 
pulse, while  the  latter  must  combine  with  some  form  of  con- 
scious interest  a  rational  element  as  its  proper  eligible  quality. 
This  distinction,  however,  need  not  be  formally  maintained  in 
the  present  point  of  discussion,  for  the  laws  and  facts  con- 
cerned are  the  same  for  both. 

Any  form  of  conscious  interest  operative  as  an  incentive 
toward  any  volition  in  order  to  the  attainment  of  an  end  is  a 
motive  state.  The  fact  is  the  same  whether  the  conscious 
interest  arises  from  any  one  of  our  manifold  sensibilities,  or  in 
the  rational  or  moral  part  of  our  nature.    There  is  no  motive 


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450  Methodist  QiLaHerly  Review.  [July, 

state  without  some  form  of  conscionB  interest  in  the  attainment 
of  some  object  or  end. 

There  are  certain  laws  of  motive  states.  The  same  laws  are 
common  to  all  these  states.  Their  place  and  value  in  the  ques- 
tion of  f  i^eedom  will  appear  as  we  proceed  with  the  discussion. 

Motive  states  of  mind  are  under  a  law  of  objective  relation. 
They  can  take  no  practical  form  necessary  to  a  motive  quality 
except  on  the  cognitive  view  of  their  object  or  end.  There 
is  a  law  of  objective  relation  common  to  all  forms  of  mental 
activity.  In  all  thinking  there  must  be  a  thought-object, 
some  fact  of  the  mind  itself,  or  something  extraneous  to  it. 
In  the  profoundest  abstraction  there  is  something  objective  to 
thought,  without  which  the  mental  process  would  be  impossi- 
ble. In  the  purest  conceptualism,  as  against  realism,  there  is 
objectivity  to  the  conception,  and  as  necessary  to  the  concept! ve 
state,  as  an  external  object  to  the  perception  of  vision.  In  the 
most  transcendental  intuitions,  in  the  sublimest  creations  of 
the  imagination,  in  the  most  airy  soarings  of  fancy,  in  the 
dreamiest  revery,  there  is  ever,  and  there  must  ever  be,  some- 
thing objective  to  thought. 

Such  also  is  the  law  of  facts  in  our  appetent  or  affectional 
nature.  There  are  purely  spontaneous  appetences.  They 
spring  from  our  constitution,  and  would  spring  all  the  same  were 
we  without  any  notion  of  objects  which  might  satisfy  them. 
But  in  this  case  they  could  not,  in  any  proper  sense,  be  motive 
states  of  mind,  because  without  tendency  toward  any  volition 
or  deed  in  order  to  their  satisfaction.  Such  a  tendency  is 
impossible  without  the  notion  of  something  satisfying.  The 
same  law  applies  to  truths  or  conceptions  of  the  reason,  whether 
philosophic,  moral,  or  religious.  Such  truths,  however  ideal 
or  impersonal  as  conceived,  are  often  truths  of  the  profoundest 
conscious  interest  and  the  most  forceful  practical  tendency, 
but  only  with  notion  of  some  end  to  be  achieved.  All  ob- 
jective motivity  is  powerless  over  the  subjective  in  any  practi- 
cal sense,  except  as  in  mental  conception  and  with  the  notion 
of  a  practical  end.     Such  is  one  law  of  motive  states  of  mind. 

Motive  states  are  spontaneous  on  their  proper  objective 
relation.  "With  a  subjective  and  objective  motivity  in  correla- 
tion, then  on  the  perception  or  conception  of  the  motive  object 
the  result  is  a  spontaneous  impulse  or  tendency  toward  some 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  451 

volition  or  deed  answering  to  the  motive  state.  Thus  the 
sense  of  hunger  and  thirst,  with  the  notion  of  food  and  water, 
immediately  tends  toward  eating  and  drinking.  The  sense  of 
moral  obligation  and  responsibility,  with  the  notion  of  some 
deed  required  as  a  duty,  becomes  a  motive-impulse  toward 
its  performance.  The  principle  is  the  same  in  all  forms  of 
conscious  interest  in  motive  ends,  whether  of  the  sensibilities 
or  the  reason.  Thus,  motive  states  spontaneously  arise  and 
remain  with  the  proper  conception  of  their  objects  or*  ends. 
There  is  no  immediate  will  power  either  to  prevent  or  repress 
them.  They  are  necessary  facts  under  their  own  law.  This 
is  no  concession  to  the  theory  of  the  domination  of  motive 
over  volition  or  choice.  If  any  would  so  claim  it  he  is  most 
welcome.  Our  position  is  not  broadly  that  we  have  no 
volitional  power  over  these  motive  states,  either  to  prevent  or 
repress  or  change  them,  but  qualifiedly  that  we  have  no  such 
immediate  volitional  power.  This  is  because  they  are  spon- 
taneous and  necessary  states  under  their  own  law.  That  they 
are  such  will  be  found  wholly  to  the  advantage  of  a  true 
freedom  in  choice.  The  advantage  is  in  the  fact  that,  because 
motive  states  are  such,  we  have  mediately  volitional  power 
over  them,  and  all  the  power  requisite  to  the  ti'uest  freedom. 

The  third  law  of  motive  states  is  not  so  much  a  distinct  law 
as  a  special  fact  of  such  states  consequent  to  the  first  law.  If 
motive  states  are  under  a  law  of  objective  relation,  and  possible 
only  on  the  mental  conception  of  their  proper  object  or  end, 
then  by  consequence  they  must  terminate  with  this  condition- 
ing relation.  So  soon  as  the  motive  object  or  end  of  these 
states,  only  on  the  conception  of  which  they  can  arise  and  exist, 
is  dismissed  from  thought,  they  must  cease  to  have  any  motive 
quality  or  tendency.  Such  are  the  laws  of  motive  states  of 
mind.  Motives,  in  the  higher,  truer  sense  of  motives,  are  under 
the  same  laws. 

We  have  power  over  the  laws  of  motive  states.  This  is  the 
third  principle  or  fact  in  which  we  ground  the  power  over 
motives.  If  motive  states  are  under  such  laws  of  objective 
relation,  and  we  have  power  over  these  laws,  then  we  must 
have  power  over  the  motive  states.  Also,  a  power  over  motive 
states  must  be  a  power  over  motives  in  the  higher,  truer  sense 
of  motive,  because  both  are  under  the  same  laws. 


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452  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [July, 

Power  over  the  laws  of  motive  states  is  simply  power  over 
the  practical  relation  of  the  mind  to  motive  objects.  These 
laws  are  conditioned  by  this  relation.  If  a  present  motive 
object  must,  of  its  own  nature  and  force,  so  occupy  the  mind 
and  fix  the  attention,  that  we  can  neither  dismiss  it  nor  call 
into  thought  and  reflection  any  other,  we  have  no  power  to 
determine  the  relation  of  our  mind  to  such  objects.  But  if 
we  can  dismiss  a  present  motive  object,  or  replace  it  in  the 
mind  with  another,  or  call  another  into  thought  and  reflection, 
then  the  power  is  real  and  sufficient.  Have  we  such  a  power  ? 
This  is  really  the  question,  whether,  as  rational  agents,  we 
have  power  to  use  our  mental  faculties  according  to  their  own 
nature  and  office?  But,  as  correctly  so  stated,  the  question 
determines  for  itself  an  affirmative  answer. 

Eational  agency  requires  a  certain  complex  of  usable  facul- 
ties. There  must  be  a  synthesis  of  rational  intelligence,  and 
sensibility  and  wilL  Of  course  there  can  be  no  rational  agency 
without  rational  intelligence.  Sensibility,  as  applicable  to  man 
in  its  lower  sense,,  is  not  a  necessity  to  rational  agency.  There 
must,  however,  be  an  emotional  nature  or  a  capacity  for  con- 
scious interest  in  the  ends  of  volition  or  choice.  There  is  no 
eligibility  to  any  being  in  the  universe  without  some  form  of 
such  interest.  Nor  could  there  be  any  rational  voluntary 
action.  All  possible  action  would  be  purely  spontaneous  or 
automatic.  Neither  angel  or  archangel,  however  removed 
from  the  lower  forms  of  human  sensibility,  nor  even  God 
himseK,  could  be  a  rational  agent  without  a  capacity  for  con- 
scious interest  in  the  ends  of  volition  or  choice.  There  must 
be  such  an  interest  if  only  in  the  purest  philosophic  or  moral 
reason.  Of  course  there  must  bg  a  will  faculty,  without  which 
there  is  no  proper  agency,  much  less  rational  agency.  A  rational 
agent  is  such  by  virtue  of  this  trifold  syntliesis  of  attributes. 

Man  is  a  rational  agent  with  these  three  forms  of  attribute. 
But  the  intelligence  is  not  the  agent ;  the  sensibility  or  emo- 
tional nature  is  not  the  agent ;  the  will  is  not  the  agent. 
Man  himself,  as  so  constituted,  is  the  agent.  He  is  a  rational 
agent  because  with  such  faculties  he  can  act  rationally.  "While 
a  rational  agent  only  by  virtue  of  these  faculties,  yet  is  he 
above  them  with  power  to  use  them.  They  have  in  relation 
to  him  an  instrumental  quality  and  function,  and  he  can  use 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice,  453 

them  ior  their  appropriate  ends,  just  as  he  might  use  any  vol- 
untary bodily  organ  or  any  implement  or  tool.  Mental  facul- 
ties, in  the  very  nature  and  definition  of  them,  are  usable  facul- 
ties. Without  the  power  of  using  them  the  proper  notion  of 
rational  agency  is  utterly  eliminated. 

The  will,  as  a  usable  faculty,  is  most  proximate  to  the  agent, 
and  is  immediately  at  his  command.  This  does  not  imply  an 
absolute  power  of  volition  any  more  than  my  voluntary  use  of 
a  pen  in  this. writing  implies  an  absolute  will  power  over  it. 
Volition,  in  the  lowest  sense,  is  conditioned  by  some  spontane- 
ous mental  state ;  as  merely  for  the  attainment  of  the  end  of 
some  appetence  or  impulse  by  the  notion  of  the  end ;  as  elect- 
ive, by  the  apprehensipn  of  the  reason  for  the  choice.  But 
nothing  so  conditioning  volition  is  inconsistent  with  an  imme- 
diate power  of  the  agent  over  the  will  faculty.  On  the  proper 
occasion  he  may  so  use  it,  and  through  volition  control  or  use 
whatever  is  subject  to  him  as  an  agent. 

Thus  he  may  use  his  intellectual  faculties.  Thinking  is  oft- 
en spontaneous,  or,  at  least,  not  consciously  voluntary.  It  is 
none  the  less  true  that  through  the  will  we  have  the  voluntary 
control  of  our  mental  faculties  and  may  freely  use  them  ac- 
cording to  their  own  nature  and  office.  Thus  we  may  select 
the  subject  of  thought  and  give  it  conscious  attention  and  pro- 
found study.  "We  may  dismiss  one  subject  and  take  up  anoth- 
er. Every  rational  agent  can  do  this.  Every  one  who  con- 
ducts life  rationally  must  do  it.  The  question  of  this  power 
may  be  appealed  to  the  facts  of  consciousness  and  they  will 
verify  its  reality.  The  achievements  of  rational  thought  con- 
clude the  case.  There  are  only  two  modes  of  mental  activity: 
one  spontaneous,  the  other  by  intentional  origination  and  direc- 
tion. Will  the  former  answer  for  a  philosophy  of  thought,  as 
unfolded  in  human  history  ?  Is  not  the  latter  a  necessity  to 
that  philosophy?  Whence  the  civilizations  of  the  race? 
Whence  the  facts  of  the  higher  civilizations,  the  arts  and  in- 
ventions, the  sciences  and  philosophies,  the  literatures,  the  high 
achievements  in  the  spheres  of  aesthetic  art,  the  masterly  states- 
manship ?  Not  from  spontaneous  mental  revery,  but  from  the 
rational  use  of  mental  faculties.  These  marvelous  achieve- 
ments were  possible  only  as  rational  agents  had  the  power  of 
volitionally  originating  and  rationally  directing  their  mental 

FouBTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXm.— 80 

Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


4:54  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [Jtdy, 

activities.  This  includes  the  power  of  determining  the  fac- 
nlties  to  any  particular  subject  of  thought. 

With  such  a  power  in  the  use  of  mental  faculties,  we  can  di- 
rect attention  and  thought  to  one  object  or  another,  or  dismiss 
one  and  call  up  another,  or  replace  one  with  another.  Thus 
we  can  determine  the  relation  of  our  mind  to  motive  objects ; 
whether  a  present  object  shall  hold  its  place  and  engage  the  en- 
tire attention,  or  what  other  shall  come  into  attention  with  it  or 
entirely  replace  it ;  whether  one  object  or  another  shall  be  in 
the  mental  apprehension,  with  its  immediate  power  over  the 
subjective  motivity.  But  in  these  very  relations  are  the  laws 
of  our  motive  states.  Hence,  power  over  these  relations  is 
power  over  the  laws  of  motive  states,  and,  therefore,  over 
these  states.  With  a  motive  object  in  conception  there  is  a 
spontaneous  motive  state  in  correlation  to  it ;  with  a  dismission 
of  the  object  from  thought,  a  termination  of  the  motive  state ; 
with  its  replacement  by  a  different  motive  object,  a  change  in 
motive  state.  Thus,  with  power  over  the  relations  of  our  mind 
to  motive  objects,  we  can  determine  our  own  motive  states. 
The  result  is  just  according  to  the  laws  of  these  states.  Such 
a  power  we  have,  however  metaphysical  speculation  and  sub- 
tlety may  seek  or  even  seem  to  obscure  it.  The  power  itself 
is  intrinsic  to  rational  agency,  original  and  simple,  i|idefinable 
and  inexplicable,  yet  none  the  less  real  and  manifest. 

Any  one  may  readily  test  and  verify  the  reality  of  this 
power.  Some  motive  object  comes  into  your  perception  or 
mental  conception.  It  matters  not  how  it  comes,  but  only  that 
it  is  there.  Being  there,  it  moves  upon  the  correlate  appe- 
tence, or  affection,  and  draws  you  into  a  motive  state.  This 
state,  spontaneously  arising  under  its  own  law,  is  itself  a  ten- 
dency toward  some  volition  or  deed  for  the  attainment  of  the 
motive  object,  or  the  satisfaction  of  the  appetence  or  affection 
which  it  has  awakened.  No  law  of  your  mind  binds  you  to 
this  motive  state  or  to  any  volition  or  deed  toward  which  it 
may  tend.  Tou  can  separate  yourself  from  the  motive  object 
or  dismiss  it  from  thought,  and  thus  put  it  out  of  the  relation 
to  your  mind  which  is  necessary  to  its  motive  influence,  or  you 
can  take  into  thought  and  reflection  some  fact  or  truth  of 
counter  motive  influence,  and  the  former  will  yield  to  the 
latter.    You  may  suddenly  become  the  subject  of  a  sponta- 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  465 

neous  impulse  or  tendency  which  yon  would  not  follow.  Your 
state  of  mind  against  it  may  be  simply  a  cool  judgment,  while 
the  motive  state  is  full  of  iiery  impulse.  But  however  intense 
the  impulse  or  cool  the  judgment,  you  can  take  time  to  reflect. 
This  you  can  do  as  a  rational  and  responsible  agent.  Then  you 
can  summon  into  thought  and  conscience  the  weighty  reasons 
of  prudence  and  piety  against  the  indulgence  of  the  present 
motive  tendency.  These  reasons,  so  apprehended  and  medi- 
tated, will  give  you  a  counter  motive  state.  This  state  may 
have  far  less  intensity  than  the  former,  and  yet  be  infinitely 
stronger  in  the  motives  of  reason  and  conscience — ^infinitely 
the  stronger,  not  only  intrinsically  or  potentially,  but  as  real- 
ized in  experience.  You  are  called  to  some  duty.  Your  men- 
tal apprehension  of  it  may  be  wanting  in  clearness  and  vigor, 
while  there  is  but  slight  response  of  moral  feeling.  Other  feel- 
ings may  be  strongly  adverse.  In  this  state  you  can  take  time 
and  call  into  meditation  the  weighty  reasons  of  obligation  and 
spiritual  well-being  which  urge  the  duty.  These  reasons,  so 
meditated,  will  bring  the  responsive  disposition. 

Thus  have  we  power  over  the  laws  of  motive  states,  and, 
hence,  over  these  states.  It  is  the  necessary  power  of  rational 
agency.  Mere  intellectual  faculties,  however  great,  cannot 
constitute  this  agency.  Our  own  faculties  might  be  lifted  to  a 
vastly  higher  degree,  or  even  to  that  of  the  divine,  were  it 
possible,  and  still  we  would  not  be  rational  agents.  There 
must  be  a  power  of  rationally  using  these  faculties.  This  is  a 
power  over  the  laws  of  motive  states  and  over  these  states. 
Thus  one  can  produce  a  motive  state  where  he  needs  it,  and 
restrain  or  replace  another  where  he  should  be  free  from  it. 

"We  thus  have  power  over  motives.  As  motive  is  something 
more  than  a  mere  spontaneous  appetence  or  impulse,  and  in- 
cludes a  rational  element,  power  over  motives  is  more  than 
power  over  mere  motive  states.  Yet  the  laws  are  the  same  in 
the  two  cases.  Both  classes  are  spontaneous  under  the  same 
law  of  objective  relation.  This  relation  is  determined  for  both 
simply  by  taking  the  motive  object  into  proper  mental  appre- 
hension. As  we  thus  apprehend  a  rational  or  moral  motive 
object  we  realize  in  experience  a  rational  or  moral  motive. 
Through  these  higher  and  more  imperative  motives  we  have 
power  over  the  lower  appetites  and  desires.    We  are  free,  or 


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456  Methodist  QaaHerly  JSeview.  [July, 

have  the  power  of  freedom,  from  a  dominating  law  of  sponta- 
neous appetence  or  impulsive  passion.  A  far  higher  and  better 
life  mnst  be  within  our  power  as  rational  and  moral  agents. 

If  without  power  over  motive  states,  and  over  motives  as 
requisite  to  the  choice  of  the  rational  and  the  good,  our  life 
must  be  spontaneous  and  flow  with  the  current  of  our  lower 
tendencies;  while  with  this  power  we  may  subject  it  to  ra- 
tional and  moral  control.  Over  the  impulsions  of  appetite  and 
passion  we  may  enthrone  the  rational  and  the  moral  How 
this  may  be  done  has  already  been  explained.  "We  are  not 
helplessly  passive  under  any  one  spontaneous  impulse,  or  any 
stronger  or  strongest  impulse  in  the  coincidence  of  two  or  more 
of  diverse. tendency.  "We  have  no  immediate  power  of  volition 
to  prevent  or  repress  such  a  motive  state ;  but  we  have  imme- 
diate power  to  defer  any  volition  or  deed  toward  its  end.  Then 
through  reflection  and  judgment  we  may  realize  the  motives  of 
reason  and  conscience,  and  direct  our  life  from  them. 

Is  this  power  ever  used?  So  it  may  be  asked  in  ob- 
jection. We  have  previously  recognized  the  fact  of  a  widely 
prevalent  omission  of  this  use.  The  question,  however,  or 
the  objection  which  it  clothes,  is  irrelevant.  For  the  pres- 
ent we  are  simply  maintaining  the  reality  of  this  power, 
not  its  use.  But,  as  a  question  of  fact,  it  has  been  used, 
and  in  instances  innumerable.  If  once  used,  it  is  a  com- 
mon usable  power  of  personal  agency.  If  never  used,  then 
never  in  all  the  history  of  the  ages  has  any  man  in  a  single  in- 
stance rationally  determined  his  own  conduct.  Such  is  the 
logical  consequence,  and  even  the  formal  assumption  of  that 
irrelevant  objection  to  our  doctrine  of  rational  agency.  There 
is  no  need  of  further  refutation  or  reply ;  else  we  might  again 
array  the  great  facts  of  civilization,  as  practicable  only  through 
a  rational  use  of  the  faculties  of  a  proper  personal  agency,  and 
the  many  instances  of  rational  and  moral  self-direction  and  con- 
trol in  the  formation  of  great  and  good  lives,  as  forever  conclud- 
ing the  reality  of  this  power,  and  also  the  fact  of  its  very  fre- 
quent use. 

Sufficient  Motives  fob  Kequieed  Choices. 

Many  things  have  for  us  no  eligibility.  The  fact  does  not 
concern  our  freedom,  because  we  are  not  required  to  choose 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  457 

them.  For  required  choices  there  must  be  sufficient  motives. 
"We  cannot  otherwise  have  true  freedom.  This  is  consequent 
to  the  rational  nature  of  choice.  We  choose  for  a  motive 
rationally  apprehended.  When  the  requisite  motive  is  not 
present  to  the  mind,  or  within  its  power  to  command,  there  is 
no  proper  sphere  of  choice.  With  alternative  ends  of  equal 
interest  simply  to  the  sensibilities,  we  may  decide  for  either  or 
against  both,  but  by  an  arbitrary  volition,  not  a  choice.  If  we 
may  combine  with  either  a  rational  element,  or  a  higher  ra- 
tional element  with  the  one  than  with  the  other,  then  may  we 
choose  it.  If  against  Ae  impulses  of  the  sensibilities  or  the 
motives  of  secular  interest  we  may  command  a  motive  of  duty, 
then  may  we  choose  the  end  of  this  motive.  Hence  the  law  of 
freedom  is  this :  for  the  required  choices  of  prudence  and  duty 
we  may  command  the  proper  motives  of  choice.  The  princi- 
ples of  this  law  have  already  come  into  the  discussion ;  most 
of  them  sufficiently  so.  Therefore  we  further  require  little 
more  than  their  proper  application.  Yet  a  present  analytic 
statement  of  the  cardinal  facts  of  the  question  will  be  helpful 
to  clearness  of  view.  The  law  of  freedom,  as  given,  requires, 
1.  Objective  motives  of  proper  eligibility  for  the  required 
choices  of  prudence  and  duty;  2.  A  subjective  motivity  to 
their  influence,  as  necessary  to  the  actual  motives  of  choice ; 
8.  A  power  of  personal  agency  to  place  the  mind  in  such  cog- 
nitive relation  to  the  objective  motives,  that  we  may  realize  in 
experience  the  actual  motives  to  the  choice  of  their  ends. 

The  reality  of  the  requisite  objective  motives  of  proper 
eligible  quality  none  will  question.  A  life  conducted  with 
prudence  or  reason  is,  with  all  who  think,  far  higher  and  bet- 
ter than  a  life  determined  by  spontaneous  appetence  or  pas- 
sion. Duty  asserts  its  own  superiority  of  excellence  and 
authority.  These  facts  more  than  concede  the  requisite  objec- 
tive motives. 

Subjective  capacity  for  rational  motives.  A  capacity  for  the 
rational  motives  of  life  will  scarcely  be  questioned.  It  can- 
not be  without  questioning  the  fact  of  rational  agency  itself. 
Agency,  in  whatever  grade,  must  have  every  capacity  or  facili- 
ty necessary  to  it.  We  are  rational  agents  only  as  we  have  the 
ability  to  conduct  life  rationally.  But,  as  previously  shown, 
life  can  be  so  conducted  only  as  it  is  chosen.    It  can  be  ration- 


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458  MeihodAst  Qaa/rterly  Review.  [July, 

ally  chosen  only  from  its  own  rational  motives.  These  motives 
are  such,  not  simply  as  objective,  but  only  as  realized  in  expe- 
rience. This  requires  something  more  than  a  mere  intellective 
conception  of  the  rational  ends  of  life.  It  is  still  true  that 
there  can  be  no  actual  motive  without  some  form  of  conscious 
interest  in  the  end  of  choice.  Hence  the  rational  ends  of  life, 
as  mentally  conceived,  must  be  realized  in  a  conscious  interest 
therein.  Only  with  this  interest  can  they  be  rationally  eligible. 
As  a  question  of  fact,  the  rational  ends  of  life  have  with  many 
minds  a  consciously  realized  eligibility.  One  instance  of  a  life 
rationally  conducted  must  conclude  the  subjective  capacity  for 
these  rational  motives.  There  are  innumerable  instances  of  the 
kind. 

Capacity  for  the  motives  of  morality  and  religion.  We  here 
reach  the  profoundest  issues  of  this  question.  It  is  here,  too, 
that  objections  will  be  most  strenuously  urged  against  our  posi- 
tion. "We  firmly  and  confidently  maintain  it.  There  must  be 
a  capacity  for  the  motives  of  moi'ality  and  religion,  else  there 
can  be  no  actual  motive  to  the  choice  of  either.  Without  the 
proper  motive  neither  can  be  chosen.  Without  the  choice 
neither  is  possible.  In  this  case  certain  rational  ends  of  life, 
as  below  the  moral  and  spiritual,  would  be  the  limit  of  our 
agency.  It  could  not  rise  into  the  moral  and  religious  sphere. 
No  agency  can  rise  a  grade  above  its  capabilities.  As  the 
agency  of  rational  mind  is  impossible  to  mere  animal  instinct, 
so  would  moral  and  religious  agency  be  impossible  to  man  if 
without  a  capacity  for  the  necessary  moral  and  religious  mo- 
tives. There  must  be  this  capacity,  either  as  native  or  gracious, 
else  we  cannot  be  under  obligation  to  the  choice  of  either.  As 
mere  animal  instinct  cannot  be  answerable  to  the  laws  of  a 
rational  life,  no  more  could  we  be  answerable  to  the  laws  of  a 
good  life  if  without  a  capacity  for  the  necessary  motives  to  its 
choice. 

We  are  not  immindful  of  the  relations  of  this  question  to 
Christian  theology.  It  is  easy  to  array  the  doctrine  of  a 
native  depravity  against  this  capacity  for  the  motives  of  moral- 
ity and  religion.  Both  are  truths,  and  without  either  contra- 
diction or  collision.  Neither  is  less  a  truth  for  the  reason  of 
the  other.  The  capacity  for  moral  and  religious  motive  is 
none  the  less  sufficient  for  a  proper  moral  and  religious  agency 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  459 

because  of  its  gracious  original.  It  is  a  gracious  endowment 
of  fallen  humanity  through  a  redemptive  economy. 

We  appeal  the  question  of  this  capacity  to  the  moral  facts  of 
human  history,  and  none  the  less  confidently  because  of  the 
prevalent  facts  of  moral  darkness,  stolidity,  and  vice.  The 
moral  life  of  humanity  is  double,  a  life  within  a  life.  "With 
all  the  facts  of  evil  there  are  the  more  widely  prevalent  facts 
which  evince  the  common  sense  of  moral  obligation  and  re- 
sponsibility and  the  common  appreciation  of  obedience  to 
the  duties  of  morality  and  religion  as  the  supreme  excel- 
lence and  wisdom  of  human  life.  These  facts  require,  as 
their  necessary  source,  a  subjective  state,  which  constitutes  a 
capacity  for  the  motives  of  morality  and  religion,  and  hence 
conclude  its  reality.  As  for  the  question  of  moral  freedom,  it 
is  indifferent  whether  the  source  of  this  capacity  be  native  or 
gracious.  For  the  consistency  of  Scripture  truth  it  must  have 
a  gracious  original. 

The  motives  of  morality  and  religion  are  the  paramount 
motives  of  human  life.  They  are  such,  not  only  in  intrinsic 
quality  and  as  objective  motives,  which  few  question  and  the 
moral  consciousness  of  humanity  affirms,  but  also  as  realizable 
in  experience.  Only  as  the  objective  motive  is  properly 
apprehended  in  the  consciousness  can  there  be  any  actual 
motive.  The  possibility  of  this  realization  lies  in  our  sub- 
jective motivity  to  the  paramount  motives  of  morality  and 
religion  as  previously  treated.  Hence,  in  the  realizations  of 
experience  the  good  may  have  for  us  the  highest  eligibility 
and  be  chosen  against  the  enticements  of  evil. 

Then  the  power  of  rational  and  moral  agency,  as  previously 
explained,  gives  us  the  command  of  these  paramount  motives 
of  life.  It  is  simply  the  power  of  placing  the  mind  in  practi- 
cal relation  to  the  great  truths  and  facts  which  embody  the 
motives  of  morality  and  religion.  We  can  determine  our  pro- 
found attention  to  these  great  questions  and  study  them  just  as 
we  do  in  the  case  of  secular  questions.  Our  moral  motivitles 
will  answer  to  these  great  motive  truths  and  facts  so  appre. 
hended  and  meditated.  Conscience  and  moral  reason  are,  at 
least,  potential  realities  with  every  one  yet  under  a  law  of  moral 
probation.  They  only  wait  for  the  proper  reflection  to  rise 
into  activities  of  a  profound  conscious  interest  in  the  ends 


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4:60  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Heview.  [July, 

whicli  they  concern.  In  these  activities  shall  thus  be  realized 
in  experience  the  paramount  motives  to  the  choice  of  the  good. 
Thus,  the  thoughtless  can  pause  and  reflect,  while  moral  duty 
and  the  interests  which  hinge  upon  it  shall  rise  upon  his  view 
as  of  all  things  the  most  imperative  and  impoiliant.  The 
worldly  mind  can  deeply  concern  itself  with  heavenly  things. 
The  sensual  can  apprehend  the  higher  and  diviner  law  of  tem- 
perance and  purity.  The  covetous  and  selfish  can  ponder  the 
law  of  charity  and  realize  its  imperative  claim.  The  hard  and 
cruel  can  yield  to  the  pathos  of  kindness  and  sympathy. 

This  is  no  doctrine  of  instantaneous  self-regeneration,  or  of 
self-regeneration  in  any  sense.  It  is  simply  the  law  under 
which  our  moral  agency  can  realize  the  paramount  eligibihty 
of  the  good.  The  power  of  this  agency,  especially  within  the 
moral  and  religious  sphere,  is  a  gracious  endowment.  Also 
the  divine  Spirit  is  ever  present  for  our  aid,  and  often  active 
as  a  light  in  the  moral  reason  and  a  quickening  force  in  the 
conscience.  Here  is  the  deeper  source  and  the  sufficient 
source  of  a  true  mpral  agency,  with  the  capacity  for  the  mo- 
tives of  duty.  The  prevalent  habits  of  evil  are  no  necessary 
result  of  an  impotence  of  the  moral  nature.  Nor  are  they 
consequent  simply  to  a  non-use  of  the  powers  of  moral  agency, 
but  often  and  mostly  even  from  a  persistent  resistance  to  the 
spontaneous  apprehensions  of  the  moral  reason  and  the  im- 
pulsions of  conscience,  especially  as  enlightened  and  quickened 
by  the  divine  Spirit.  These  facts  render  it  the  more  manifest 
that  through  the  proper  and  obligatory  use  of  the  powers  of 
our  moral  agency  we  can  realize  the  paramount  eligibility  of 
the  good  and  choose  it  against  the  evil. 

This  primary  choice  of  the  good  is  not  the  realization  of  a 
new  spiritual  life  in  regeneration,  but  is  only,  and  can  only  be, 
the  election  of  its  attainment.  The  choice  of  such  an  end 
and  its  attainment  are  clearly  separable  facts.  A  new  spiritual 
life  in  regeneration,  if  chosen  as  an  end,  still  has  its  own  law 
of  effectuation,  and  in  itself  must  be  entirely  from  the  divine 
Spirit.  The  sphere  of  synergism  lies  back  of  this,  where, 
through  the  help  of  graxse  and  a  proper  use  of  the  powers  of 
our  spiritual  agency,  we  may  choose  the  good ;  while  that  of 
the  divine  monergism  is  specially  in  the  work  of  moral  re- 
generation.    Here  the  doctrine  of  the  most  rigid  monergist 


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1881.]  The  Freedom  of  Choice.  461 

is  the  reality  of  truth  ;  while  synergism  within  its  own  sphere 
is  equally  the  reality  of  truth. 

Whoever,  by  private  entreaty  or  public  address,  seeks  to 
persuade  any  one  from  an  evil  to  a  good  life  must  assume  the 
very  law  of  freedom  which  we  here  maintain.  No  one  in 
such  an  endeavor  allows  the  plea  of  indiflference  or  moral 
insensibility,  or  the  dominance  of  propensities  to  the  evil,  or 
the  want  of  realized  motives  to  the  choice  of  the  good,  to  close 
the  case.  He  will  urge  any  and  all  such  to  pause  and  think, 
to  take  into  thought  and  reflection  the  profound  obligations 
and  interests  of  morality  and  religion,  on  the  apprehension  of 
which,  with  the  divine  help,  the  paramoimt  motives  to  the 
good  shall  be  realized  in  experience  when  the  good  can  be 
chosen  against  the  evil.  Every  earnest  moral  and  religious 
worker  does  this.  The  true  evangelistic  workers  of  the 
Christian  centuries,  and  without  respect  to  theological  creed, 
have  so  entreated  and  persuaded  the  thoughtless  and  vicious. 
Thus  prophets  and  apostles  and  the  Master  himself  entreated 
evil  men.  So  shall  we  continue  to  do.  It  is  all  groundless 
and  without  possible  result,  except  as  the  evil  have  a  capacity 
for  moral  and  religious  motives,  and  a  power  of  personal 
agency  whereby  they  may  so  place  their  minds  in  cognitive 
relation  to  the  good  that  it  shall  be  apprehended  in  the  moral 
reason  and  in  a  profound  conscious  interest  as  supremely 
eligible. 

Tbue  Fbeedom  of  Choice. 

This  is  the  doctrine  of  a  rational  and  a  real  freedom.  It 
rests  upon  no  false  ground,  and  is  constructed  with  no  irrele- 
vant or  irreconcilable  principles.  Every  vitally  related  fact  of 
,  psychology  and  personal  agency  has  its  proper  place  and  oflice. 

It  is  not  the  freedom  of  arbitrary  volition,  or  the  liberty  of 
indifference.  A  life  without  interest  in  its  chosen  ends  must 
be  utterly  forceless  and  useless.  Indeed,  it  could  have  no 
chosen  ends.  It  is  the  sheerest  assumption  that  either  the 
primary  choice  of  the  good  or  the  maintenance  of  a  good 
life  is  possible,  with  indifference  to  goodness  and  its  blessed- 
ness as  ends.  The  assumption  is  utterly  unphilosophic  and 
groundless.  The  theory  of  a  valid  and  responsible  freedom 
under  a  law  of  moral  inability  is  of  all  theories  the  most  irrar 


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462  MeihodA&t  Qv^oHerly  Review.  [July, 

tional.  It  requires  that  the  good  be  chosen,  not  only  without 
actual  motive,  but  also  against  the  dominance  of  inevitable 
counter  motive.  By  so  much  does  it  sink  below  the  liberty 
of  indifference  or  the  freedom  of  mere  arbitrary  volition. 

The  doctrine  here  maintained  is  clear  of  all  these  errors. 
Personal  agency  is  the  ground  truth.  This  agency  must  be  a 
reality,  else  there  can  be  no  place  for  the  question  of  freedom. 
If  a  reality,  it  must  have  all  requisite  faculties.  Then  free- 
dom should  no  longer  be  a  question  in  issue.  Its  denial  is  the 
equivalent  of  a  denial  of  personal  agency  in  man.  Rational 
agency  and  free  rational  agency  really  express  the  same  truth. 
Moral  agency  and  free  moral  agency  are  the  same.  For  re- 
quired choices  sufficient  motives  are  within  command.  This  is 
a  rational  freedom. 

It  is  not  the  freedom  of  moral  impotence,  impotence  in  the 
very  seat  of  the  necessary  potency.  It  is  the  freedom  of  per- 
sonal agency,  vrith  power  for  required  choices.  It  is  sufficient 
for  the  sphere  of  responsible  life.  Spontaneous  motive  states 
often  tend  toward  the  irrational  and  the  evil,  and  the  more 
strongly  in  many  instances  from  previous  vicious  indulgence. 
But  as  rational  and  moral  agents  we  have  power  against  them, 
a  gracious  power,  indeed,  through  the  paramount  motives  of 
prudence  and  wisdom  and  duty.  We  can  summon  into  thought 
and  reflection,  and  into  the  apprehension  of  conscience  and  the 
moral  reason,  all  the  counter  motives  of  obligation  and  spiritual 
well-being,  as  they  may  arise  in  the  view  of  God  and  re- 
demption and  the  eternal  destinies.  With  these  resources  of 
paramount  motive,  and  the  light  and  blessing  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  ever-gracious  and  helpful,  we  may  freely  choose  the 
good  against  the  evil.     This  is  the  reality  of  freedom  in  choice. 

Any  scheme  of  volitional  necessitation,  whether  of  theology, 
philosophy,  or  materialistic  evolution,  must  utterly  deny  the 
necessary  and  manifest  laws  and  facts  of  our  rational  and  moral 
agency. 


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1881.]    Oermwn  MeihoiUsm:  Its  Hopes  <md  Dcmgers.       463 


Abt.  IV.— our  GERMAN  METHODISM:  ITS  HOPES 
AND  DANGERS. 

OcxjAsioNALLY  the  assertioii  is  being  made  that  German  Meth- 
odism in  the  United  States  of  America  has  attained  its  growth 
both  as  to  numbers  and  efficaciousness,  that  the  rising  genera- 
tion is  becoming  more  and  more  Americanized  and  thereby 
drawn  from  her  embrace ;  and  that,  therefore,  this  part  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  must  necessarily  suffer  a  gradual 
decline  of  membership,  and  should  German  immigration  grow 
less  or  possibly  cease,  German  Methodism  would  eventually 
become  extinct. 

It  is  also  being  remarked  that  German  Methodism,  as  well 
as  the  whole  Church,  has  lost  much  spiritual  strength,  waxed 
cold  in  love,  and  is  less  zealous  and  less  successful  in  her  en- 
deavors to  save  immortal  souls  as  compared  with  twenty-five 
years  ago.  If  these  assertions  are  based  upon  irrefutable  facts, 
then  the  first  part  of  our  proposition,  "  the  hopes  of  German 
Methodism,"  is  of  no  avail,  and  a  lamentation  over  the  sorrow- 
ful facts  would  be  in  order  rather  than  an  attempt  to  dwell 
and  enlarge  upon  the  grand  work  God  has  been  and  is  doing 
through  the  instrumentality  of  German  Methodism  among  the 
Germans  of  our  country.  In  treating  a  subject  we  are  ever  to 
bear  in  mind  that  there  are  "  two  sides  to  the  question,"  and 
the  conclusion  depends  very  much  upon  the  aspect  from  which 
it  is  viewed.  He  who  looks  through  colored  glass  cannot 
behold  an  object  in  its  clear  light,  and  he  who  views  German 
Methodism  with  a  prepossessed  mind  or  from  a  nativistic  stand- 
point, cannot  expect  to  judge  soundly  of  the  same. 

Beyond  doubt  a  serious  error  occurred  in  the  administration 
of  the  affairs  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  the  close 
of  the  last  century  by  rejecting  Jacob  Albright,  as  missionary 
to  the  Germans  who  had  settled  in  this  country.  He  was 
converted  and  licensed  as  a  local  preacher  in  1790,  and  in  1796 
began  to  itinerate  among  his  people,  believing  that  he  was 
called  of  God  to  labor  in  their  interest  and  to  preach  in  the 
German  language.  He  labored  with  great  success.  Many 
were  converted  and  united  with  the  Church.  The  Discipline 
was  published  in  German,  and  the  foundation  laid  for  per- 


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464  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [July, 

manent  work  among  his  kinBmen.  Mr.  Albright  applied  to 
be  appointed  missionary  by  the  authorities  of  the  Church,  but 
the  objection  was  raised  that  preaching  must  be  in  English  in 
order  to  Americanize  the  German  population  coming  to  the 
shores  of  our  country.  Had  Mr.  Albright  been  appointed  to 
this  special  field  and  encouraged,  as  he  should  have  been,  what 
an  ample  harvest  would  have  been  prepared  for  the  reaping  of 
Dr.  Kast  and  others  1  Not  being  recognized  by  the  Church 
in  the  capacity  to  which  Mr.  Albright  felt  divinely  called,  he 
and  his  German  converts  were  constrained  to  withdraw  in  1807 
and  organize  an  independent  Conference,  which  has  grown  into 
an  excellent  and  prosperous  Church,  the  Evangelical  Association, 
numbering  at  present  over  one  hundred  thousand  members. 

Although  Mr.  Albright  and  his  followers  labored  with  such 
marked  success,  the  steady  increase  of  German  immigration  to 
the  United  States  arrested  the  attention  of  Christian  minds 
more  and  more.  The  religious  state  of  the  German  popula- 
tion was  deplorable  indeed.  The  menacing  growth  of  Roman- 
ism and  infidelity,  as  well  as  the  low  moral  condition  of  the 
nominally  Protestant  German  Churches,  caused  alarm.  Many 
of  them  were  without  any  synodical  relations,  served  by  irre- 
sponsible and  self-constituted  ministers,  who  roved  from  place 
to  pla<^,  and  were  in  many  instances  outspoken  rationalists. 
Even  many  of  the  Churches  in  regular  standing  in  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  Synods  were,  according  to  reliable  testimony,  sunken 
in  deep  spiritual  slumber.  Then  again,  there  were  many  German 
settlements  throughout  the  country  either  too  poor  or  too  in- 
diflFerent  to  connect  themselves  with  any  Church  organisation, 
living  from  year  to  year  without  any  religious  influences. 

In  the  year  1833  Messrs.  HoUiday  and  Wright,  the  Western 
Book  Agents,  earnestly  advocated  the  establishment  of  a  Ger- 
man mission  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  where  even  then,  as 
well  as  now,  every  third  man  was  a  German,  but  no  suitable 
maYi  could  be  found.  In  1834  Bishop  Emory,  impi-essed  with 
the  importance  of  such  a  work,  had  issued,  in  the  "  Western 
Christian  Advocate,"  a  call  for  a  minister  able  to  preach  in 
German  and  willing  to  enter  upon  such  a  mission.  Just  at 
this  time,  when  the  interest  of  the  Church  in  the  religious 
welfare  of  the  Germans  had  reached  its  highest  pitch.  Dr. 
William  Nast,  the  founder  of  German  Methodism,  was  glori- 


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1881J    Oermcm  Mdhodimi :  Its  Bopes  omd.  Dangers.       465 

ously  converted  to  God.  This  was  on  January  17,  1885.  In 
the  fall  of  the  same  year  he  was  appointed  by  the  Ohio  Con- 
ference, into  which  he  had  been  received  on  trial,  as  "  German 
missionary  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati." 

The  origin  and  growth  of  German  Methodism,  as  an  integral 
part  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  may  be  justly  pro- 
nounced as  marvelous  and  marked  by  the  most  providential 
circumstances.  Forty-five  years  ago,  as  we  have  seen,  there 
was  nothing  but  a  poor,  and,  as  some  thought,  hopeless  begin- 
ning at  Cincinnati  In  his  first  year  of  missionary  labor,  which 
was  performed  under  great  trials  and  difficulties,  Mr.  Nast  was 
permitted  to  count  three  clear  conversions,  one  of  them  being 
John  Zwahlen,  who  became  a  most  successful  Methodist 
preacher.  At  the  close  of  the  second  year  the  first  German 
society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  consisted  of  twenty- 
six  members.  From  this  small  beginning  German  Methodism 
has  had  a  gradual  increase  and  developed  herself  into  a  vigor- 
ous and  healthy  part  of  our  great  ecclesiastical  body.  To-day 
we  number  eight  German  Conferences,  with  38,379  members, 
and  4,741  probationers,  making  a  total  membership  of  43,120. 

It  is  truly  remarkable  that  the  growth  of  German  Method- 
ism has  not  suffered  a  single  intermission  from  the  beginning 
to  the  present  day.  This  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  the 
parent  Church.  Through  the  O'Kelly  excitement  and  schism, 
in  1792,  a  decrease  of  membership  was  reported  of  1,035  in 
1794,  6,317  in  1795,  and  3,627  in  1796;  making  a  total 
loss  of  10,979  members  in  three  years.  In  1814  there  was  a 
decrease  of  3,178,  and  in  1815  a  decrease  of  36.  In  1836  a 
decrease  of  1,840  was  reported,  and  during  the  late  war,  from 
1861  to  1864,  a  loss  of  68,661  members  was  sustained.  The 
growth  of  German  Methodism  has  been  a  regular  one.  In 
1847  there  were  4,385  members ;  twenty  years  later,  in  1867, 
27,876.  At  the  close  of  the  next  ten  years,  1877,  40,515,  and 
in  1880,  43,120  members  and  probationers.  From  the  tenth 
to  the  thirtieth  year  tlie  average  yearly  increase  has  been 
1,174;  in  the  next  ten  years,  1,264;  in  1879,  1,165,  and  in 
1880,  1,640.  These  figures  prove  conclusively  that  German 
Methodism  is  not  in  a  state  of  decline,  but  enjoys  a  healthy 
increase  from  year  to  year.  It  may  be  said  this  is  a  very 
small  yearly  increase  of  membership  among  so  many  Germans 


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466  Methx)dkf  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

in  this  land.  This  is  true.  But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
the  average  yearly  increase  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
has  not  been  any  greater  in  proportion  to  her  numbers,  op- 
portunities, and  facilities.  German  Methodism  has  not  only 
held  pace  with  the  parent  Church,  but  has,  in  some  instances, 
outranked  her,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  show  hereafter. 
Again,  although  German  immigration  has  been  on  the  decline 
in  the  last  few  years,  (excepting  in  1880,)  German  Methodism 
did  not  experience  a  corresponding  falling  off  in  accessions ; 
indeed,  the  greatest  increase  at  any  one  period  of  her  existence 
is  reported  in  1875,  which  is  2,194  members. 

In  1870  German  Methodism  reported  458  churches,  at  a 
probable  value  of  $1,367,200;  and  196  parsonages,  valued  at 
$246,550.  In  1880,  641  churches,  at  a  value  $1,886,459 ;  and 
306  parsonages,  at  a  probable  value  of  $33,5,087.  This  shows 
an  increase  of  183  churches  and  110  parsonages,  with  an  in- 
crease of  probable  value  of  $607,796. 

In  1870  German  Methodism  raised  $17,234  47  for  the  mis- 
sionaiy  cause ;  in  1880,  $25,097  11.  In  looking  over  the  "Man- 
ual of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,"  *  we  find  an  article 
entitled  "  A  Word  about  Averages,"  in  which  it  is  shown  that 
not  a  single  German  Conference  in  this  country  fell  below  an 
average  of  fifty  cents  a  member  for  missions,  while  the  total 
average  amounts  to  fifty-eight  cents  per  member.  It  is  fur- 
ther said  of  these  Conferences,  "  That  they  are  not  [below  this 
high  average]  is  due  not  to  their  pecuniary  ability,  but  to  their 
more  thorough  system  in  their  efforts  to  conform  lithally  to 
the  requirements  of  the  chapter  on  the  support  of  missions  in 
the  Book  of  Discipline.  .  .  .  Not  twenty  Conferences  exceed 
fifty  cents  a  member,  and  only  one,  the  Southern  German,  ex- 
ceeds $1,  though  the  East  German  is  within  a  few  mills  of  $1." 

It  may  be  proper  to  show,  in  a  summary  way,  the  amounts 
contributed  by  German  Methodism  last  year : 

Missionary  collections $26,097    Arerage  per  member $0  68 

Other  coUectiona 81,988          '*            "              74 

Sunday-schools 20,280          "            "              47 

Current  expenses 29,224          "            "              68 

Payment  on  debts 89,208          "            "               91 

New  buildings,  etc 78,756          "            "              1  82 

Preachers*  salaries 262,038          "            *«              6  88 

Total $476,686  Total  average  per  member.  $1 1  05 

•  Vol.  i,  No.  2,  p.  80. 


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1881.]    Oermcm  Methodism :  Its  Hopes  wnd  Dangers.       467 

This  is,  indeed,  a  good  showing  for  the  benevolence  of  Ger- 
man Methodism,  especially  if  we  take  into  consideration  that 
but  few  members  can  be  called  wealthy.  It  is  the  laboring 
man  who,  after  providing  for  a  large  family,  still  has  a  snrplns 
for  the  Lord's  corn-house. 

Again :  The  Sunday-school  work  of  German  Methodism  has 
also  been  blessed  with  signal  success  in  the  last  decade.  In 
1870  there  were  reported  518  Sunday-schools,  5,267  oflScers 
and  teachers,  27,937  scholars,  and  63,628  library  books. 

In  1880  there  were  777  Sunday-schools,  8,212  officers  and 
teachers,  41,301  scholars,  64,669  library  books,  and  1,416  con- 
versions reported  in  Sunday-schools.  German  Methodism  is 
most  zealously  engaged  in  the  Sunday-school  work  and  cate- 
chetical instruction  of  her  youth.  Dr.  Henry  Liebhart,  editor 
of  German  Sunday-school  publications  and  tracts,  has  well 
said:*  "Earnestness,  thoroughness,  and  simplicity  are  the 
characteristics  of  the  schools.  TJie  German  Sunday-school 
workers  have  only  one  aim  in  view,  namely,  the  conversion 
and  edification  of  the  scholars.  To  achieve  this  the  best  ap- 
proved methods  are  employed,  no  time  being  squandered  with 
doubtful  experiments  or  discussions  of  new  theories.  The 
International  Lesson  System  is  universally  introduced,  and  has 
proved  a  blessing  to  German  schools.  It  operates  admirably 
well  in  every  respect,  and  has  by  no  means  been  a  hinderance 
to  catechetical  instniction;  for  the  German  Methodists  are 
working  out  the  only  true  theory  in  regard  to  the  Catechism, 
holding  that  it  is  not  enough  to  teach  it  in  the  Sunday-schools, 
but  demanding  of  their  pastors  that  their  children  shall  receive 
regular  and  thorough  catechetical  instruction,  at  set  hours 
during  the  week,  and  the  German  Methodist  preachers  per- 
form iJiis  duty  faithfully  and  gladly,  because  they  are  deeply 
convinced  of  the  great  importance  and  immense  value  of  such 
instruction."  In  order  to  facilitate  the  German  Sunday-school 
work.  Dr.  Liebhart  organized  ten  Sunday-school  districts 
throughout  the  bounds  of  German  Methodism,  in  which  he 
conducts  Sunday-school  Conferences  at  regular  intervals.  Of 
these  meetings  it  can  be  said  that  they  have  become  established 
institutions  of  German  Methodism,  exerting  a  good  influence, 
inspiring  the  workers,  spreading  instruction,  introducing  new 
•  "Manual  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,"  vol.  i,  No.  1,  p.  80. 


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468  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview,  ,  [July, 

methods,  and  stimulating  the  interest  in  the  cause  generally. 
The  Chautauqua  plan  has  also  been  introduced,  and  a  German 
literary  society  organized,  which  is  a  branch  of  the  Chautauqua 
Literary  and  Scientific  Circle,  and  began  operations  in  Octo- 
ber, 1880. 

In  educational  matters  German  Methodism  has  followed  in 
the  footsteps  of  the  parent  Church.  Already  four  institutions 
of  learning  have  been  established  and  are  in  successful  opera- 
tion in  the  United  States.  Thus  far  German  Methodists  have 
shown  commendable  liberality  to  all  these  institutions.  Ninety 
per  cent,  of  all  moneys  expended  for  them  has  been  paid  by 
German  Methodists,  only  ten  per  cent,  coming  from  the  En- 
glish-speaking people.  The  biblical  department  of  the  German 
"Wallace  College,  of  Berea,  Ohio,  has  been  especially  successful 
During  twenty  years  past  eighty  of  its  students  have  entered 
the  German  ministry  of  the  Church,  and  many  others  are 
already  occupying  honorable  positions  in  other  professions. 
German  Methodism  has  the  honor  of  establishing  the  first 
orphan  asylum  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  upon  which 
God's  blessing  has  signally  rested.  The  Church  periodicals  and 
Sunday-school  literature  are  in  a  prosperous  condition.  The 
"  Christliche  Apologete,"  with  an  increase  of  size  and  subscrib- 
ers, is  doing  a  noble  work  for  German  Methodism  in  incul- 
cating Methodist  doctrines,  and  in  the  advocacy  of  all  the 
institutions  of  the  Church.  "Haus  undHerd"  is  proving  a 
success  and  meeting  a  demand  of  German  readers,  and  the 
"  Sunday-School  Bell "  is  not  only  a  favorite  among  German 
Methodists,  but  is  joyfully  received  in  many  non-Methodistic 
families  and  Sunday-schools. 

But  let  us  take  a  view  of  the  spiritual  condition  and  inner 
life  of  German  Methodism.  The  old  maxim  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism,  "Holiness  of  heart  and  life,"  is  not  only  still 
adhered  to,  but  has  of  late  taken  a  greater  and  deeper  hold 
upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  German  Methodists.  The  doc- 
trine of  full  salvation  through  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
preached  and  believed,  professed  and  carried  out  in  practical 
life.  On  the  great  question  of  temperance  German  Method- 
ism occupies  a  clear  and  most  decided  position. 

The  same  can  be  said  of  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath-day. 
There  are  more  camp-meetings,  basket-meetings,  holiness  and 


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1881.]    German  Met?iodism :  Its  Hopes  amd  Dcmgers.       469 

Sunday-school  conventions  being  held  from  year  to  year.  We 
have,  perhapSj.less  great  and  shouting  revivals  than  at  the  be- 
ginning of  German  Methodism,  nevertheless,  the  wqrk  done 
is  deep  and  of  permanent  results ;  there  are  but  few  back- 
sliders among  those  who  once  embraced  religion,  and  in  knowl- 
edge of  God's  word.  Christian  experience,  systematic  benefi- 
cence, and  godly  life,  German  Methodism  of  to-day  is  equal  to 
any  former  period. 

Again,  it  is  objected  that  German  Methodism  has  lost  its 
characteristic  stamp  of  plainness  and  simplicity,  as  well  as  out- 
ward influence  upon  the  world.  But  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  the  commercial  and  social  conditions  of  the  people  of  our 
country  have  undergone  a  material  alteration  in  the  last  twenty 
years.  This  digression,  therefore,  is  not  so  much  due  to  the 
change  of  German  Methodism  as  it  is  to  the  change  of  the 
surrounding  circumstances. 

That  German  Methodism  has  suffered  a  loss  in  regard  to 
her  influence  upon  the  masses,  we  doubt  very  much.  It  is 
to  be  remembered,  in  the  first  place,  that  she  never  was 
very  successful  in  drawing  large  numbers  from  the  classes  of 
the  so-called  higher  educated,  from  the  wealthy,  or  from  the 
beer  and  whisky  venders  and  consumers;  her  influence  and 
success  has  always  been  limited  to  the  middle  classes.  Second- 
ly, German  Protestantism  was  in  former  years  in  too  low 
a  spiritual  condition  to  offer  the  hungering  masses  of  Ger- 
mans any  food  for  their  souls.  A  revival  was  an  unheard-of 
thing  in  almost  any  German  Protestant  Church  forty  or  fifty 
years  ago.  The  greatest  number  of  accessions  to  the  Church 
in  Cincinnati  and  other  places,  at  any  one  time,  consisted 
chiefly  of  members  from  other  denominations,  which  to-day 
are  supplied  with  pious  men  and  successful  ministers  who 
understand  how  to  build  up  their  respective  congregations. 
Thirdly,  the  German,  therefore,  coming  to  the  United  States 
to-day,  and  seeking  a  home  and  shelter  for  his  soul,  where  he 
may  enjoy  heartfelt  Christianity  and  religious  fellowship,  can, 
in  many  instances,  find  the  same  in  his  own  Church,  without 
being  constrained  to  change  his  Church  relations,  as  was  often 
the  case  in  former  years. 

That  some  of  our  congregations,  in  the  krger  cities,  both 
East  and  West,  have  numerically  decreased,  can  be  accounted 

FouBTH  Sebies,  Vol.  XXXni.~31 

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470  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [July, 

for  in  a  rational  way.  As  for  example,  we  will  look  at  Cincin- 
nati, Ohio,  the  cradle  of  German  Methodism.  There  is  hardly 
a  congregation  to  be  found  in  the  Middle  or  Western  States 
without  a  representative  of  Cincinnati  among  the  membership. 
The  Church  records  of  our  three  congregations  show  that  no 
less  than  three  thousand  members  moved  from  Cincinnati. 
In  this  manner  our  congregations  at  New  York,  Cincinnati, 
St.  Louis,  and  Chicago  supplied  the  seed  for  a  number  of  con- 
gregations throughout  the  entire  country. 

It  has  also  been  said,  that  in  course  of  time  the  German 
language  would  die  out  in  the  United  States,  that  the  children 
of  German  Methodists  are  becoming  Americanized  to  such  an 
extent  and  rapid  degree  that  German  Methodism  has  no  fu- 
ture, and  that  its  increase  depended  entirely  upon  German 
immigration. 

The  first  assertion  is  older  than  our  century.  This  objection 
was  made,  as  we  have  seen,  to  Mr.  Jacob  Albright's  desire  to 
be  appointed  by  the  authorities  of  the  Church  as  missionary 
to  the  Germans.  It  was  Bishop  Asbury's  opinion,  one  hundred 
years  ago,  that  the  German  language  in  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania would  soon  die  out.  The  history  of  the  colonization  of 
the  United  States  proves  conclusively  that  a  foreign  language 
can  be  carried  into  another  country  and  there  flourish  for  gen- 
erations. For  almost  two  hundred  years  the  German  language 
has  held  its  own  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  that,  too, 
without  new  immigration  or  German  literature  to  any  great 
extent.  The  same  is  true  of  the  German  colonies  in  Brazil, 
South  America,  of  the  Mennonites  in  slavish  Russia,  of  the 
French  in  English  Canada,  and  of  the  Hollanders  in  South 
Africa.  The  German  language  is  to-day  stronger  and  more 
extensively  used  in  the  United  States  than  at  any  former  pe- 
riod ;  it  is  introduced  into  quite  a  number  of  public  schools,  and 
receives  continually  more  strength  by  the  flood  of  German 
immigration  which  is  pouring  into  our  land.  In  the  month 
of  June,  1880,  no  less  than  45,000  German  immigrants  landed 
in  our  different  searports.  The  city  of  New  York  has  a  popu- 
lation of  150,000  immigrated  Germans,  Chicago  over  80,000, 
St.  Louis  over  60,000,  and  Cincinnati  over  50,000.  Multiply- 
ing these  numbers  by  three,  we  have  450,000  Germans  in 
New  York  city,  240,000  in  Chicago,  180,000  in  St.  Louis,  and 


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1881.]    Germcm  MethodUsm  :  Its  Hopes  and  Dcmgers.       471 

150,000  in  Cincinnati.  Will  there  be  less  in  numbers  in  ten, 
twenty,  or  thirty  years  hence  ? 

German  language  and  German  literature  are  a  felt  and  recog- 
nized power  in  the  United  States.  In  cities,  as  well  as  in  the 
country,  German  immigrants  flock  together.  Cincinnati  has  her 
"  over  the  Khine,"  and  all  larger  cities  have  their  German  quar- 
ters, where  German  language  and  customs  are  freely  used.  Ger- 
many, the  land  of  literature  in  an  eminent  sense,  of  the  word, 
the  land  of  philosophical  thinking,  of  scientific  and  historic 
research,  of  the  most  radical  and  bold  criticism,  and  of  modem 
unbelief,  is  supplying  the  Germans  of  this  country  with  the 
most  extensive  literature.  The  ^^GaHenlaubey^  a  materialistic 
periodical  of  Germany,  for  instance,  exports  eighty  thousand 
copies  of  each  issue  to  the  United  States.  These  facts  prove 
that  the  German  language  is  alive  and  growing  in  our  land,  and 
that  German  Methodism  has  a  great  work  to  accomplish  in 
spreading  scriptural  holiness  among  the  German  population. 
The  youth  of  German  Methodism,  in  some  instances,  it  is  true, 
is  becoming  Americanized  and  is  drifting  away  froxn  the 
Church.  In  most  cases,  however,  these  are  such  that  have 
become  alienated  from  Christianity  to  such  a  degree  that  they 
seek  society  in  the  world  rather  than  in  an  English-speaking 
congregation.  As  a  rule,  German  Methodism  holds  her  youth. 
They  are  taught  the  German  Bible  and  Catechism.  They  are 
indoctrinated  into  Methodism  through  the  medium  of  the 
German  language,  and  although  they  often  appear  very  much 
Americanized  in  business  life  and  in  society,  in  their  religion, 
however,  they  are  decidedly  German.  All  technical  terms  and 
expressions  of  a  biblical  discourse  are  more  familiar  to  them 
and  more  readily  understood  in  their  mother  tongue,  though 
they  may  talk  the  queen's  English  ever  so  fluently.  This  ac- 
counts for  the  fact  that  the  writer  of  these  lines  has  had  but 
two  applications  for  a  letter  of  recommendation  in  a  sixteen- 
years'  itinerancy,  to  be  presented  to  English  congregations. 
There  are  many  congregations  throughout  German  Methodism 
where  but  a  small  per  cent,  of  her  youth  is  lost  from  her  em- 
brace on  account  of  the  German  language. 

In  viewing  German  Methodism,  in  the  light  of  its  history, 
development,  present  condition,  and  results  obtained,  we  are 
entitled  to  the  conclusion  that  the  outlook  into  the  future  is  a 


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472  MetJiodist  Qicarterly  JSeview.  [July, 

hopeful  and  proraising  one.  Methodism  is  a  revival  of  earnest 
and  primitive  Christianity,  and  this  is  as  much  needed  among 
our  German  population  as  at  other  places  where  all  is  spirit- 
ually dead.  The  doctrines  of  Methodism  are  drawn  directly 
from  the  Bible;  that  is  its  real  and  not  merely  theoretical 
standard  of  faith,  and  that  is  what  the  Germans  of  this  country 
pre-eminently  need.  German  Methodism  is  no  doubtful  ex- 
periment of  the  parent  Church,  but  an  established  fact.  It  is 
no  passing  shade  upon  the  ecclesiastical  dominion,  but  a  power 
felt  and  making  itself  known  more  and  more  in  saving  souls 
as  brands  plucked  from  the  eternal  burnings,  and  as  long  as 
the  German  language  shall  be  known  and  used  as  a  meauB  of 
speech,  so  long  will  German  Methodism  continue  its  God-given 
mission. 

What,  then,  are  the  dangers  threatening  German  Method- 
ism? Church  history  informs  us  that,  from  the  beginning, 
two  formidable  foes  did  much  harm  to  the  Church  of  Christ, 
namely,  heresy  and  secularization.  In  regard  to  the  first- 
named  foe,  heresy,  we  cannot  perceive  any  danger  for  German 
Methodism.  It  is,  indeed,  a  significant  fact,  that  there  has 
been  no  division  among  Methodists  in  Europe  or  America 
on  questions  of  doctrine.  The  doctrines  of  Methodism  are 
popular  with  the  German  Methodists,  because  they  approve 
themselves  to  the  mind  and  heart.  Free  grace,  universal 
atonement,  personal  responsibility,  salvation  by  faith,  witness 
of  the  Spirit,  and  perfect  love,  are,  and  will  ever  be,  popular 
Scripture  doctrines,  because  they  are  clearly  taught  in  the 
Bible,  and  the  German  Methodist  believes  them  most  heartily. 
As  to  the  economy  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Ger- 
man Methodists  are  truly  loyal.  They  believe  not  only  in  the 
doctrines  of  Holy  Scripture  as  set  forth  in  the  articles  of 
religion  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  they  are  also 
cheerfully  willing  to  be  governed  by  the  rules  of  the  same. 

The  chief  danger  threatening  German  Methodism  can  be 
expressed  by  the  term  secularization.  This  has  ever  been 
a  great  hinderance  in  promoting  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 
In  almost  every  instance  where  the  Christian  Church,  succeeded 
in  setting  aside  heresy  and  accommodating  difierences  arising 
out  of  one-sidedness  or  narrowness  of  views,  secularization 
stealthily  crept  into  its  clergy  and  laity,  doing  great  d^wn^e  to 


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1881.1    Oermcm  Methodism :  Its  Hopes  cmd  Dangers.       473 

the  cause  of  Christ.  The  immediate  result  of  secularization  is 
indifferentism  and  dead  formalism.  This  is  the  pestilence  that 
walketh  in  darkness,  and  the  destruction  that  waateth  at  noon- 
day. The  apostles  of  Christ  had  to  battle  with  this  foe  in  the 
different  Churches  they  established,  and  the  Koman  Church  of 
the  mediaeval  age  was  thoroughly  penetrated  by  it.  Although 
Luther,  together  with  other  reformers,  succeeded  in  giving  this 
enemy  a  great  blow,  and  to  diffuse  new  life  into  the  Church 
through  the  great  work  of  Reformation  they,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  God,  carried  out ;  nevertheless  it  is  secularization,  with 
all  its  consequences,  which  to-day  has  laid  Christianity  in  Ger- 
many so  low,  doing,  in  many  instances,  more  direct  and  imme- 
diate harm  to  God's  cause  than  outspoken  infidelity.  And 
to-day  it  is  secularization  of  the  nominal  Christians  jn  the 
heathen  world  which  greatly  impedes  the  progress  and  work 
of  evangelizing  these  dark  lands. 

In  this  direction,  then,  we  descry  danger  for  German 
Methodism,  as  well  as  for  Christianity  at  large.  What  we 
need  is  more  extended  personal  religious  activity  among 
preachers  and  members,  promoted  and  utilized  by  the  various 
means  of  grace  in  use  and  methods  of  operation,  a  holding  fast 
to  the  spiritual  life,  the  doctrines,  the  economy,  the  liberality 
and  active  benevolence  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
which  are,  indeed,  suited  to  the  Germans  as  well  as  to  all 
classes  of  mankind. 

German  Methodism  has  a  great  task  to  perform  in  America 
as  well  as  in  Germany,  in  spreading  scriptural  holiness  among 
those  who  are  sunken  in  infidelity  and  rationalism,  indiflferentr 
ism  and  formalism,  and  in  provoking  the  sister  denominations 
to  a  more  thorough  and  extended  effort  of  Christian  labor  for 
immortal  souls.  A  great  work  is  being  done  in  Germany. 
Already  we  number  68  itinerant  preachers,  59  local  preachers, 
9,444  full  members,  2,377  probationers,  372  Sunday-schools, 
1,522  officers  and  teachers,  and  18,716  Sunday-school  scholars. 
A  great  future  evidently  lies  before  Methodism  in  Germany. 
Religious  liberty  now  prevails  through  nearly  all  the  German 
Empire  and  Switzerland,  and  a  large  increase  of  Methodism  in 
Germany  may  be  looked  for  in  the  next  ten  years.  Not  a  few 
German  immigmnts  coming  to  America  are  dready  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  German  Methodism  and  heartily  enter  into  its  ranks. 


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474-  Methodist  Quay^terly  Review.  [July, 

The  success  of  German  Methodism  in  the  future  depends 
upon  a  pentecostal  anointing,  which  will  increase  the  spirit- 
uality, strengthen  the  zeal  for  the  right,  give  courage  and  vigor 
against  sin,  and  multiply  the  work  of  conversions  of  souls,  and 
the  sanctification  of  believers.  May  the  whole  Church  be  im- 
bued with  this  power ! 


abt.  v.— the  relations  of  the  churches  and 
mr.  garrison  to  the  american  antislavery 

MOVEMENT.  ra  a  i 

^"^  ^'  [Second  Articli.] 

III.  The  period  of  intenae  and  more  decisive  orga/nized 
efortj  »(1832-63,)  from  the  organization  of  the  New  England 
Antislavery  Society,  January  6,  1832,  to  the  consummation  of 
emancipation,  under  the  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln, 
January  1,  1863. 

Mr.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  confessedly  a  conspicuous 
actor  in  this  period.  Ilis  advent  into  public  life  was  at  an 
opportune  moment.  While  many  friends  of  the  slave  were 
waiting  and  praying  for  some  providential  way  to  be  opened 
for  the  liberation  of  the  oppressed  multitudes,  Mr.  Garrison 
reached  manhood,  and  caught  inspiration  from  the  examples 
of  the  English  antislavery  reformers,  *  brilliant  with  omens  of 
approaching  success.  On  January  1,  1831,  he  issued  the 
first  number  of  the  "Liberator,"  and  three  years  and  a  half 
later  emancipation  was  an  accomplished  fact  in  the  British 
West  Indies.  Under  the  influence  of  such  inspiring  events 
Mr.  Garrison  boldly  proclaimed  his  distinctive  thesis  of  im- 
mediate and  unconditional  emancipation.  Following  in  the 
wake  of  British  antislavery  reformers,  and  ignoring  the  radical 
difference  in  the  constitutional  possibilities  of  the  two  govern- 
ments, he  uncompromisingly,  severely,  and  bitterly  maintained 
a  line  of  antislavery  action,  which  necessarily  separated  many 
good,  discreet  men  from  affiliation  with  him. 

It  was  impossible  for  them  to  see  any  way  in  which  imme- 
diate and  unconditional  emancipation  could  be  effected.  They 
deemed  his  policy  unwise  and  impracticable,  hurtful  and  per- 
ilous to  the  best  interests  of  the  slave.     But,  with  him,  to  be 


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1881.]   Mr.  Owrrison^  the  Chv/rches^  cmd  Ahditiomsm.      475 

non-GamBonian  was  to  be  pro-slavery,  deserving  of  implacable 
denunciation.  We  shall  see  him  ofttimes  practically  working 
against  the  canse  he  sought  to  promote. 

But  even  the  Garrisonian  antislavery  societies  grew  out  of 
the  religious  sentiment  and  the  Churches.  Nearly  all  of  the 
twelve  persons  who  organized  the  New  England  Antislavery 
Society,  in  January,  1832,  were  members  of  the  Evangelical 
Churches.  From  the  pen  of  Mr.  Oliver  Johnson,*  the  youngest 
of  them  all,  then  an  editor  of  a  religious  paper,  a  member  of 
Dr.  Beecher's  Church,  and  a  candidate  for  the  ministry,  we 
learn  the  religious  relations  of  each.  Robert  B.  Ilall  was  a 
theological  student,  and  a  member  of  the  Essex-street  Con- 
gregational Church.  Arnold  Buffom,  the  first  president  of  the 
society,  was  a  Rhode  Island  Quaker,  who  had  traveled  in  En- 
gland, and  was  acquainted  with  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce. 
William  J.  Snelling  was  a  journalist.  John  E.  Fuller  was  a 
business  man,  and  a  member  of  Dr.  Beecher's  Church.  Moses 
Thatcher  was  the  editor  of  the  Boston  "  Telegraph,"  and  pas- 
tor of  the  Congregational  Church  at  North  Wrentham.  Joshua 
Cofl&n  was  the  gentleman  honored  in  Whittier's  lines,  "  To  my 
old  School-master."  Stillman  J.  Newcomb  was  an  earnest 
religious  man.  Benjamin  C.  Bacon  was  a  religious  young  man, 
employe  in  the  oflSce  of  the  American  Education  Society. 
Isaac  Ejiapp  was  Mr.  Garrison's  partner  in  publishing  the 
"  Liberator."  Henry  K.  Stockton  was  a  printer  by  trade,  con- 
nected with  the  Boston  "  Telegraph."  Nearly  all  were  relig- 
ious men  connected  with  Evangelical  Churches. 

Mr.  Garrison's  religious  position  at  that  time  deserves  fuller 
notice.  His  later  religious  views  having  undergone  consider- 
able change,  and  excited  diverse  inquiries  and  comments,  it  is 
a  matter  of  considerable  interest  to  state  in  detail  his  earlier 
religious  convictions,  under  the  influence  of  which  he  entered 
upon  this  great  movement. 

Those  who  knew  him  well,  in  his  earlier  years,  have  said  that 
he  possessed  a  nature  deeply  religious,  "  a  positive  genius  for 
ethics,"  unusual  keenness  of  moral  perception,  an  invincible 
moral  courage,  and  "sympathy  for  the  unfortunate  that  scorned 
the  limitations  of  race,  color,  or  clime."  On  coming  to  Boston, 
in  1826,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  he  was  recognized  as 

*  "Christian  Union,"  August  12, 18Y4. 


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476  Methodist  Qy^iHerly  Review.  [July, 

soundly  orthodox,  and  was  a  devout  worshiper  in  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher's  Church.  He  was  not  a  communicant,  but  liad  great 
reverence  for  Ood,  for  Christ,  and  the  institutions  of  Chris- 
tianity. "  His  views,"  says  Oliver  Johnson,  "  were  neither 
Eationalistic  nor  Liberal,  but  soundly  orthodox.  The  Bible 
was  his  constant  companion,  the  armory  from  which  he  drew 
the  weapons  of  his  warfare.  No  clergyman  or  theological 
professor  was  more  faniilia!!r  with  the  Old  Testament  or  the 
New  than  he  was.  The  Hebrew  prophets,  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  were  his  model  reformer,  and  his  faith  in  God  and 
the  moral  law  was  scarcely  inferior  to  theirs."  * 

His  interpretation  of  Christianity  was  eminently  orthodox, 
and  he  relied  upon  revivals  of  religion  as  the  hopeful  instru- 
mentalities for  the  liberation  of  the  slaves.  In  1831  he  de- 
clared, in  the  "  Liberator,"  that  "nothing  but  extensive  revivals 
of  pure  religion  could  save  the  country  from  great  plagues  and 
sudden  destruction ; "  that  religious  conversions  are  scriptural 
occurrences ;  that  "  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  can  never  be- 
come '  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ '  independent- 
ly of  great  revivals ;  "  that ."  if  the  present  revivals  be  (as  we 
trust  tliey  are)  the  fruit  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  pray  that  they 
may  embrace  the  nation,"  etc. 

Mr.  Garrison  was  also  at  this  time  a  strict  observer  of  the 
Sabbath,t  and  "  would  no  sooner  have  gone  to  the  post-office 

♦  In  the  "Liberator,"  (April  12,  1831,)  he  said  :  ''The  BibU!  The  BibU!  how 
shall  we  subdue  the  obdurate  heart,  and  awaken  the  seared  conscience,  and  suc- 
cessfully impeach  the  criminal  conduct  of  slave  owners ;  how  shall  we  operate 
upon  public  opinion,  and  call  into  rigorous  exercise  the  moral  energies  of  the 
nation,  and  establish  justice  throughout  our  borders,  and  break  down  the  middle 
walls  of  partition  wliich  separate  man  from  his  fellow-men ;  how  shall  we  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  doors  to  them  that  are 
bound,  and  transform  the  benighted  and  suffering  slave  into  an  enlightened  and 
happy  freeman,  and  the  haughty  master  into  a  familiar  friend — how  shall  we 
accomplish  this,  and  more,  without  the  Bible  ?  .  .  .  Take  away  the  Bible,  and  our 
warfare  with  oppression  and  infidelity  and  intemperance  and  impurity  and  crime 
is  at  an  end ;  our  weapons  are  wrested  away,  our  foundation  is  removed  ;  we  have 
no  authority  to  speak,  no  courage  to  act" 

f  In  the  *'  Liberator,"  in  1831,  appeared  the  following  sonnet  from  his  pen : 

"THE  SABBATH-DAY. 

'*FAtiit  prototype  of  Heaven,  blest  Sabbath-day! 

Emblfon  of  an  eternal  rest  to  come ; 
Emancipator  tnm  vile  Mammon^  sway. 

At  whoee  approach  a  noisy  worid  is  dumb; 


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1881.]   Mr,  Garrison^  the  (JhMrche%^  cmd  Abolitionism,      477 

for  his  letters  and  papers,  or  taken  a  walk  for  recreation  on 
that  day,  than  he  would  have  committed  a  theft." 

His  antislav§ry  career  was  the  legitimate  outcome  of  a  heart 
profoundly  stirred  with  deep  religious  convictions,  and  all  his 
early  compeers  derived  their  impulse  from  the  same  source. 
New  laborers,  inspired  by  the  same  feelings,  came  forth  through 
the  successive  years  of  this  great  agitation,  representing  the 
piety  and  the  philanthropy  of  pure  Christianity. 

Under  the  leadership  of  prominent  representatives  of  the 
Churches  other  antislavery  societies  and  several  antislavery 
papers  were  soon  started.  The  "  Emancipator  "  was  established 
in  New  York  city,  in  March,  1833,  by  Hon.  Arthur  Tappan, 
under  the  editorial  supervision  of  Rev.  Charles  W.  Dennison. 
In  October  following,  in  response  to  a  call  issued  by  Rev.  Joshua 
Leavitt,  the  New  York  City  Antislavery  Society  was  organized ; 
and  on  December  4  the  American  Antislavery  Society,  in  Phil- 
adelphia, the  latter  holding  its  first  anniversary  meeting  May  6, 
1834,  in  the  Chatham-street  Chapel,  N.  Y.  In  June,  1835, 
the  New  England  Wesleyan  Antislavery  Society  was  organized 
in  Lynn,  Mass.,  by  about  seventy  ministers  of  the  New  En- 
gland Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The 
following  month  the  New  Hampshire  Conference  of  the  same 
Church  organized  a  similar  society.  These  are  a  few  of  the 
leading  societies  constituted  at  this  early  period,  and  which,  in 
the  course  of  eight  years,  numbered  more  than  two  thousand, 
with  two  hundred  thousand  members.  Of  the  persons  partici- 
pating in  the  organization  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society 
and  in  its  first  anniversary,  more  than  one  third  were  ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  and  two  thirds  of  the  remainder  were  either 
lay  oflScials  or  private  members  of  the  Churches.  As  early  as 
1832,  Rev.  Beriah  Greek,  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature  in 
Western  Reserve  College,  Ohio,  published  four  stirring  anti- 
slavery  sermons;  and  in  1833  Rev.  Elizur  Wright,  another 

Unerring  regulator,  sacred  pledge; 

Best  fliend  and  soother  of  the  poor  and  weak ; 
A  resting-place  in  oar  drear  pilgrimage, 

Wliere  soul  and  body  may  refreshment  seek ; 
If  ihou  were  blotted  out,  our  moral  sun. 

The  huge  eclipse  would  dress  the  world  In  gloom; 
Coaftislon  dire  would  seize  on  every  one, 

And  peace,  love,  order,  And  a  hasty  tomb ; 
Then  would  oppression  reign,  then  lust  rebel. 
Then  violence  abound,  and  earth  resemble  hell  1  *' 


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478  Methodist  Quarterly  JSeview.  [July, 

professor  in  that  institution,  published  a  powerful  essay  against 
slavery. 

The  first  antislavery  meetings  encountered  violent  opposition. 
Hissing,  mobs,  peltings,  personal  abuse,  and  social  ostracism 
followed  the  reformers.  The  New  York  City  Antislavery 
Society  was  driven  from  its  place  of  meeting,  and  the  celebra- 
tion by  the  American  Antislavery  Society,  on  July  4,  1834, 
was  broken  up.  The  house  of  Lewis  Tappan  was  sacked,  and 
the  churches  and  homes  of  colored  people  were  assaulted  and 
damaged.  In  August,  1834,  a  fearful  riot  raged  three  nights 
in  Philadelphia,  and  similar  outrages  were  perpetrated  else- 
where. Cruel  and  dastardly  assaults  were  made  upon  Aboli- 
tionists, countenanced,  and  often  excited  by  men  of  position 
and  wealth,  and  sometimes  by  members  of  Churches.  The  pub- 
lic journals  were  vehicles  of  scandalous  accusations  against  the 
reformers,  misrepresenting  their  purposes,  motives,  and  acts. 
Churches  and  public  halis  alike  were  often  closed  against  them, 
and  they  were  made  to  feel  that  they  held  property  and  liberty, 
if  not  life  itself,  at  the  mercy  of  excited,  lawless  men.  It  was, 
indeed,  a  reign  of  terror.  Rev.  Orange  Scott,  a  presiding  elder 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  while  delivering  an  anti- 
slavery  addi'ess  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  August  10,  1835,  was 
assaulted,  and  his  notes  seized  and  torn  to  pieces  by  a  mob, 
led  by  a  son  of  an  ex-governor  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  the 
same  year  Eev.  George  Storrs,  another  Methodist  minister, 
while  lecturing  in  New  Hampshire,  was. arrested  by  a  deputy 
sheriff,  on  the  charge  of  being  "  a  common  rioter  and  brawler." 
Soon  after,  at  another  antislavery  meeting,  he  was  again  ar- 
rested and  dragged  from  his  knees,  while  Eev.  Mr.  Curtis  was 
in  prayer.  A  meeting  of  an  antislavery  society,  composed  of 
some  of  the  most  cultured  ladies  in  Boston,  was  broken  up  in 
October,  1835,  by  a  mob  composed  of  "gentlemen  of  property 
and  standing,"  the  mayor  and  marshal  declining  protection. 
On  the  same  day  Mr.  Garrison  was  seized,  led  with  a  rope 
around  his  neck,  and  his  clothes  were  torn  from  his  body. 
The  mayor  *  finally  interposed,  rescued  him,  and  lodged  liim 

i 

'  In  1887,  Massachusetts*  most  classic  orator  and  governor  warned  the  aboli- 
tionists that  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  would  be  regarded  as  ''  an  offense 
against  the  peace  of  the  Ck>mmonwealth,  which  might  be  prosecuted  as  a  misde- 
meanor at  common  law." 


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1881.]  Mr.  Garrison^  ike  Chv/rche%^  amd  AloUt/iormm,      479 

in  jail  to  save  him  from  f my.  These  are  a  few  of  a  long 
series  of  outrages,  in  which  the  mobbing  of  Hon.  George 
Thompson,  the  eminent  English  philanthropist,  the  assassination 
of  Lovejoy  and  Bewley,  and  the  martyrdom  of  Torrey  and 
John  Brown  were  conspicuous. 

The  action  of  the  Churches  and  the  ministry  during  this 
period  has  been  severely  censured.  The  clergy  were  accused 
of  backwardness,  and  even  positive  opposition.  It  was  said 
that  some  had  to  be  dragged  into  the  service,  if  they  rendered 
any  aid.  In  the  autumn  of  1830  Mr.  Garrison  made  several 
efforts  to  obtain  a  church  *  or  a  hall  in  Boston  in  which  to 
deliver  three  free  antislavery  addresses.  After  many  unsuc- 
cessful personal  applications,  he  advertised  in  the  "  Courier," 
but  no  Church  in  Boston  responded  to  his  appeal.  This  was 
before  the  publication  of  the  "  Liberator,"  and  fifteen  months 
before  the  New  England  Antislavery  Society  was  organized. 
Mr.  Garrison's  religious  views  were  not  then  distrusted,  but  he 
was  known  to  be  "  soundly  orthodox,"  and  a.regular  worshiper 
at  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher's  Church.  Failing  to  obtain  a  church, 
a  society  of  avowed  infidels,  organized  in  Boston  by  Abner 
Kneeland,  having  control  of  Julien  Hall,  in  Milknstreet,  of- 
fered it  gratuitously  to  Mr.  Garrison,  and  it  was  thankfully 
accepted. 

But  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  a  long  series  of  adverse 
movements  by  religious  bodies,  against  this  great  reform. 
Many  Christian  men  of  positive  antislavery  principles  turned 
their  backs  upon  the  Garrison  societies,  while  others  filled  their 
mouths  with  apologies  for  slaveholding,  and  others  stiU  stoutly 
and  learnedly  defended  the  institution  from  the  Bible.  The 
Protestant  Episcopal  Bishop  of  a  New  England  diocese  be- 
longed to  the  latter  class.  Another,  the  president  of  a  New 
England  college,  declared  that  slavery  was  not  only  a  positive 
institution  of  revealed  religion,  but  also  compatible  with  the 
law  of  love.  A  Boston  minister,  visiting  the  South  for  his 
health,  pictured  slavery  in  a  rose-colored  hue,  and  a  learned 
theological  professor,  in  a  treatise,  called  the  higher-law  doc- 
trine a  heresy,  and  advocated  the  duty  of  returning  slaves  to 

*  Per  contra^  it  may  be  said  that  Jesse  Lee  and  other  early  Methodist  preachers 
could  not  obtain  the  use  of  churches  for  religious  services.  For  several  succes- 
sive weeks  he  sought  in  vain  to  get  a  church  to  preach  in,  in  Boston. 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


480  Methodist  Qvmterly  Review,  [July, 

bondage.  The  moral  jargon  increased,  and  the  opposition  grew 
fiercer,  hotter,  and  more  implacable. 

The  American  Churches  became  deeply  stirred,  and  appro- 
priate action  was  taken  in  many  Conferences  and  Associations, 
while  in  others  the  action  was  sometimes  reprehensible. 

The  Friends,  who  inherited  and  cherished  their  earlier  anti- 
slavery  testimony  as  a  precious  legacy  from  their  fathers,  after 
the  Missouri  Compromise  contest,  in  common  with  other 
Churches,  felt  the  general  stupor,  and  were  disinclined  to  attack 
slavery.  This  spirit  manifested  itself  particularly  among  wealthy 
Friends  engaged  in  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  cotton,  and  in 
other  commercial  pursuits.  "  The  Quakers  in  New  England," 
said  Oliver  Johnson,  "as  a  body,  instead  of  welcoming  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  and  giving  it  encouragement,  set  themselves 
firmly  but  insidiously  against  it,  generally  refusing  to  open 
their  meeting-houses  for  antislavery  lectures,  preventing  their 
members,  as  far  as  possible,  from  uniting  with  the  antislavery 
society,  and  sometimes  dismissing  those  who  were  independent 
enough  to  co-operate  with  the  Abolitionists."  There  were 
honorable  individual  exceptions.  But  many  of  those  included 
in  Mr.  Johnson's  censure  were  persons  whose  only  fault  was 
that  they  did  not  pronounce  the  Garrisonian  shibboleth. 

The  Congregational  Churches,  wholly  a  northern  body,  and 
consequently  without  ecclesiastical  entanglements  with  the 
South  in  any  organic  form,  were  embarrassed  and  often  serious- 
ly compromised  by  the  influence  of  prominent  members  en- 
gaged in  the  manufacture  of  cotton,  or  connected  with  slavery, 
in  commercial,  social,  or  political  relations.  Nevertheless,  it 
was  well  represented  in  the  struggle.  Revs.  Amos  A.  Phelps, 
of  Boston ;  William  Goodell  and  Joshua  Leavitt,  of  New  York 
city ;  S.  S.  Jocelyn,  of  New  Haven ;  and  David  Thurston,  of 
Maine,  were  in  the  antislavery  field  as  early  as  1833,  attending 
and  actively  participating  in  the  organization  of  the  American 
Antislavery  Society  in  Philadelphia,  in  December  of  that  year. 
Rev.  Mr.  Thurston  was  for  many  years  one  of  its  agents,  and 
Rev.  Messrs.  Phelps,  Leavitt,  and  Goodell,  were  editors  and 
agents  for  many  years,  in  the  service  of  antislavery  societies. 
As  early  as  1837,  fully  one  third  of  the  Congregational  ministers 
in  Massachusetts  were  enrolled  members  of  antislavery  societi^. 


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1881.1   Mt,  Oa/rrisony  the  ChurcTves^  cmd  Aholitioniam.      481 

"  The  antifilavery  society  in  Amherst  College,  in  1834,  had 
76  members,  of  whom  70  were  professors  of  religion ;  30  of 
them  had  consecrated  themselves  to  the  foreign  missionary 
work,  and  20  to  home  missionary  service  in  the  West.  In  1834 
the  trustees  of  Lane  Seminary  (Cincinnati)  prohibited  the  open 
discussion  of  slavery  by  the  students,  and  four  fifths  of  the  stu- 
dents withdrew  from  the  institution.  A  number  of  them,  in- 
cluding Theodore  D.  Weld,*  Henry  B.  Stanton,  and  Ichabod 
Codding,  became  at  once  antislavery  lecturers,  and  went  from 
State  to  State  defending  the  rights  of  the  slave.  The  breaking 
up  of  the  classes  in  Lane  Seminary  led  to  the  organization  of 
the  theological  department  at  Oberlin,  and  in  this  great  reform 
Oberlin  took  an  early  and  prominent  part,  Mr.  Finney  refused 
to  become  president  of  a  college  unless  colored  students  were 
allowed  to  enjoy  its  privileges.  The  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase 
was  wont  to  ascribe  his  elevation  to  the  United  States  Senate 
to  the  influence  of  Oberlin.f 

"  So  far  as  Congregationalism  is  concerned,"  says  the  editor 
of  the  "  Congregational  Quarterly,"  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  leading  Grarrisonians,  Henry  C.  Wright,  Parker  Pills- 
bury,  and  Stephen  S.  Foster,  imbibed  their  antislavery  senti- 
ments, but  not  their  fanaticism,  from  Congregational  sources, 
for  they  were  originally  Congregational  ministers  or  candidates 
for  that  office.  ...  I  freely  acknowledge  that  the  Church  did 
not  do  its  whole  duty.  In  our  own  denomination  the  promi- 
nent ministers,  particularly,  seemed  to  be  unduly  subject  to 
commercial  influences.  Still  the  true  picture,  although  it  has 
dark  shades,  is  luminous  and  attractive.''^: 

The  Free-will  Baptists,  located  almost  entirely  in  the 
North,  kept  clear  of  the  evil,  and  were  decided  in  their  pro- 
tests against  it,  on  account  of  which  the  New  Hampshire 
Legislature,  for  naany  years  an  ultra-Democratic  body,  refused 
to  grant  an  act  of  incorporation  for  their  publishing  house. 

•  While  Mr.  Weld  was  holding  a  Beries  of  meetings  in  Steubenville,  Ohio,  he  no- 
ticed a  young  lawyer  in  his  audience,  evening  after  evening,  takmg  notes.  At  the 
close  of  his  last  lecture  the  young  man  came  forward  and  introduced  himself,  re- 
marking, "  I  came  here  resolved  to  answer  you,  and  have  taken  notes  of  every  lect- 
ure ;  but  you  have  converted  me."  That  young  lawyer  was  Edwin  M.  Stenton, 
and  thus  God  raised  up  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration  a  fit  Secretary  of  War. 

t  "  Congregational  Quarterly,"  1870,  p.  654.  %  Ibid.,  p.  65a. 


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482  Methodjist  Quarterly  Beview.  [July, 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  extending  through  the 
Sonth,  every-where  maintained  extremely  conservative  ground. 
Through  all  the  antislavery  agitations,  and  even  during  the 
lat«  Civil  War,  her  ministry,  in  their  pulpits  and  ecclesiastical 
assemblies,  studiously  avoided  the  question  of  slavery,  and  all 
politico-religious  matters.  As  the  result,  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  conservative,  "South-side"  politicians,  disturbed  by 
what  was  stigmatized  as  "  political  preaching  "  in  other  denom- 
inations, united  with  that  Church,  which  tended  to  make  it  still 
more  conservative. 

The  actfon  of  two  other  large  denominations  will  be  sketched 
more  at  length.  The  Presbyterian  Church  had  many  sharp 
contests  on  this  question.  In  1833  the  Synod  of  Kentucky, 
after  discussing  for  two  days,  with  much  spirit,  a  resolution 
declaring  slavery  within  its  bounds  a  great  moral  evil,  incon- 
sistent with  the  word  of  God,  indefinitely  postponed  the  sub- 
ject ;  whereupon  Rev.  R.  J.  Breckenridge  left  the  house,  de- 
claring, "Since  God  has  forsaken  the  Synod  of  Kentucky, 
Robert  J.  Breckenridge  will  forsake  it,  too."  The  following 
year  an  able  committee  was  directed  to  prepare  a  plan  for  the 
instruction  and  future  emancipation  of  slaves.  They  reported 
the  next  year,  recommending  gradual  emancipation.  But  the 
committee  were  in  advance  of  the  Synod,  and  their  report 
failed  of  approval.  Under  what  was  characterized  as  "  North- 
em  aggressions,"  "  inflammatory  periodicals,"  etc.,  a  reaction 
set  in,  and  the  prospects  of  emancipation  became  less  hopeful. 
Slave  laws  were  made  more  stringent,  and  Sabbath-schools  for 
the  slaves  were  suspended. 

The  subject  of  slavery  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly  in  1836,  by  the  report  of  a 
committee,  appointed  the  previous  year  to  consider  certain 
petitions  and  memorials.  The  majority  recommended  that  no 
action  be  taken  on  the  subject.  The  minority  report  proposed 
certain  resolutions  strongly  opposed  to  slavery.  After  a  variety 
of  motions  and  propositions,  the  whole  subject  was  indefinitely 
postponed  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  yeas  to  eighty- 
seven  nays.  Twenty-eight  members  protested  against  the  de- 
cision.    The  excitement  was  very  great  during  the  debates.* 

*  "  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States,"  by  Rev.  E.  H.  Gil- 
lett,  D.D.,  vol  ii,  p.  624. 


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1881.]   Mr.  Ga/rrison^  the  Churclies^  and  Aholitiomsm.      483 

Very  decided  expressions  followed  this  session  of  the  As- 
sembly, by  the  Southern  press  and  the  Southern  Presbyteries. 
A  member  of  the  Assembly,  in  the  Southern  "  Religious  Tele- 
graph," said,  "  I  hope  that  another  such  Assembly  will  never 
meet  but  once  again,  and  then  only  with  full  and  delegated 
powers  amicably  to  separate,"  the  editor  adding,  "  A  crisis 
has  come ;  if  there  can  be  no  compromise,  division  must  be 
tried."  The  Presbytery  of  Concord,  N.  C,  said,  "Rather 
than  surrender  the  truth  or  perpetuate  the  present  distracting 
agitation,  we  shall  feel  bound  to  submit  to  a  division  of  the 
Church."  The  Presbytery  of  South  Carolina  said,  "The 
parties  ought  to  separate ; "  the  Synod  of  Virginia  said,  "  One 
thing  that  presses  with  peculiar  force  on  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  South  is  the  spirit  of  abolition ; "  and  the 
Charleston  Union  Presbytery  (S.  C.)  declared  that,  "As  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave  is  a  civil  institution,  it  is  one  on 
which  the  Church  has  no  power  to  legislate." 

A  purely  ecclesiastical  question,  in  regard  to  the  benevolent 
"  boards  "  of  the  Church,  with  which  the  slavery  question  be- 
came complicated,  hindered  and  embarrassed  thfir  action.  A 
compromise  quieted  the  South  and  prevented  a  rupture ;  but 
it  was  accomplished  on  the  humiliating  condition  that  slavery 
was  no  more  to  be  allowed  to  disturb  the  General  Assembly. 
Thus  the  South  for  some  years  shaped  the  policy  of  the 
Church.* 

Subsequently  the  agitation  was  renewed.  Tear  after  year 
memorials  and  overtures  were  presented,  eliciting  warm  and  ex- 
tended, discussion,  and  resulting  in  action  which  failed  to  satisfy 
the  more  zealous  antislavery  men  of  the  North,  and  excited  dis- 
satisfaction at  the  .South.  The  antislavery  sentiment  of  the 
Church  was  increasing,  as  was  evident  from  the  utterances  of 
the  General  Assembly ;  but  its  official  action,  under  the  prepon- 
derating desire  for  unity,  continually  exposed  it  to  criticism 
from  radical  reformers  at  the  North  and  from  apologists  for 
slavery  at  the  South. 

In  1853  it  was  felt  that  "the  Church"  must  come  unto 
some  unity  with  itself  on  the  question  of  slavery.  In  re- 
sponse to  overtures,  both  from  the  North  and  the  South,  the 

•  "  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  m  the  United  States,"  by  Rev.  E.  H.  Gil- 
lett,  D.D.,  Yol  ii,  pp.  526,  527. 


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484  Methodist  QuaHerhf  R&oiew.  fJnly, 

Assembly  proposed  that  the  facts  concerning  the  relation  of 
the  Southern  Churches  to  slavery  should  be  reported  the  next 
year;  but  the  measure  was  denounced  as  inquisitorial  In 
1856  a  committee,  appointed  the  previous  year,  reported  on  the 
constitutional  power  of  the  General  Assembly  over  slave-hold- 
ing in  the  Churches  under  their  care,  which,  though  adopted 
after  a  prolonged  discussion,  was  oflfensive  to  Southern  mem- 
bers. The  South  complained  ;  and  in  1857  the  Presbytery 
of  Lexington,  Ky.,  gave  oflScial  notice  to  the  Assembly  that 
many  members  of  its  Churches,  as  well  as  a  number  of  its 
ministers  and  elders,  held  slaves  "from  principle"  and  "of 
choice,"  believing  it  to  be  right  according  to  the  Bible,  and 
the  Presbytery  itself  sustained  them  in  their  position.  Had 
the  Assembly  desired,  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  evade  the 
issue.  By  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  yeas  to  twenty- 
six  nays,  a  report  was  adopted,  which  presented  a  summary 
history  of  the  action  of  the  successive  Assemblies  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery,  and  which  "  disapproved  and  earnestly  con- 
demned "  the  position  of  the  Presbytery  of  Lexington,  as 
opposed  to  the  established  convictions  of  the  Church,  and 
tending  to  mar  its  peace,  seriously  hinder  its  prosperity,  and 
bring  reproach  upon  Christianity.  The  report  also  called 
upon  the  Presbytery  to  review  and  rectify  their  position  be- 
cause "such  doctrines  and  practice"  could  not  "be  perma- 
nently tolerated  in  the  Presbyterian  Church."  Twenty-two 
members,  representing  the  Southern  Churches,  and  identifying 
their  own  case  with  the  Lexington  Presbytery,  protested  that 
this  action  "  degraded  the  whole  Southern  Church,"  and  was 
"  the  virtual  exscinding  of  the  South."  Ketuming  home,  the 
protestants  were  sustained  by  their  Presbyteries,  and  the  result 
was  the  withdrawal  of  the  Southern  Churches  under  the  care 
of  the  Assembly,  and  the  formation  of  the  United  Synod  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  "  Thus,"  says  Dr.  Gillett,  "  befor^ 
political  convulsions  had  occurred  to  rend  the  Church  through 
the  State^  the  body  represented  by  the  Constitutional  General 
Assembly  had'  defined  its  position,  had  attained  internal  har- 
mony, and  had  thrown  off  an  incubus,  which,  for  years,  had 
oppressed  and  crippled  its  energies."  * 

*  **  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States,"  by  Rev.  E.  H.  Gil- 
lett, D.D.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  655-669. 


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1881.]   Mr.  Garrison^  the  Churches^  and  Aholitionimi.      485 

This  division  was  soon  followed  by  another.  A  very  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  strength  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
was  within  the  limits  of  those  States  which  seceded  from  the 
Federal  Union  in  1861;  and  "upon  the  Assembly  of  that 
year  the  long-deferred  question  pressed  with  the  weight  of  an 
avalanche."  The  Assembly  indicated  its  loyalty  by  appropriate 
resolutions,  declaring  its  repugnance  to  a  rebellion  instituted 
in  the  interest  of  slavery,  which  were  passed  by  a  vote  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-six  yeas  to  sixty-six  nays.  The  result  was 
the  secession  of  the  Southern  Churches  and  Presbyteries,  and 
the  formation  of  the  Southern  General  Assembly. 

The  first  movements  against  slavery  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  in  this  period,  were  made  in  the  New  England 
and  New  Hampshire  JJonferences,  under  the  leadership  of 
Eev.  Orange  Scott  in  the  former,  and  Rev.  George  Storrs  in 
the  latter.  When  Eev.  Wilbur  Fisk,  D.D.,  in  the  New  En- 
gland Conference,  in  June,  1834,  offered  resolutions  in  favor 
of  the  Colonization  Society,  Mr.  Scott  moved  to  lay  them  on 
the  table,  which  was  carried  after  a  stormy  debate.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1835,  Mr.  Scott  commenced  a  long  series  of  articles  on 
slavery  in  the  "  Zion's  Herald,"  (Boston ;)  and,  on  the  4th  of 
February  following,  an  "  Appeal "  to  the  Church  on  the  sub- 
ject of  davery  appeared  in  the  same  paper,  over  the  signatures 
of  LeRoy  Sunderland,  Orange  Scott,  Abram  D.  Merrill,  Ship- 
ley W.  Wilson,  George  Storrs,  and  Jared  Perkins.  On  the 
8th  of  April  a  "  Counter  Appeal "  appeared,  written  by  Rev. 
D.  D.  Whedon,  and  signed  by  Wilbur  Fisk,  John  Lindsey, 
Bartholomew  Otheman,  Hezekiah  S.  Ramsdell,  Edward  T. 
Taylor,  Abel  Stevens,  Jacob  Sanborn,  and  H.  H.  White.  In 
June  the  New  England  and  New  Hampshire  Conferences 
organized  antislavery  societies.*  and  made  arrangements  to  cir- 
culate Wesley's  "  Thoughts  on  Slavery,"  and  other  documents. 
Thus  was  re-opened  the  antislavery  agitation  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

*  By  invitation,  the  Hon.  George  Thompson,  an  English  Wesleyan  local  preacher, 
preached  a  powerful  sermon  before  the  New  England  Conference,  from  Ezek. 
xxriii,  14-16.  The  North  Bennett-street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  opened 
to  Mr.  Thompson,  on  fast  day,  for  a  sermon ;  and  also  for  a  meeting  of  the  Ladies^ 
Antislavery  Society,  which  Mr.  Thompson  addressed ;  which  acts,  at  a  time  when 
Mr.  Thompson  waa  every-where  denounced,  were  highly  commended  in  the  *'  Lib- 
erator." 

FouBTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXTII. — 82 


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486  Methodist  Qvmi^rVy  Heview.  [July, 

Then  followed,  in  rapid  Bncceseionj  a  long  series  of  exciting 
events :  the  address  of  fourteen  Baltimore  ministers,  and  the 
report  of  the  Ohio  and  Kentucky  Conferences,  disapproving  of 
abolitionism ;  the  address  of  Bishops  Hedding  and  Emory,  Sep- 
tember 10,  1835,  to  the  ministers  and  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  within  the  bounds  of  the  New  England 
and  New  Hampshire  Conferences,  expressing  great  solicitude 
on  account  of  the  excitement  occasioned  by  agitating  the  sub- 
ject of  "  immediate  emancipation ; "  the  address  of  Dr.  Wilbur 
Fisk,  one  of  the  purest  and  best  constituted  minds  in  the 
Church,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Europe,  in  a  similar 
style ;  the  establishment  of  "  Kon's  Watchman,"  in  New  York 
city,  January  1,  1836,  devoted  especially  to  the  cause  of  aboli- 
tion, with  LeRoy  Sunderland  as  editor ;  the  resolutions  of  the 
Baltimore  and  New  York  Conferences,  strongly  condemning 
abolition  and  the  "Watchman;"  the  presentation  to  the 
General  Conference,  at  Cincinnati,  (May,  1836,)  of  petitions 
from  New  England  signed  by  200  ministers  and  2,284  lay- 
men, praying  for  action  against  slavery ;  the  censuring,  by  that 
body,  of  two  of  its  members  for  attending  and  addressing  an 
abolition  meeting  in  Cincinnati;  the  passage  of  a  resolution 
disclaiming  any  "  right,  wish,  or  intention  to  interfere  with  the 
civil  and  political  relation  between  master  and  slave,  as  it 
exists ; "  the  attempt  of  the  Southern  members  to  elect  a  slave- 
holding  Bishop,  contrary  to  the  established  policy  of  the 
Church*;  the  exciting  scenes  in  1837  over  the  slavery  question, 
at  the  New  England  and  the  New  Hampshire  Conferences,  and 
in  Methodist  antislavery  conventions  held  in  Utica  and  Caze- 
novia,  N.  Y.,  and  Lynn,  Mass. ;  the  action  of  the  New  York 
Conference,  the  following  year,  calling  to  account  two  of  its 
members  for  attending  the  Utica  Convention ;  the  issuing  of 
the  "  Wesleyan  Quarterly  Review,"  in  1838,  by  Rev.  Orange 
Scott,  for  the  fuller  discussion  of  antislavery  questions,  and  Mr. 
Scott's  arraignment,  by  Bishop  Hedding,  at  ihe  following  ses- 
sion of  the  New  England  Conference  in  Boston ;  the  arraign- 
ment of  LeRoy  Sunderland,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Nathan  Bangs,  for  a 
similar  cause ;  the  discussion  of  the  famous  "  Plan  of  Pacifica- 
tion" and  questions  of  "Conference  Rights,"  in  1838  and 
183^ ;  the  extreme  pro-slavery  utterances  of  Southern  Confer- 
ences, declaring  that  "  slavery,  as  it  now  exists  in  these  United 


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1881.]   Mr.  Garrison^  the  Churches^  amd  Abolitionism.      487 

States,  is  not  a  moral  evil ; "  and  the  starting  of  the  "  Amer- 
ican Wesleyan  Observer,"  a  new  antislavery  paper,  in  Lowell, 
Mass.,  Nov.  7,  1839,  edited  by  Kevs.  Jotham  Horton  and 
Orange  Scott. 

These  events,  occurring  between  1834  and  1840,  show  the 
intense  aggressive  spirit  of  opposition  to  slavery  in  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  the  no  less  determined  resistaniie 
to  antislavery  action  by  Southerners  and  Southern  sympathiz- 
ers. During  these  six  years  the  Church  was  agitated  by  the 
most  exciting  contests  ever  known  in  her  history.  The  South 
threatened  to  divide  the  Church,  and  many  at  the  North,  fear- 
ing it,  sought  to  avert  the  calamity.  Bnt  the  antislavery  senti- 
ment steadily  increased. 

The  General  Conference  of  1840  was  in  harmony  with  that 
of  1836 — the  last  of  the  retrograding  series,  where  the  down- 
ward tendency  of  conservatism  touched  bottom.  The  action  of 
the  Missouri  Conference,  condemning  a  minister  of  maladrMn- 
istration  for  receiving  the  testimony  of  colored  persons  against 
white  persons,  in  a  church  trial,  was  approved ;  and,  by  a  vote 
of  seventy-four  to  thirty-six,  this  Conference  declared  tliat 
"such  a  practice  is  inexpedient  and  unjustifiable  in  those  States 
where  colored  persons  are  not  allowed  to  testify  in  trials  at 
law."  But  the  most  remarkable  action  was  taken  upon  a 
memorial  from  Westmoreland,  Va.  The  Conference  affirmed 
that  ownership  of  slave-property,  in  States  and  Territories 
where  the  laws  do  not  admit  of  emancipation  or  permit  the 
liberated  slave  to  enjoy  freedom,  constitutes  no  legal  barrier  to 
the  election  and  ordination  of  ministers  to  the  various  grades 
of  office  known  in  the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  considered  as  operating  any 
forfeiture  of  right,  in  view  of  such  election  and  ordination. 

These  concessions,  contrary  to  the  time-honored  policy  of 
the  Church,  aroused  attention,  and  augmented  the  immense 
antislavery  force  in  process  of  development  within  and  without 
the  ecclesiastical  lines.  The  tide  turned  in  1840,  after  which 
no  more  concessions  were  made  to  the  slave  power.  The 
"  Wesleyan  "  schism,  in  1842,  in  which  about  twenty  traveling 
elders  and  five  thousand  members  seceded,  chiefiy  on  account 
of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  slavery,  contributed  somewhat 
to  this  end. 


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488  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jnly, 

When  the  General  Conference  met,  in  1844,  it  found  on  its 
hands  a  great  qnestion  to  settle — whether  the  Bishops  should 
be  allowed  to  hold  slaves — Bishop  Andrew  having  become  a 
slave-holder  by  marriage — ^the  first  instance  in  the  history  of 
the  denomination.  The  Northern  members  contended  that 
the  episcopal  chair  must  be  kept  free  from  this  evil,  as  it  al- 
ways had  been,  and  that  he  must,  therefore,  resign  his  position. 
His  friends  pleaded,  protested,  and  threatened  division  if  he 
was  not  let  alone.  But  the  Conference,  by  a  vote  of  110  to 
68,  declared  that  he  must  desist  from  the  exercise  of  his  oflSee. 
The  result  was  the  secession  of  a  large  number  of  Southern 
ministers  and  members,  and  the  formation  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South. 

The  new  body  was  at  once  fully  committed  to  the  institution 
of  slavery,  theoretically  and  practically.  But  the  antislavery 
sentiment  had  triumphed  in  the  General  Conference.  The 
r^triction  put  upon  colored  testimony  in  1840  was  also  re- 
pealed. In  1848  the  General  Conference  rescinded  the  resolu- 
tion on  the  Westmoreland  petition. 

Sixteen  more  years  of  contest  remained  before  the  unequiv- 
ocal rule  against  all  slave-holding  could  be  enacted  by  the 
necessaiy  three-fourths  vote  of  the  General  Conference.  In 
1860  the  chapter  on  slavery  in  the  Discipline  was  strengthened 
so  as  to  embody  this  exclusive  principle,  and  four  years  later 
the  specific  rule  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  two  hundred  and 
seven  to  nine.  The  Civil .  War,  occasioned  by  Republican 
triumphs,  achieved  by  the  prayers  and  suflErages  of  antislavery 
Church  members,  aided  the  final  solution. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  trace  the  antislavery  struggle  in  the 
Baptist  Church,  so  similar  to  those  already  sketched,  which 
culminated  in  the  division  of  the  denomination  in  1845,  and  the 
organization  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  Baptist  Conven- 
tions. Nor  have  we  space  to  enter  into  the  details  6f  the  hu- 
miliating compromises  of  various  benevolent  boards. 

In  the  course  of  these  agitations  another  movement  took 
place,  one  of  the  most  painful  to  record,  because  of  the  bitter 
and  destructive  spirit  it  engendered. 

I  have  no  disposition  to  detract  from  any  credit  due  to  Mr. 
Garrison  as  an  antislavery  agitator.  His  peculiar  talent  made 
him  conspicuous,  and  left  a  deep  impress.     But  the  time  came 


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1881.1    Mr,  Ga/irrison^  the  CJmrches^  cmd  Abolitionism,      489 

when  the  Garrison  party  diminished  in  numbers  and  in  in- 
fluence; and  the  antislavery  cause  was  carried  forward,  not 
merely  withoift  his  aid,  but  even  in  spite  of  his  hinderance. 
He  possessed  an  extraordinary  power  of  vituperation,  and  his 
philippics  were  terrible  irritants.  "  He  prejudiced  the  minds 
of  good  men  against  the  antislavery  cause,  while  the  political 
movement,  which  ultimately  proved  the  successful  one,  ever, 
after  1838,  met  with  his  opposition."  * 

In  less  than  five  years  from  the  organization  of  the  first 
society  under  Mr.  Garrison,  the  American  Antislavery  Society 
numbered  1,350  auxiliaries,  existing  in  every  free  State,  except 
Indiana  and  New  Jersey,  and  its  annuaJ  receipts  reached 
$45,000.  But,  notwithstanding  this  rapid  progress,  he  became 
impatient,  and  his  intensely  radical  spirit,  panting  for  still 
more  radical  reforms,  repelled  his  best  tried  friends.  He  for- 
got that  he  drew  his  first  antislavery  breath  from  the  Church ; 
that  his  best  supporters  were  the  people  of  the  Churches ;  that 
of  the  persons  participating  in  the  organization  of  the  Ameri- 
can Antislavery  Society  and  its  auxiliaries,  and  those  attending 
the  antislavery  anniversaries  and  conventions,  full  one  third 
were  ministers,  while  more  than  half  of  the  remainder  were 
communicants  of  the  Churches ;  that  three  fourths  of  the  anti- 
slavery  agents  and  editors  were  clergymen  ;  that  Hon.  George 
Thompson,  with  whom  he  had  communed  so  closely,  was  a 
Wesleyan  local  preacher ;  that  his  ablest  adherents  and  con- 
freres were  Eev.  A.  A.  Phelps,  Rev.  Joshua  Leavitt,  Rev. 
William  Goodell,  Rev.  Nathaniel  Colver,  Rev.  Baron  Stowe, 
Rev.  Oi-ange  Scott,  Rev.  Jotham  Horton,  Rev.  Samuel  J.  May, 
etc. ;  and  that,  instead  of  a  decline,  there  was  a  steady  growth 
of  reform  sentiment  and  activity  in  the  Churches ;  all  these 
things  and  many  more  he  forgot ;  he  abhorred  and  denounced 
the  Church  and  State,  and*  sought  their  overthrow. 

In  a  Fourth-of-July  address,  at  Providence,  in  1837,  he 
f renziedly  declared,  "  I  stand  forth  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy, 
to  proclaim,  in  the  ears  of  the  people,  that  our  doom  as  a 
nation  is  sealed ; "  adding,  "  If  history  be  not  wholly  fabulous, 
if  revelation  be  not  a  forgery,  if  God  be  not  faithless  in  the 
execution  of  his  threaten  ings,  the  doom  is  certain  and  the 
execution  thereof  sure.     The  overthrow  of  the  American  Con- 

♦  Editor  of  the  "  Congregational  Quarterly,"  Oct.,  18Y6,  p.  562. 


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490  Methodist  Qv^a/rterly  Beoiew.  [Jnly, 

federacy  is  in  the  womb  of  events.  .  .  .  The  corruptions  of  the 
Churchy  so-called,  are  obviously  more  deep  and  incurable  than 
those  of  the  State^  and  therefore  the  Churchy  in  spite  of  every 
precaution  and  saf^uard,  is  first  to  be  dashed  in  pieces."  * 

Mr.  Garrison  and  his  intimate  friends  were  soon  intent  on 
other  reforms.  "  Anti-church,"  "  Anti-ministry,"  "  Anti-sab- 
bath," "INo  Government,"  "Woman's  Kights,"  etc.,  were  the 
watch-words.  Standing  alone  on  their  individual  merits,  these 
reforms  could  get  no  hearing  before  the  public ;  therefore  it 
wafi  attempted  to  "  sift  them  in  "  upon  the  antislavery  reform.t 

The  ultraists  pleaded  %  ^^^  hoth  the  ecclesiastical  and  the 
political  organizations  failed  to  grasp  the  question  of  slavery 
as  its  importance  demanded ;  that  the  slave  power  wafi  aggress- 
ive, arrogant,  mandatory,  and  grasping;  tliat  Church  after 
Church  had  looked  on  with  little  interest,  often  using  their 
influence  rather  to  quiet  abolitionists  than  to  harm  slavery ; 
that  politicians  were  afraid  to  attack  the  monster  in  the  halls 
of  Congress,  and  quailing  statesmen  cowered  before  the  bowie- 
knife  and  revolver.  Under  such  circumstances,  these  cham- 
pions of  reform  became  impatient,  bitter,  vindictive,  and  des- 
perate. Out  of  this  feeling  the  "  Comeouter"  movement  arose, 
dividing  the  opposers  of  slavery  into  two  parties. 

The  "  Comeouter  "  party,  led  by  the  "  Liberator,"  edited  by 
Mr.  Garrison,  opposed  the  American  Church,  not  merely  the 
pro-slavery  part,  but  the  Church  itself,  as  the  bulwark  of 
American  slavery,  and  consequently  an  institution  that  could 
not  be  reformed,  and,  therefore,  to  be  abolished  before 
slavery  could  be  reached.  The  ministry,  as  dumb  dogs  (D.Ds.) 
that  would  not  bark,  were  placed  in  the  same  category,  and 
must  go  with  the  Church.  The  Sabbath  was  denounced :  all 
days  were  to  be  regarded  alike.  The  Bible  received  a  liberal* 
share  of  abuse,  "the  non-resistants"  discarding  its  authority 
as  a  standard  of  appeal.  It  was  a  stench  in  their  nostrils,  be- 
cause slave-holders  and  their  apologists  perverted  it  to  sustain 
slavery.    Reason  and  conscience  were  above  the  Bible.     The 

*  "The  True  History  of  the  Late  DiTision  in  the  Antislavery  Societies,"  p.  8, 
1841.  t  Ibid.,  p.  16. 

X  For  some  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  origin  of  the  **  Comeouter "  more- 
ment  the  author  is  indebted  to  a  letter  in  the  Boston  "  Daily  Advertiser,"  June  9, 
1873,  by  J.  W.  Alden. 


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1881.]   Mr,  Garrison^  the  Churches^  and  Abolitionism.      491 

Old  Testament  was  rejected,  as  of  no  authority  whatever,  and 
the  New,  also,  when  it  confronted  their  theories.  These  topics 
were  forced  upon  the  antislavery  meetings  for.  discussion  and 
indorsement,  and  special  meetings  were  called,  and  their  doings 
published  in  the  "  Liberator,"  as  antislavery  literature. 

Another  obstacle  in  the  way  of  emancipation  was  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.  Human  governments,  they 
aflSrmed  in  general,  were  "of  the  devil,"  and  the  United  States 
Constitution,  in  particular,  was  a  "covenant  with  death,  a 
league  with  hell."  It  was  a  sin  to  vote  under  it,  even  to  free 
the  slave,  because  their  tender  consciences  could  not  approve 
the  act  of  voting.  Slave-holding  politicians  for  fifty  years 
had  construed  the  Constitution  in  favor  of  slavery,  and  pro- 
slavery  divines  had  done  the  same  thing  with  the  Bible. 
Inasmuch  as  the  Church,  the*ministry,  the  Sabbath,  the  Bible, 
and  the  United  States  Constitution  all  lay  in  the  way  of  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  they  must  be  removed  before  slavery  could 
be  reached.  "  The  antislavery  movement,  at  the  start,  favored 
the  use  of  the  elective  franchise  in  behalf  of  the  slave ; "  but 
in  1838  the  Massachusetts  Antislavery  Society,  under  the  lead 
of  Mr.  Garrison,  "  was  made  to  abandon  its  own  original  doc- 
trines on  the  subject  of  political  action,  and  became  subserv- 
ient to  the  promotion  of  the  dogma  of  non-governmentism." 

These  views  caused  a  division  and  a  new  organization  of  anti- 
slavery  workers.  From  that  time  Mr.  Garrison's  influence  de- 
clined, and  the  sphere  of  his  operations  was  narrowed  to  a  small, 
dwindling  circle  *  of  sour,  wrangling  spirits,  while  the  great 
movement,  to  which  his  earlier  labors  contributed  an  impulse, 
rolled  on  in  widening  circles,  under  other  and  wiser  leaders. 

•  Mr.  J.  W.  Alden  says :  "  From  the  time  of  the  division,  in  1889,  the  *  Libera- 
tor' party  bent  its  energies  to  the  abolition  of  certain  institutions  we  have  already 
named,  but  American  Chattel  Slavery  was  not  on  that  catalogue.  That  must  wait 
and  the  slave  must  toil  on  in  bondage  until  all  the  others  were  destroyed.  God's 
institutions  were  not  thus  to  be  destroyed,  and  the  *  Liberator'  dug  its  own 
grave,  in  its  insane  attempt  to  thwart  the  divine  purposes  of  the  Creator.  The 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  was  said  to  be  *  a  covenant  of  death, 
and  a  league  with  hell,'  was  not  abolished,  but  amendedy  so  as  to  wipe  out  the  con- 
ttruetion  put  upon  it  by  the  slave  power  and  the  non-government  party,  of  which 
the  *  Liberator '  was  the  organ  as  long  as  it  lived.  .  .  .  Indeed,  Mr.  Garrison 
rendered  more  service  to  the  slave  power  by  his  opposition  to  the  voting  abolition- 
ists, during  the  hoo  last  decades  of  the  struggle,  than  he  damaged  slavery  by  bis 
advocacy  of  emancipation  in  the  Jirst  decade." 


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492  Methodiat  QuaHerly  Review.  [July, 

The  division  occurred  in  the  MassachnsettB  Antislavery  So- 
ciety in  May,  1839,  and  in  the  American  Antislavery  Society 
the  year  following.  By  packing  the  bnsiness  meeting  of  the 
latter  society,  in  1839,  with  Massachnsetts  delegates  in  sympar 
thy  with  Mr.  Garrison's  peculiar  views,  equal  in  number  to 
nearly  one  third  of  all  the  votes  cast,  the  Woman's  Rights  and 
Non-government  party  triumphed.  In  1840  this  victory  was 
made  sure  by  transporting,  by  special  steamboat  arrangements, 
several  hundred  women  from  Boston  and  vicim'ty  to  New 
York  to  vote  in  the  meeting.  The  party  opposed  to  the 
peculiar  dogmas  of  Garrison  withdrew,  and  organized  the 
American  and  Foreign  Antislavery  Society*  in  May,  1840. 
In  Massachusetts,  where  the  split  occurred  the  previous  year, 
the  new  party  was  organized  as  the  "  Massachusetts  Abolition 
Society,"  under  the  leadership  of  Eev.  Amos  A.  Phelps.  The 
party  was  chiefly  composed  of  evangelical  antislavery  Chris- 
tians of  all  denominations,  who  believed  in  using  the  ballot-box 
for  the  purpose  of  freeing  the  slaves.  Its  paper,  "  The  Aboli- 
tionist," was  edited  at  first  by  Rev.  Mr.  Phelps,  then  by  Elizur 
Wright,  Jun.  Subsequently  its  name  was  changed  to  the 
"  Free  American,"  and  was  edited  by  Eev.  Charles  T.  Torrey. 
Agents  were  sent  out  and  auxiliaries  were  formed.  Antislav- 
erj'  churches  opened  their  pulpits  to  the  agents,  and  those  who 
would  not  commit  themselves  to  antislavery  action  were  glad 
to  part  with  antislavery  members,  who  formed  Churches  on  the 
basis  of  non-fellowship  with  slave-holders.  But  no  evangelical 
Church,  however  antislavery,  received  the  approbation  of  the 
other  party.  While  this  work  was  going  on  "  the  scattering 
system  "  at  the  polls  was  abandoned,  and  the  "  liberty  party  " 
was  organized  in  1840. 

*  The  following  were  some  of  the  prominent  persons  in  the  new  organizations  op- 
posed to  Mr.  Garrison :  the  Tappans,  James  G.  Bimey,  Gerrit  Smith,  H.  M.  Stan- 
ton, T.  D.  Weld,  Rev.  A.  A.  Phelps,  Rev.  J.  Leavitt,  Rev.  C.  T.  Torrev,  Rev.  A.  St. 
Clair,  Rev.  0.  Scott,  Rev.  D.  Wise,  Rev.  J.  Horton,  Rev.  J.  Porter,  J.  G.  Whittier, 
William  Jackson,  Judge  Jaj,  William  Goodell,  Thomas  Morris,  Edward  Benham, 
Elizur  Wnght,  Jun.,  Rev.  David  Thurston,  James  Z.  Gibbons,  Rev.  David  Root, 
Alvah  Stewart,  Esq.,  Rev.  C.  P.  Grosvenor,  etc.  Mr.  Goodell  says :  "  While  these 
divii4ions  produced  a  strong  sensation  in  New  England  and  in  the  sea-board  cities, 
the  sound  of  them  going  across  the  Atlantic  awakened  kindred  responses  among 
the  abolitionists  of  Great  Britain.  The  blast  died  away,  like  a  Massachusetts  north- 
easter, as  it  traveled  westward,  spending  its  strength  before  it  had  reached  the 
valley  of  the  Mohawk,  and  was  scarcely  felt  beyond  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie." 


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1881.]   Mr,  Garrison^  the  Churches^  a/nd  AhoUtioniam.       493 

About  this  time  "The  Emancipator,"  which  had  been 
started  in  New  York  city,  was  removed  to  Boston,  and  united 
with  the  "  Free  American,"  with  Rev.  Joshua  Leavitt,  CD., 
and  J.  W.  Alden,  as  editors  and  proprietors,  while  Rev.  George 
B.  Cheever,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  William  Goodell,  published  the 
"  Principia  "  in  New  York. 

Those  Christian  men  who  did  not  unite  with  the  antislav- 
ery  societies  were  doubtless  conscientious,  of  high  character 
and  intelligence,  and  not  wanting  in  true  sympathy  for  the 
slave.  Some  could  not  approve  the  impracticable  measures  of 
the  reformers.  Others,  from  taste  or  principle,  disliked  such 
associations,  and  felt  that  they  could  not  be  held  responsible 
before  the  public  for  either  the  policy  or  the  opinions  advo- 
cated by  the  radical  agitators.  Deeply  abhorring  slavery,  and 
desiring  to  do  something  for  its  removal,  nevertheless  Mr. 
Garrison's  doctrine  of  immediate  emancipation  seemed  imprac- 
ticable and  impossible.  They  also  shnmk  from  contact  with 
violent  and  denunciatory  persons,  who  scornfully  repelled  pru- 
dential suggestions  or  more  moderate  measures. 

On  the  other  hand,  other  Christian  men  enjoyed  the  reform 
associations,  even  the  stormiest  scenes,  organizing,  leading,  and 
sustaining  the  meetings  vigorously,  imparting  to  the  cause  its 
most  reliable  and  influential  support,  tempering  it  with  their 
presence,  inspiring  hope  and  confidence  in  the  darkest  mo- 
ments, and  securing  the  divine  blessing  by  their  prayers. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  the  movement  the 
Churches  were  largely  represented  *  by  the  ministry  and  the 

*  It  IB  difficult  to  do  justice  to  the  numerous  toilers  in  this  work  of  reform.  But 
at  the  risk  of  overlooking  many  whose  names  deserve  mention,  the  following  may 
be  specified  in  addition  to  others  already  given :  Messrs.  Isaac  T.  Hooper,  Robert 
Vaux,  Evai\  Lewis,  and  John  G.  Whittier,  Friends ;  Messrs.  Lewis  Tappan,  Elizur 
Wright,  Jun.,  Robert  Purvis,  Dea.  Ebenezer  Dole,  J.  W.  Atden,  James  G.  Bimey, 
Ephraim  Lyman,  Gerrit  Smith,  Wendell  Phillips,  etc.,  communicants  of  evangel- 
ical Churches ;  Revs.  C.  W.  Dennison,  George  B.  Cheever,  D.D.,  S.  H.  Cox,  George 
Bourne,  S.  S.  Jocelyn,  Baron  Stowe,  Nathaniel  Colver,  Cyrus  P.  Grosvenor,  S.  L. 
Pomeroy,  H.  G.  Ludlow,  0.  Wetmore,  E.  M.  P.  Wells,  Thomas  Williams,  John 
Frost,  Daniel  De  Vinne,  James  Floy,  D.D.,  James  Porter,  D.D.,  Phineas  Crandall, 
Daniel  Wise,  D.D.,  Luther  Lee,  D?D.,  L.  C.  Matlack,  etc.,  ministers  of  evangelical 
Churches;  and  Professor  Follen,  Theodore  Parker,  Rev.  W.  E.  Channing,  D.D., 
and  John  Pierpont,  of  the  Unitarian  Church.  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  did  not  es- 
pouse'the  cause  until  the  martyrdom  of  Lovejoy,  in  1887.  Gerrit  Smith,  origi- 
lally  an  ardent  Presbyterian,  continued  in  sympathy,  with  the  colonization  move- 
ment until  1836.     He  attended  the  Utica  Convention  that  year,  protesting  that  he 


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494  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [July, 

laity,  usually  constituting  a  large  majority,  and  often  seven- 
eighths  of  the  working  force.  Of  146  delegates  whose  names 
appear  in  the  annual  report  of  the  American  Antislavery  So- 
ciety for  1838,  the  year  before  the  division,  50  were  ministers, 
nearly  all  of  them  belonging  to  "evangelical  Churches."  It 
was  60  every  year  from  1833  and  onward  until  the  division. 
And  yet  in  the  "Liberator,"  in  1837,  Mr.  Oliver  Johnson 
said :  "  The  antislavery  car  has  rolled  forward  thus  far  not 
only  without  the  aid,  but  against  the  combined  influence,  of 
the  ministers  and  Churches  of  the  country."  Could  any  state- 
ment more  completely  ignore  the  real  facts  up  to  that  time  ? 
Kev.  Amos  A.  Phelps,  of  the  Congregational  Church,  was 
regarded  by  many  as  "  the  head  and  front  of  antislavery  move- 
ments in  Massachusetts,  doing  more  solid  work  than  almost 
any  other  person."*  Kevs.  Joshua  Leavitt  and  William 
Goodell  were  little  behind  him,  and  some  wiU  place  Kev. 
Orange  Scott,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  on  a  paral- 
lel with  him  in  effective,  self-sacrificing  labors.  Statistics  ex- 
ist showing  that,  in  183Y,  the  antislavery  societies  in  Massachu- 
setts numbered  19,206  members,  equivalent  to  one  in  thirty-six 
of  the  whole  population  of  the  State,  while  of  the  Y92  minis- 
ters in  the  State,  367,  or  almost  one  half,  were  enrolled  mem- 
bers of  these  societies.  Of  the  fifty-six  agents  employed  by 
the  American  Antislavery  Society  prior  to  1837,  forty-three 
were  ministers,  f     Thus,  in  this  unpopular  period  of  the  agi- 

was  "  no  abolitionist ;  '*  but  the  mobbing  of  the  convention  converted  him.  He 
did  not  break  with  the  Church  until  1848.  Theodore  Parker  was  unconmiitted  to 
the  movement  until  the  Mexican  war^  or  about  1846.  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase  es- 
poused the  cause  in  1841. 

»  "  Watchman  and  Reflector." 

f  The  "Liberator"  (Nov.  8,  185V)  said:  "A  very  large  proportion  of  the  anti- 
slavery  agents  in  the  field  are  of  the  orthodox  faith,  aye,  and  minis'ters  too,  or 
those  who  are  preparing  for  the  ministry— the  exceptions,  we  believe,  are  rare." 
"In  1838  Mr.  St  Clair,  an  agent  of  the  State  Society,  said  that  the  'orthodox' 
constituted  'nine  tenths  of  the  abolitionists  in  the  State/  and  about  the  same 
time  a  leading  member  of  the  Boston  Committee  avowed  the  intention  .to  keep  the 
control  of  the  antislavery  movement  in  the  hands  of  the  church-hating  minority, 
and  simply  because  he  disliked  the  religious  views  of  the  majority.  This  *  major- 
ity '  was  evangelical.  At  the  same  time,  while  but  one  in  eight  of  the  Unitarian 
clergy  in  this  State  were  members  of  antislavery  societies  with  the  plan  of  immedi- 
ate emancipation,  or  abolition,  more  than  one  in  three  of  the  *  orthodox  *  Congrega- 
tionalists,  and  tuo  in  three  of  Baptists  and  Methodists,  were  members." —  Watchman 
and  Jttfiedor, 


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1881.]  Mt.  Ga/rrison^  the  Churches^  <md  AboUtioniam,      495 

tation,  while  the  ministers  were  one  in  five  hundred  of  the 
whole  population,  they  were  one  in  five  of  the  front  ranks  of 
this  reform.  And  yet  Theodore  Parker,  who  espoused  this 
cause  nearly  ten  years  later  than  the  date  under  consideration, 
was  wont  to  exclaim,  "When  did  the  Christianity  of  the 
Church  ever  denounce  a  popular  sin?" 

And  whence  came  the  antislavery  martyrs  but  from  these 
Churches  ?  Eev.  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  (1837,)  Charles  T.  Torrey, 
(1846,)  John  Brown,  (1859,)  and  Eev.  Anthony  Bewley,  (I860,) 
who  laid  down  their  lives  in  devotion  to  antislavery  principles, 
were  of  evangelical  Churches.  The  imprisonment  and  inhuman 
branding  (S.  S.,  sla/ve  stealer)  of  Captain  Jonathan  Walker, 
of  Massachusetts,  at  Pensacola,  in  1840 ;  the  mobbing  of  Dr. 
Bailey,  editor  of  the  "National  Era,"  Washington,  D.  C,  in 
1848 ;  and  of  Dr.  John  S.  Prettyman,  editor  of  a  Eepublican 
paper  in  Delaware,  in  1859 ;  and  the  murderous  assault  upon 
Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  the  incorruptible  senator,  we  honorably 
notice  and  give  due  i-ank ;  but  Thomas  Garrett,  (1848,)  who 
suffered  in  Delaware;  Eev.  John  G.  Fee  and  Miss  Delia 
Webster,  in  Kentucky ;  Eevs.  Daniel  Worth  and  Silas  M'Ken- 
ney,  in  Texas ;  Eev.  Dr.  Nelson  and  Messrs.  Thompson  and 
Burr,  (students  for  the  ministry,)  and  Work,  in  Missouri ;  and 
Eev.  "Parson"  Brownlow,  in  Tennessee,  well-known  victims 
of  slave-holding  vengeance,  were  ministers  or  communicants  of 
evangelical  Churches,  no  less  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  slave. 

A  writer  of  a  political  tract,  over  the  signature  of  Junius, 
(supposed  to  be  Calvin  Colton,  whom  no  one  will  charge  as  too 
"evangelical,")  said:  "Nearly  all  the  practical  abolitionists, 
and,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  all  the  abolition  preachers, 
lecturers,  and  missionaries,  are  religious  men.  Eeligion  every- 
where is  the  high  and  holy  sanction  relied  upon  to  enforce  the 
doctrine." 

Mr.  Oliver  Johnson,  whose  severe  arraignment  of  the 
Churches  in  the  "  Liberator,"  in  1837,  has  been  quoted,  at  a 
more  recent  date,  in  the  "  Christian  Union  "  of  May  7,  1874, 
under  the  mellowing  influence  of  later  years,  said :  "  The  anti- 
slavery  movement  originated  in  the  deepest  religious  convic- 
tions, and  derived  its  main  impulse  from  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  hearts  of  its  champions.  It  is  important  to 
affirm  this,  because  efforts  have  been  made  in  certain  quarters 


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496  Methodist   QuaHerly  Review.  [July, 

to  justify  or  excuse  the  hostility  to  the  movement  of  the  great 
body  of  ministers  and  Churches  in  the  country  on  the  ground 
of  its  alleged  'infidel'  character  and  tendency.  On  this  point 
history  must  not  be  perverted  nor  the  truth  concealed." 

Eev.  James  Freeman  Clarke*  said,  "If  the  Churches,  as 
organizations,  stood  aloof,  being  only  '  timidly  good,'  as  organ- 
izations are  apt  to  be,  the  purest  of  their  body  were  sure  to 
be  found  in  this  great  company  of  '  latter-day  saints.'  "  Again,t 
"  Nevertheless,  from  the  Christian  body  came  most  of  those 
who  devoted  their  lives  to  the  extirpation  of  this  great  evil. 
And  Mr.  Garrison  always  maintained  that  his  converts  were 
most  likely  to  be  made  among  those  whose  consciences  had 
been  educated  by  the  Church  and  the  Bible." 

Hon.  George  Thompson,  in  his  celebrated  debate  with  Eev. 
Dr.  R.  J.  Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky,  on  slavery,  in  Glasgow, 
1836,  said  of  the  American  antislavery  reformers  :  "  They  are 
universally  men  and  women  of  religious  principles,  and,  in* 
most  instances,  of  unquestioned  piety.  He  had  never  known 
any  benevolent  enterprise  carried  forward  more  in  dependence 
upon  divine  direction  and  divine  aid  than  the  abolition  cause 
in  the  United  States." 

The  Garrison  party,  withdrawing  from  all  political  relations, 
and  diverted  in  purpose  by  complex  social  and  skeptical  hobbies, 
became  a  small  contracted  sphere  that  could  not  grow,  not- 
withstanding the  most  assiduous  efforts  to  bring  to  their  plat- 
form every  thing  that  could  draw  and  impress  an  audience. 
Many  attended  their  anniversaries  to  witness  the  gladiatorial 
sport,  for  they  were  fierce  tournaments.  But  the  movement 
did  not  expand.  It  lacked  moral  cohesion,  was  repellant  and 
chilling  rather  than  attractive  and  vitalizing. 

"  Their  orators  were  of  every  kind,  rough  men  and  shrill- 
voiced  women,  polished  speakers  from  the  universities,  stam- 
mering fugitives  from  slavery,  philosophers  and  fanatics, 
atheists  and  Christian  ministers,  wise  men  who  had  been 
made  mad  by  oppression,  and  babes  in  intellect,  to  whom  God 
had  revealed  some  of  the  noblest  truths.  They  murdered  the 
king's  English ;  they  uttered  glaring  fallacies ;  the  blows 
aimed  at  evil  often  glanced  aside  and  hit  good  men.  Invec- 
tive was,  perhaps,  the  too-frequent  staple  of  their  argument ; 

•  "  North  American  Review,"  Jan.,  1875,  p.  81.  f  Ibid.,  p.  65. 


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1881.]  Mr.  Omrisoriy  the  Chv/rohes^  omd  AbolUiomsm.      497 

and  any  difference  of  opinion  would  be  apt  to  turn  their  weap- 
ons against  each  other.  The  Church  militant  often  became  a 
Church  termagant"  ^ 

But  the  newly  organized  party,  retaining  the  doctrine  of 
political  action  against  slavery,  formerly  advocated  by  Gar- 
rison, gradually  grew.  Hundreds  of  ministers  and  thousands 
of  the  laity  left  pro-slavery  Churches  and  organized  Churches 
on  a  strict  antislavery  basis.  Ministerial  antislavery  conven- 
tions were  held,  and  Christian  antislavery  conventions,  large 
influential  bodies,  and  wholly  by  the  anti-Qarrison  party. 
Simultaneously  with  them,  and  nmtually  contributing  to  each 
other,  started  the  Liberty  party,  (1840,)  the  Free  Soil  party, 
(1848,)  and  the  Eepublican  party,  (1854,)  each  the  successor  of 
the  other,  and  all  the  outgrowth  of  the  action,  in  and  out  of  the 
Churches,  of  the  antislavery  party  opposed  to  Mr.  Garrison's  pe- 
culiar hobbies.  Messrs.  Smith,  Bimey,  Stewart,  Green,  Chaplin, 
*  Torrey,  and  Goodell,  neai4y  idl  of  whom  were  active  in  liiese 
Christian  antislavery  conventions,  were  the  organizers  of  the 
Liberty  party ;  and  Mr.  Goodell  was  for  several  years  editor  of 
the  paper  supported  by  this  party  in  New  York.  So  also  the 
organ  of  the  Massachusetts  Abolition  Society  became  the  organ 
of  the  Liberty  party  in  Massstehusetts. 

Eev.  D.  D.  Whedon,  LL.D.,  who  has  been  a  close  observer 
and  active  participator  by  pen  and  voice  in  this  great  move- 
ment, from  about  1832  onward,  in  his  Introduction  f  to  Dr. 
Matlack's  forthcoming  "  History  of  Methodism  and  Slavery," 
appreciatively  says  :  "When  Garrisonianism  rang  out  its  *  fire- 
bell  in  the  night,'  there  were  millions  unprepared  for  its  peal 
and  doubting  the  certainty  of  its  sounds.  The  movement  was 
started  by  men  who  had  little  at  stake  in  the  existing  order  of 
society,  and  the  alarm  was  felt  by  the  great  body  of  those  who 
had  much  to  lose  in  a  coming  convulsion.  The  great  aggre- 
gate of  the  weighty,  wise,  and  good,  stood  in  the  opposition. 
They  believed  that  slavery  was  a  moral  and  political  evil ;  but 
they  also  believed  that  somehow  it  was  temporary,  and  that 
rash  measures  would  both  perpetuate  the  jevil  and  produce 
other  evils  of  incalculable  magnitude.      But  as  the  battle 

*  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  D.D.,  in  "  North  American  Review,"  January, 
1875,  p.  64. 
f  The  writer  was  kindly  favored  with  advance  sheets  of  ^e  Introduction. 


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498  Methodist  QuoArterly  Remew.  [July, 

waxed  warm,  and  the  slave-power,  in  self-defense,  became  bold 
and  announced  a  claim  to  perpetuity  and  even  supremacy, 
thousands  after  thousands  felt  compelled  to  join  the  antislavery 
ranks,  and  to  demand,  first,  the  limitation  of  slavery,  and  finally 
to  claim  its  immediate  extirpation. 

"  But  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  not  a  moral  achievement, 
but  a  war  measure.  Had  the  slave  power  stood  solid,  yet 
calm,  maintaining  its  silent  position,  and  making  no  aggressions, 
slavery  would,  to  all  appearance,  be  standing  at  this  hour,  per- 
haps the  stronger  for  the  opposition." 

No  one  can  question  this  position,  and  it  deserves  more 
serious  consideration  by  those  who  ascribe  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  in  the  United  States  to  Mr.  Garrison. 

A  few  collateral  facts  should  be  added  to  complete  the 
story.  The  culminating  events  of  the  antislavery  movement 
and  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
political  measures,  effected  by  civil  agencies,  in  wliich  our* 
greatest  and  best  statesmen  acted  honorable  and  conspicuous 
parts,  was  not  accomplished  without  the  permeating  and  ex- 
tensively controlling  influence  of  the  Protestant  Churches,  as 
represented  by  their  membership  in  the  Republican  party. 
The  preponderating  numbers  XA  this  great  party  defeated 
slavery  extension  in  the  Territories,  elected  a  Republican  Pres- 
ident, provoked  the  South  to  rebellion,  and  thus  created  the 
exigency  in  which  emancipation  was  proclaimed.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  the  Protestant  denominations,  through  their  com- 
municants and  adherents,  furnished  the  chief  part  of  the 
moral  strength  of  the  Republican  party.  The  ecclesiastical 
conferences,  associations,  and  conventions  throughout  the 
North,  from  1850  to  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  passed  numer- 
ous resolutions  bearing  upon  national  issues,  such  as  the  com- 
promise measures  of  1850,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  the  Dred 
Scott  Decision,  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  schemes,  etc.,  sus- 
taining, by  overwhelming  majorities,  the  politico-moral  issues 
which  entered  into  the  movements  of  the  Republican  party ; 
and,  in  most  of ^the  Northern  States,  three  fourths  of  the 
communicants  and  adherents  of  these  Churches,  and  in  some 
localities,  nine  tenths  of  them,  acted  with  that  party,  constitut- 
ing its  most  influential  and  reliable  supporters.  Sermons, 
addresses,  and  prayers  innumerable,  by  the  Protestant  clergy, 


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1881.]   Mr,  Ga/rrison^  the  ChurcJieSy  cmd  Abolitionism.      499 

echoed  the  deep  religious  convictions  of  the  Christian  public. 
Piles  of  sermons  *  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  the  Kansas 
atrocities,  aud  other  cognate  topics,  delivered  between  1845 
and  1865,  have  been  collected  in  the  public  libraries  for  future 
reference.  The  Republican  party  was  emphatically  the  party 
of  the  highest  moral  and  religious  sentiment. 

The  Congressional  records  show  numerous  petitions  and 
remonstrances  of  individual  Churches,  of  ministers  and  eccles- 
iastical bodies,  bearing  upon  these  great  questions.  The  relig- 
ious press  entered  into  the  contest,  conspicuous  among  which 
was  the  *'  Independent,"  edited  by  Revs.  Leonard  Bacon,  D.D., 
J.  P.  Thompson,  D.D.,  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D.,  and  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  and  kindred  works,  imbued 
with  fervid  religious  sentiment,  moved  the  masses.  The  very 
boldness  of  the  projects  of  the  slave  power  awakened  revulsion 
and  intensified  antislavery  action.  Memorials,  numerously 
signed  by  clergymen  from  the  Middle  and  Western  States, 
poured  into  Congress,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  sepa- 
rate remonstrances  within  a  few  months  came  from  the  minis- 
ters of  the  six  New  England  States.  There  came  a  mammoth 
memorial,  two  hundred  feet  long,  bearing  the  names  of  three 
thousand  and  fifty  New  England  clergymen,f  so  ingeniously 
engrossed  as  to  preserve  the  original  signature  and  head- 
ing of  each  petition,  protesting  "in  the  name  of  Almighty 
God,"  against  the  proposed  extension  of  the  domain  of  slav- 
ery in  the  territoiy  of  the  United  States.  On  its  presentation 
to  the  Senate,  Hon.  Edward  Everett  apologetically  alluded  to 
it  as  "  a  somewhat  voluminous  document."  Hon.  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  characterized  it  as  "informal  and  monstrous,"  and 
Hons.  John  M.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  and  Mr.  Butler,  of  South 
Carolina,  poured  out  their  indignation  against  the  political 
parsons,  and  prognosticated  evil  omens  from  such  participation 
in  political  action  by  the  Christian  clergy.  Hon.  Samuel 
Houston,  with  characteristic  magnanimity,  declared  that  he  saw 

*  The  beautiful  yolume  of  "  National  Sermons,"  by  Rev.  Bishop  Gilbert  Haven, 
covering  a  period  of  about  fifteen  years,  is  a  fine  specimen  of  these  discourses, 
and  of  great  liistoric  value. 

f  This  idea  originated  with  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe,  who  suggested  it  to  Rev.  Henry 
M.  Dexter,  D.D.,  editor  of  the  "  Ck>ngregationalist,''  through  whose  agency  the  head- 
ing was  prepared  at  a  meeting  of  Boston  mmisters,  and  the  names  were  obtained. 
None  except  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  refused  to  sign  it. 


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600  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [July, 

in  the  paper  nothing  informal  nor  monstrous,  and  that  "  this 
memorial,  signed  by  three  thousand  and  fifty  ministers  of  the 
living  God,  is  evidence  that  the  people  are  deeply  moved." 
And  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  then  fresh  in  his  seat  in  the  Sen- 
ate, thanked  the  ministers  for  their  interposition,  adding:  "In 
the  days  of  the  Eevolution,  John  Adams,  yearning  for  inde- 
pendence, said,  '  Let  the  pulpits  thunder  against  oppression,' 
and  the  pulpits  thundered.  The  time  has  come  for  them  to 
thunder  again." 

I  have  thus  endeavored,  in  a  faithful  manner,  and  with  as 
much  detail  as  my  limits  will  allow,  to  sketch  the  relations  of 
the  religious  bodies  to  the  antislavery  reform.  The  legislation 
of  the  Churches  was  sometimes  unfortunate  and  even  repre- 
hensible. Majorities  opposed  and  retaliated  against  the  agita- 
tors. Men  of  nndoubted  piety  cast  their  influence  against  the 
abolition  movement,  because  of  the  legal  diflBculties  in  the 
way  of  emancipation.  They  felt  compelled  to  conservative 
action.  This  produced  friction ;  and  bitterness,  complaint,  and 
denunciation  followed.  Thus  the  attitude  of  the  Churches,  out 
of  whose  bosom  the  reform  sprung,  was  seriously  crippled. 

In  so  radical  and  extensive  a  movement,  where  the  evil  to 
be  removed  was  a  .system  venerable  for  age,  intimately  inter- 
woven with  great  civil,  social,  and  financial  interests,  and  in- 
trenched behind  constitutional  provisions,  the  progress  was 
necessarily  slow  and  difficult,  occasioning  impatience  and  cen- 
soriousness.  Numerous  ecclesiastical  schisms  —  results  not 
easily  reached  in  bodies  cemented  by  powerful,  social,  and  re- 
ligious bonds — and  clearly  showing  how  powerfully  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  became  arrayed  against  the  accursed  system 
of  slavery,  were  effected  in  the  largest  denominations  in  the 
land.  liadical  measures,  intense  appeals,  and  uncompromising 
speech  abounded  in  the  contest.  They  were  necessities.  Strife 
and  opposition  were  inevitable,  calling  for  redoubtable  moral 
heroes.  Whatever  of  human  frailty  appeared  can  be  forgiven, 
but  the  sad  effects  which  followed  the  unfortunate  embarrass- 
ments of  the  Churches  cannot  be  forgotten,  nor  the  fact  that, 
nevertheless,  the  germ,  the  impulse,  and  the  best  strength  of 
the  movement  sprung  out  of  the  Churches. 


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1881.]  The  Wesley  Memorial  Vd/ume.  501 


Art.  VI.— the  WESLEY  MEMORIAL  VOLUME. 

The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume;  or,  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement,  Judged 
by  nearly  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Writers,  LiTing  or  Dead.  Edited  by  Rev. 
J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.  New  York  :  Phillips  &  Hunt.  Cincinnati:  Wal- 
den  k  Stowe.  J.  W.  Burke  k  Co.,  Macon,  Ga.  J.  B.  M*Ferrin,  Agt.,  Nashville, 
Tenn.    L.  D.  Daroeron  k  Co.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.     1880. 

To  writers  outside  its  own  commnnion  Methodism  has  fur- 
nished themes  and  materials  for  books,  reviews,  and  essays 
without  number.  Churchman,  dissenter,  and  skeptic  alike 
have  found  it  a  most  inviting  and  fruitful  field  for  inquiry, 
criticism,  and  speculation.  It  is  safe  to  affirm  that  no  religious 
movement  since  the  days  of  the  apostles  has,  in  tlie  same 
length  of  time,  been  more  generally  and  thoroughly  discussed. 
From  every  conceivable  stand-point,  and  in  every  diversity  of 
spirit,  its  character,  methods,  and  results  have  been  subjected 
to  critical  analysis  and  comment. 

Many  writers  of  the  class  referred  to  have  manifested  a 
Christian  friendliness  toward  Methodism ;  but  not  all.  It  is 
not  the  fruitfulness  of  the  field  alone  that  has  enlisted  the  in- 
terest and  engaged  the  research  of  some.  But  the  movement 
has  assumed  such  proportions,  such  are  its  achievements,  and 
it  is  entering  as  such  a  potential  factor  into  contemporary  his- 
tory, that  they  cannot  ignore  or  lightly  dismiss  it.  Fidelity  to 
truth,  and  the  sense  of  common  justice  in  mankind,  impera- 
tively require  that  it  be  taken  due  account  of  by  the  secular 
as  well  as  the  religious  historian,  by  the  philosopher  as  well  as 
the  theologian.  And  any  one  who  undertakes  to  give  a  gen- 
eral survey  of  the  great  moral  forces  now  at  work  in  the 
world  must  give  prominence  to  Methodism,  or  else  incur  the 
opprobrium  of  bigotry  and  prejudiced  partiality. 

While  Methodism  is  thus  winning  its  way  to  a  place  in  the 
general  literature  of  the  age,  it  is  also  creating  a  literature  of 
its  own  of  by  no  means  insignificant  merit.  It  was  bom  in 
the  midst  of  literary  surroundings,  of  the  heart  and  brain 
of  literary  men  quickened  into  reproductive  energy  by  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Its  literature  was  the  support  of 
its  infancy,  the  stronghold  in  which  it  abode  in  safety.  It  has 
kept  pace  with  its  growth,  and  to-day  covers  the  entire  field  of 
its  multiform  activities. 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 83 


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502  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review,  [July, 

In  his  philosophic  analysis  of  Methodism,  Isaac  Taylor  de- 
fines its  first  element  as  "  the  waking  up  of  a  consciousness 
toward  Almighty  God,  which  gave  a  meaning  "  to  the  termin- 
ology of  the  Church,  and  transformed  its  dead  formularies  into 
living  verities  of  the  most  solemn  significance.  The  feeling^ 
awakened  was  different  not  only  in  degree,  but  in  kind,  from  any 
thing  the  soul  had  experienced  before ;  it  was  "  as  if  a  lost  ru- 
diment of  the  moral  nature  had  sprung  into  activity."  In  such 
an  awakening  of  the  religious  consciousness  all  the  powers  of  the 
soul  are  stirred  by  new  impulses,  and  the  entire  man  is  lifted 
into  a  new  and  higher  life.  From  this  higher  plane  there  are 
new  views  of  truth  and  duty,  of  privilege  and  destiny,  and, 
as  a  result,  quickened  thought  and  intensified  moral  sensibility. 
The  immediate  fruit,  in  a  well-ordered  moral  constitution,  is 
religious  enthusiasm;  and  thus  Methodism  becomes,  philo- 
sophically, "Christianity  in  earnest."  Nothing  less  is  to  be 
expected  than  that  its  earnestness  should  embody  and  manifest 
itself  in  all  the  varied  forms  of  Christian  enterprise,  and  that 
it  should  avail  itself  of  every  admissible  agency  within  its 
reach  in  the  prosecution  of  its  mission.  A  Methodism  with- 
out its  presses  and  books,  reviews,  monthlies,  weeklies,  tracts, 
— ^a  literature  adapted  to  the  condition  and  wants  of  all  classes 
— is  not  the  Methodism  portrayed  by  Isaac  Taylor,  or  de- 
scribed in  the  aphorism  of  Chalmers.  Methodism  is  a  life,  an 
active,  energetic,  joyous  life  in  Christ,  and  as  such  will  have 
its  literature  along  with  other  modes  of  manifestation,  just  as 
naturally  as  the  tree  puts  on  its  foliage  and  brings  forth  its  fruit. 

Lord  Bacon  said,  concerning  books,  that  "  Some  are  to  be 
tasted,  others  to  be  swallowed,  and  some  few  to  be  chewed  and 
digested."  It  is  not  unlikely  that  in  the  great  mass  of  Meth- 
odist literature  there  are  many  books  that  properly  belong  to 
the  first  and  second  of  these  classes.  There  may  be  no  poison 
in  them,  but  there  is  no  aliment,  neither  milk  for  babes  nor 
strong  meat  for  men.  A  taste  is  all  that  they  deserve,  and  is 
all-suflScient  for  the  earnest  seeker  after  soul  food.  Or  if  there 
be  nutriment  in  any  of  them,  it  is  in  a  solution  so  dead  that  there 
is  not  a  sparkle  on  its  surface,  and  so  weak  that  the  babe  may 
swallow  it.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  "  some  few  "  at 
least  that  have  real,  permanent  worth.  They  are  full  of  pure, 
vigorous,  healthful  thought,  and  are  "  profitable  for  doctrine, 


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1881.]  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  603 

for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  for  instruction  in  righteons- 
ness."  They  awaken  thought,  panoply  the  soul  with  truth, 
enlarge  its  conceptions  of  divine  things,  awaken  in  it  new  and 
grander  aspirations,  and  furnish  "  the  man  of  God  unto  all 
good  works." 

The  book  whose  title  appears  in  the  caption  of  this  article 
belongs  to  the  last-mentioned  class.  It  is  food  for  mind  and 
heart,  both  substantial  and  savory.  To  taste  it  merely  will  not 
satisfy,  but  only  whet,  the  mental  appetite ;  to  swallow  it  entire 
would  be  a  feat  scarcely  possible  to  the  most  voracious  literary 
gormand ;  nothing  less  than  the  process  of  deliberate  chewing 
and  digestion  at  leisure  will  develop  its  admirable  qualities 
and  secure  the  full  benefit  of  its  nutritive  forces.  It  is  a  book 
that  may  be  read  as  a  delightful  and  profitable  entertainment 
for  the  passing  hour,  but  one  that  must  be  studied  in  order 
to  a  just  appreciation  of  its  intrinsic  excellence  and  real  sig- 
nificance. 

Methodism  is  indebted  for  this  valuable  contribution  to  its 
literature  to  the  scheme  inaugurated  in  1876  of  building 
the  Wesley  Monumental  Church  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  "  the 
only  city  in  America  in  which  Mr.  Wesley  had  a  home  and  a 
parish."  This  movement  received  the  official  indorsement  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  its  General  Confer- 
ence in  1878,  and  the  Kev.  J.  O.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  was 
accredited  as  its  agent.  The  connectional  and  ecumenical  idea 
was  fundamental  with  the  originators  of  the  enterprise.  It 
was  this  specific  feature  more  than  any  other  that  won  for  it 
the  official  approval  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
It  is  of  this  idea  that  Dr.  Clark  is  the  representative.  He  "  was 
appointed,  commissioned,  and  sent  to  the  various  Methodisms 
of  the  world  to  solicit  the  co-operation  of  them  all."  While  in 
England,  in  prosecution  of  his  mission,  he  conceived  the  idea 
that  such  a  volume  as  that  now  given  to  the  public  would  aid 
in  "  building  the  '  Monumental  Church,'  help  to  illustrate  the 
life  work  of  John  Wesley,  and  bring  the  various  Methodisms 
of  the  world  into  closer  union  and  fellowship."  And  if  the 
movement  were  to  accomplish  nothing  more  than  the  produc- 
tion of  this  volume,  it  would  be  an  achievement  well  worth 
all  that  it  has  cost. 

The  plan  of  the  work  is  unique.    It  is  compoeed  of  between 


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504  MethodUt  QuaHerly  Review.  [July, 

forty  and  fifty  essays,  each  essay  complete  in  itself  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  rest.  The  subjects  of  these  articles  were 
chosen  by  the  editor,  as  were  also  the  writers,  who,  for  the 
most  part,  are  representative  men  in  the  various  branches  of  the 
Methodist  family  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Among  the 
contributors  from  other  communions  are  such  men  as  Dean 
Stanley,  Dr.  Dobbin,  and  Mr.  Overton,  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland ;  Sir  Charles  Keed,  of  the  Independents  of  England  ;  and 
Dr.  De  Pressens6,  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Paris.  Of 
course  John  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  movement  is  the  gen- 
eral topic  of  the  work.  And,  as  might  be  anticipated,  he  is  pre- 
sented in  every  phase  of  his  many-sided  character  and  in  every 
stage  of  his  religious  life ;  while  the  movement  which  he  in- 
augurated is  exhibited  from  the  stand-points  of  history,  theol- 
ogy, and  philosophy,  in  its  own  character,  in  its  relations  to 
other  organizations,  and  in  its  influence  on  the  Church  and  the 
world  in  his  own  and  subsequent  times, 

In  such  a  work  there  must  of  necessity  be  great  diversity  of 
style,  as  well  as  inequality  of  merit  in  its  articles.  The  for- 
mer is  not  displeasing,  and  the  latter,  so  far  from  operating  a 
discount  on  the  work,  will  rather  enhance  its  value  in  the 
judgment  of  the  intelligent  reader.  The  writers  are  represent- 
ative men.  It  is  fair  to  presume  that  in  the  preparation  of 
their  articles  they  have  done  some  of  their  best  work,  work 
which  may  safely  be  accepted  as  exponential  of  the  mind 
and  culture  of  the  various  branches  of  Methodism  to  which 
they  belong.  If  so,  then  the  reader  may  find  here,  and  no- 
where else  in  the  same  compass,  data  for  an  at  least  approxi- 
mately correct  conclusion  as  to  the  intellectual  status  of  the 
different  Methodisms  relatively,  and  of  Methodism  as  a  whole. 
The  student  of  leisure  will  go  to  original  sources  for  informa- 
tion on  this  interesting  topic;  to  the  history,  educational 
statistics,  and  literary  products  of  these  several  communions ; 
but,  after  all  his  research,  his  conclusion  wiU  not  differ  very 
materially  from  that  of  the  judicious  and  discriminating  reader 
of  this  memorial  volume.  It  does  not  come  within  the  pur- 
view of  this  article  to  enter  the  field  of  inquiry  here  opened, 
and  deduce  the  inferences  that  might  be  suggested.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  exhibit  of  Methodist  culture  and  literary 
excellence  and  ability  is  most  gratifying,  and  will  challenge 


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1881.3  The  Wesl&y  Memorial  Volume.  505 

comparison  with  any  similar  production  either  within  or  with- 
out the  Church  of  Christ.  While  all  these  essays  are  highly 
creditable  to  their  authors  and  to  the  communions  they  repre- 
sent, some  of  them  are  unsurpassed  for  purity,  strength,  classic 
beauty  and  elegance  bj^  any  thing  in  the  English  language. 

It  will  not  be  considered  invidious  if  special  mention  be 
made  of  Eev.  L.  H.  Holsey,  Bishop  of  the  Colored  M.  E.  Church 
in  America,  and  Eev.  B.  F.  Lee,  L.B.,  of  the  African  M.  E. 
Church,  as  contributors  to  this  work.  While  the  ecumenical 
spirit  and  plan  of  the  editor  required  that  the  colored  Meth- 
odisms  should  be  represented,  such  representation  is  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  Christian  sentirafent  and  conviction  of  the  age. 
Ecclesiastical  ostracism,  because  of  race  or  color,  is  in  contra- 
vention of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Gospel.  "  There 
is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there 
is  neither  male  nor  female :  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus." 
The  Church  of  Christ  is  an  essential  unity,  and  no  member,  or 
class  of  members,  can  lightly  esteem  any  other  member  with- 
out dishonoring  the  Head.  Dr.  Clark,  a  Southern  man  by 
birth,  education,  and  affinities,  along  with  tnie  Christian  men 
every-where,  stands  squarely  on  this  platform.  That  in  the 
section  to  which  he  belongs  there  lingers  much  of  the  ancient 
feudal  spirit,  no  one  will  deny.  Nor  will  any  reasonable  man 
expect  that  spirit — the  growth  of  centuries — ^suddenly  to  be- 
come extinct.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  men  of  honest,  intelli- 
gent patriotism,  to  say  nothing  of  religion,  must  and  will  re- 
joice in  the  intellectual  and  moral  elevation  of  all  classes  of  our 
population;  and  nowhere  will  ^t^A  men  rejoice  more  in  the 
improved  condition  of  the  negro  than  in  the  South,  the  inter- 
ests of  which  are  now  so  largely  dependent  on  his  intelligent 
appreciation  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizenship.  In  any 
tokens  of  his  progress  and  enlarged  capabilities  all  good  men 
find  occasion  of  profound  satisfaction.  And  when  Dr.  Clark 
places  Bishop  Holsey  and  Eev.  B.  F.  Lee  in  this  galaxy  of 
Methodism — the  latter  side  by  side  with  himself — he  only  gives 
tangible  expression  to  a  conviction  of  right  which  is  deeply  im- 
bedded in  the  faith  of  the  Christian  men  of  the  South,  who, 
in  common  with  such  men  elsewhere,  rejoice  that  these  rep- 
resentatives of  tlio  African  race  fill  their  places  with  such  a 
high  degree  of  credit. 


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606  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [July, 

A  complete  unity  was  an  ideal  scarcely  realizable  in  the  first 
and  only  work  of  this  character  that  has  ever  been  attempted. 
The  indifference  of  some,  the  remembrance  of  by-gone  feuds, 
and  the  remains  of  ancient  prejudices  in  others,  essential  dif- 
ferences in  ecclesiastical  polity,  strong  Church  predilections  in 
all,  and  many  minor  diflBculties,  were  in  the  way  of  the  realiza- 
tion of  such  an  ideal.  On  the  contrary,  there  was  a  powerful 
influence  favorable  to  it  in  the  prevailing  tendency  toward 
unification  in  all  religious  bodies,  especially  those  of  the  same 
creed.  The  Evangelical  Alliance,  the  Pan-Presbyterian  Coun- 
cil, the  approaching  Ecumenical  Conference  of  Methodism, 
International  Sunday-school  Conventions  and  Christian  Asso- 
ciations, are  the  fruit  of  this  tendency,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  means  of  this  growth.  Aided  by  this  spirit  of  the  times, 
Dr.  Clark  has  so  far  overcome  existing  difficulties  as  in  an 
eminent  degree  to  attain  a  grand  unity.  lie  has  brought  to- 
gether representatives  of  well-nigh  every  branch  of  Meth- 
odism, and  with  them  a  goodly  number  from  other  commun- 
ions, on  a  common  platform ;  they  meet  in  one  common  center 
and  strike  hands  in  Christian  fellowship.  There  is  an  entire 
absence  of  the  spirit  of  party — no  unnecessary  reference  to  de- 
nominational peculiarities — ^no  assumption  on  the  part  of  any 
of  a  superior  claim  as  an  exponent  of  Wesleyan  doctrine  and 
polity,  and,  if  we  except  the  paper  of  Bishop  G.  F.  Pierce,  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  nothing  from  first  to  last  that  savors 
of  controversy.  While  there  is  this  beautiful  harmony  within, 
there  is  manifested  no  illiberality  toward  any  that  are  without. 
There  is  no  disparagement  of  any  evangelical  Church,  and  no  re- 
sentful harshness  toward  the  bitterest  opponents  of  Mr.  Wesley 
and  the  Methodist  movement.  In  this  oneness  of  spirit  among 
these  writers,  in  their  exhibition  of  the  traditional  liberality  of 
Methodism,  and  in  the  oneness  of  their  completed  work,  is  one 
of  the  most  pleasing  features  of  the  "  Memorial  Volume." 

As  the  venerable  Bishop  Simpson,  in  his  brief  Preface  to  the 
work,  says:  "Mr.  Wesley  was  many-sided,  and  from  many 
points  of  view  his  characteristics  are  worthy  of  record."  No 
man  has  appeared  in  the  history  of  the  Church  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles  in  whose  character  were  so  many,  and  such  a 
diversity,  of  qualities  in  pre-eminent  manifestation.  Viewed 
from  opposite  stand-points  and  through  different  mediUy  there 


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1881.]  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  507 

niay  have  been  apparent  contrasts  and  contradictions.  Indeed, 
it  woold  be  little  less  than  marvelous  if,  through  a  life  so  long, 
of  such  vast  and  varied  labors,  and  of  such  changeful  circum- 
stances, he  had  always  appeared  the  same  to  every  observer. 
Different  characteristics  would  most  naturally  come  into  greater 
prominence  under  diffei*ent  conditions.  From  these  special 
manifestations  the  unphilosophic  would  form  their  estimate  of 
the  whole  character.  Hence  the  great  variety  of  opinions  that 
men  have  entertained  concerning  him.  Hence,  too,  the  im- 
possibility of  forming  a  just  and  adequate  idea  of  any  of  the 
great  men  of  history  from  the  records  of  any  one  chronicler. 
There  are  fourteen  histories  of  Mr.  Wesley  extant  Each  one 
of  them  is,  no  doubt,  in  many  respects  just ;  but  no  one  of 
them  is  adequate ;  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  every  man's 
work  takes  its  coloring  from  that  characteristic  which  from  his 
point  of  view  and  from  his  peculiar  mental  structure  impresses 
him  the  most  strongly.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  any 
one  man  should  take  that  completeness  and  comprehensiveness 
of  view  necessary  to  the  presentation  of  such  a  character  in  all 
its  grand  integrity.  Each  one  of  these  memorial  writers  has 
devoted  his  powers  of  research  and  analysis  to  some  one  feature 
of  his  character  or  his  work ;  in  the  synthesis  of  the  whole,  he 
appears  as.  in  no  other  single  volume  in  any  language — not  yet, 
indeed,  "in  his  whole  round  of  rays  complete,"  but  as  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  figures  in  the  history  of  the  Church  militant. 
Science  has  not  yet  sufficiently  established  and  defined  the 
operation  of  the  laws  of  heredity  to  enable  us  to  measure  the 
influence  of  ancestry  on  individual  character.  But  that  there  is 
some  such  influence,  and  that,  unobstructed  by  counter  work- 
ing forces,  it  will  be  a  potent  agency  in  molding  the  character 
and  life  of  men,  will  not  admit  of  reasonable  doubt.  Intellect- 
ual and  moral  traits,  as  well  as  physical  excellences  or  defects, 
are  often  transmitted  from  parent  to  child,  and  in  such  promi- 
nence as  to  give  tone  and  coloring  to  the  entire  history  of  the 
individual.  In  his  admirable  paper  on  "  The  Wesley  Family," 
Mr.  Stevenson  gives  the  lineage  of  the  family  for  nearly  a 
thousand  years,  and  affirms  that "  in  the  annals  of  both  England 
and  Ireland  the  Wesleys  have  a  place  which  marks  them  in 
successive  generations  as  among  the  foremost  men  of  the  age 
for   loyalty,    chivalry,  learning,  piety,  poetry,   and  music." 


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608  Methodist  QuaHerly  lieview.  ^       [July, 

How  much  these  characteristics  of  his  ancestry  may  have  had 
to  do  in  giving  cast  to  Mr.  Wesley's  character  cannot  be  deter- 
mined ;  while,  with  Paul,  he  could  say :  "  By  the  grace  of 
God,  I  am  what  I  am,"  it  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  that 
grace  had  been  at  work  for  a  thousand  years,  originating,  com- 
bining, ajid  directing  the  forces  necessary  to  the  production  of 
such  a  man  at  such  a  period  in  the  world's  history.  Dr.  Lips- 
combe,  in  the  article  on  the  "  Providence  of  God  in  Meth- 
odism," says:  "The  cradle,  the  nursery,  the  parental  home, 
were  made  ready  for  its  advent."  The  providence  that,  by  no 
merely  "happy  conjuncture  of  circumstances"  prepared  the 
place,  likewise  prepared  the  man.  Methodism  is  often  called 
"  the  child  of  providence,"  in  the  superficial  sense  of  its  adapt- 
ability to  circumstances ;  it  is  so  in  the  deeper,  truer  sense  of 
being  one  of  the  developments  of  Gpd's  gracious  administra- 
tion, the  preparation  for  which  had  been  going  forward  through 
a  series  of  ages.  This  view  gives  a  profound  significance  to 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Wesley  was  bom  of  such  a  long  line  of  hon- 
orable ancestry.  It  reveals  the  hand  of  God,  shaping  events 
and  directing  the  secret  powers  of  nature  to  the  working  out 
of  his  great  purposes  in  his  appointed  time. 

In  his  beautiful  portraiture  of  "  John  Wesley  and  his  Moth- 
er," Dr.  Potts  says :  "  If  God  ever  prepared  a  handmaid  of  his 
to  be  the  mother  of  one  specially  commissioned  and  qualified 
to  revive  his  Church,  God  surely  raised  up  Susanna  Wesley  to 
be  the  mother  and  spiritual  guide  of  the  great  reformer  of  the 
Churches  in  the  eighteenth  century."  While  much  may  per- 
haps be  ascribed  to  the  providence  of  God  in  his  remoter  an- 
cestry, more,  far  more,  is  due  to  that  providence  which  gave 
him  such  a  mother.  As  God's  instrument,  she  watched  over 
his  infancy,  gave  direction  to  the  impulses  and  aims  of  his 
young  life,  chose  for  him  and  aided  him  in  his  studies,  blessed 
him  with  her  sympathies,  prayers,  and  judicious  counsels,  and, 
more  than  all  other  human  agencies  combined,  "  helped  to  fit 
him  for  his  wonderful  destiny.  She  not  only  influenced  her 
honored  son  as  to  his  own  character,  but  also  stamped  the  im- 
press of  her  discipline  and  doctrinal  views  upon  the  Meth- 
odist system." 

In  addition  to  inherited  qualities,  parental  wisdom  and  piety, 
and  educational  advantages,  there  was  a  formative,  disciplinary 


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1881.1  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  509 

influence  at  work  of  a  different  character.  This  was  the  type 
of  religion  then  predominant  in  the  Church  of  England — not 
the  shameful  irreligion  of  that  Church,  but  that  wherein  con- 
sisted its  religion.  That  it  consisted  for  the  most  part  in  the 
observance  of  forms  and  rites  cannot  be  denied.  It  was  a 
baptized  Pharisaism,  as  Archbishop  Leighton  testifies,  "  a  fair 
carcass  without  the  spirit."  While  such  a  religion  cannot 
save,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  it  may  contribute  to  the  greater 
efficiency  of  God's  chosen  instruments.  Mr.  Wesley  was  to  be 
the  apostle,  not  of  a  new  theology,  but  of  a  new  life.  Dr.  Dob- 
bin, of  the  Church  of  England,  in  his  eloquent  contribution  on 
"The  Ideas  Wesley  Developed,"  gives  especial  prominence  to 
these  three :  "  The  absolute  necessity  of  personal  and  individual 
religion ;  the  absolute  need  of  spiritual  influence  to  secure  the 
conversion  of  the  soul ;  and  that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
spiritual  organization,  consisting  of  spiritual  men  associated  for 
spiritual  purposes."  In  order  to  the  most  effective  enforcement 
of  these  great  truths  an  experience  of  the  insufficiency  of  for- 
malism is  an  important  prerequisite.  Paul  was  a  more  power- 
ful preacher  of  the  righteousness  of  faith  for  having  been 
"  after  the  straitest  sect  a  Pharisee."  And  Wesley  was  only 
the  more  thoroughly  prepared  for  his  spiritual  mission  by  his 
realization  of  the  worthlessness  of  mere  legalism,  however  com- 
prehensive its  exactions  or  absolute  his  compliance  with  them. 
The  scholarly  editor  of  the  "  Memorial  Volume "  describes 
Wesley  in  Savannah.  It  was  there  that  his  legalism  culminated. 
There  he  voluntarily  endured  the  greatest  hardships.  But,  as 
Dr.  Clark  truly  says,  "  The  trials,  persecutions,  vigils,  fastings, 
and  perils  in  the  solitudes  of  the  wilderness,  were  necessary  to 
form  and  develop  the  future  revivalist  and  reformer  for  the 
great  work  to  which  God  had  called  him."  By  the  fearful 
bondage  of  the  letter  he  is  prepared  to  witness  with  the  greater 
power  for  the  freedom  of  the  Spirit. 

It  was  while  in  Savannah,  the  scene  probably  of  his  deep- 
est soul-struggles,  that,  in  Mr.  Wesley's  religious  experience, 
it  began  to  dawn  toward  a  glorious  spiritual  day,  "It  was 
there,"  says  Dr,  Clark,  "  his  high-churchmanship  received  its 
deadly  wound.  He  left  Savannah  a  very  different,  a  wiser, 
and  a  better  man,"^nd  a  converted  man.  Dr.  Clark  believes, 
and  argues  forcibly  to  prove.      But,  if  he  was  a  converted 


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510  Methodint  QuaHerly  Bemew,  [July, 

man,  he  did  not  know  it ;  nor  did  he  at  any  subsequent  time 
identify  any  change  wrought  in  him  while  in  America  as  spirit- 
ual regeneration.  The  preponderance  of  evidence  is  in  favor 
of  the  commonly  accepted  date  and  place  of  his  conversion, 
namely,  May  24,  1Y38,  in  a  Moravian  Society  meeting  in  Al- 
deregate-street,  London.  He  testifies  that  it  was  then,  "  while 
one  was  describing  the  change  which  God  works  in  the  heart 
through  faith  in  Christ,"  that  his  "  heart  was  strangely  warmed." 
Wliatever  may  have  been  his  spiritual  state  hitherto,  it  was  not 
until  tben'  that  he  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  and  "  the 
joy  of  a  free,  full,  present,  and  eternal  salvation  flowed  in  upon 
his  soul." 

A  period  of  nearly  ten  years  intervened  between  his  ordina- 
tion by  Bishop  Potter  and  his  conversion  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Peter  Bohler.  These  were  years  of  prayerful, 
self-denying,  and  unshrinking  devotion  to  duty ;  yet  were  they 
years  not  only  of  spiritual  unrest,  but  of  comparative  failure 
in  his  ministry.  But  with  the  atrcmge  warming  of  his  heart 
he  entered  into  the  dweet  rest  of  faith,  and  a  success,  no  doubt 
beyond  any  thing  of  which  he  had  conceived,  began  at  once  to 
crown  his  labors.  Henceforth  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God 
was  upon  him,  and  the  Gospel  as  he  preached  it  was  "  not  in 
word  only,  but  also  in  power  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in 
much  assurance."  He  stirred  the  religious  sensibilities  of  the 
people,  and  moved  and  melted  the  multitudes  that  flocked  to 
his  ministry  as  had  never  been  done  before.  Mighty  men  had 
arisen  in  the  Church  before  his  day ;  mighty  men  were  his 
contemporaries  and  colaborers;  but  for  intensity  of  spiritual 
power,  and,  that  best  of  all  tests  of  its  genuineness,  the  magni- 
tude and  permanency  of  spiritual  results,  he  exceeded  them  all. 
To  those  who  are  disposed  to  inquire  into  the  secret  of  his 
power,  the  essay  on  "  Wesley  the  Preacher,"  by  Dr.  Rigg,  will 
be  deeply  interesting.  He  makes  special  mention  of  his  clear, 
vivid,  direct,  and  terse,  but  copious,  style ;  of  the  tone  and 
presence  of  calm,  unconscious  authority  in  both  his  manner 
and  speech,  and  of  the  directness  of  his  appeals  to  the  con- 
sciences of  men,  and  his  impassioned  earnestness  of  entreaty. 
In  the  paper  of  Rev.  M.  Lelievre,  on  "  Wesley  as  the  Popular 
Preacher,"  will  be  found  a  similar  analysis.  He  flnds  in  Wes- 
ley's perfect  frankness,  his  incisiveness  of  utterance,  his  logical 


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1881.1  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  511 

power^  his  simplicity,  precision,  and  nervousness  of  style,  and 
his  directness  of  application  and  appeal,  the  constituents  of  his 
power.  More  comprehensive  than  either  of  these,  and  perhaps 
more  satisfactory,  is  the  analysis  of  Dr.  Douglass.  In  the  paper 
on  "Wesley  as  a  Kevivalist," he  maintains  that,  l,his  theology, 
2,  his  spiritual  life,  3,  his  style  of  preaching,  and,  4,  his  power 
of  organization,  were  "  the  elements  which  conspired  to  render 
him  foremost  of  all  revivalists  whom  the  world  had  ever  wit- 
nessed." 

With  such  a  combination  of  qualities,  inspired  by  one  im- 
pulse and  consecrated  to  one  end,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he 
had  power  with  men.  But  add  to  this  his  divinely  authenti- 
cated credentials  as  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  the  attestation 
of  the  truth  of  his  message  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  his  own  ex- 
perience, and  the  domination  of  his  soul  and  life  by  what 
Mr.  Overton  calls  "his  master  passion,  the  love  of  God  and 
the  loVe  of  man  for  God's  sake,"  and  it  is  no  matter  of  aston- 
ishment that  such  signs  and  wonders  attended  his  preaching, 
and  that  such  multitudes  were  turned  from  the  power  of  Satan 
imto  God. 

Excluded  as  he  was  from  the  Churches  of  the  Establishment, 
he  must  either  dishonor  his  commission  or  go  out  into  the 
highways,  entering  wherever  a  door  might  be  opened  before 
him.  lie  had  a  profound  respect  for  authority,  a  genuine 
affection  for  the  Church ;  but  he  could  not  hesitate,  he  must 
go,  did  go,  and  "  mightily  grew  the  word  of  God  and  pre- 
vailed." B^  the  force  of  circumstances  he  became  an  itinerant. 
Bishop  Pierce  has  portrayed  "  Wesley  as  an  Itinerant."  In 
one  pregnant  sentence  he  crystallizes  the  wonderful  history : 
"  He  saw  itinerancy  in  all  its  phases,  tested  all  its  capabilities, 
exhausted  its  trials,  and,  despite  of  its  weariness,  exposures, 
and  privations,  left  it  a  legacy  to  his  people."  The  beginning 
of  his  itinerMJcy,  or,  as  Isaac  Taylor  has  it,  "  The  field-preach- 
ing of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  is  the  event  whence  the  relig 
ions  epoch  now  current  must^date  its  commencement." 

His  activity  in  sowing  and  reaping  was  equaled  only  by  his 
diligence  in  garnering  the  fruits  of  his  labors.  To  conserve, 
concentrate,  augment,  and  guide  the  forces  of  the  great  move- 
ment, and  accomplish  the  largest  possible  results  for  Christ 
and  humanity,  was  his  single  aim.     In  the  prosecution  of  this 


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512  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jtily> 

aim,  he  exhibits  a  profound  practical  wisdom,  a  "  genius  for 
government,"  says  Macanlay,  "  not  inferior  to  that  of  Riche- 
lieu." In  the  paper  on  '*  Wesley  the  Founder  of  Methodism," 
Bishop  M'Tyeire,  after  claiming  for  him  a  large  share  of  the 
gifts  of  Fletcher,  Whitefield,  and  his  brother  Charles,  dialec- 
tician, orator,  poet,  adds,  "He  was  all  these  and  more.  He 
was  the  organizer,  the  spiritual  governor."  There  was  little, 
if  any,  prearrangement  of  plans.  He  met  emergencies  as  they 
arose,  adopting  such  methods  as  the  indications  of  providence 
suggested.  He  organized  the  undisciplined  multitudes  of  his 
followers  into  Societies  under  what  are  known  as  the  General 
Kules.  For  the  instruction,  reproof,  exhortation,  of  both  be- 
lievers and  inquirers,  he  adopted  the  class-meeting,  making 
attendance  on  it  a  condition  of  membership  in  the  Society. 
To  such  men  as  were  willing  to  devote  themselves  wholly  to 
evangelistic  work  he  assigned  fields  of  labor,  removing  or 
changing  them,  on  a  systematized  itinerant  plan,  as  the  in- 
terests of  the  movement  might'  require.  Others,  called  to 
preach  but  not  in  circumstances  to  itinerate,  he  employed  as 
lay  preachers,  giving  them  charge  of  the  Societies,  and  author- 
izing them  to  preach  in  the  communities  in  which  they  lived. 
Rev.  Isaac  P.  Cook,  writing  on  "  Wesley  and  Lay  Preaching," 
gives  a  history  of  this  arm  of  the  service,  and  presents  clearly 
and  strongly  its  relation  to  the  itinerant  ministry  and  its 
efficiency  as  an  auxiliary.  It  was  a  great  irregularity  in  the 
eyes  of  the  clergy,  but  Mr.  Wesley  regarded  it  as  providential. 
It  began  without  his  knowledge  with  Thomas  Maxfield,  a 
class-leader.  At  his  mother's  suggestion,  before  deciding 
to  arrest  the  innovation,  he  went  to  hear  Maxfield.  After  the 
sermon  he  said,  "  It  is  of  the  Lord ;  let  him  do  what  seemeth 
to  him  good.  Who  am  I,  that  I  should  withstand  God  !  '*  and 
forthwith  lay  preaching  became  a  part  of  his  system.  Some 
of  his  most  powerful  fellow-helpers  in  the  Go^el  belonged 
to  this  class. 

It  was  not  originally,  if  ever,  his  intention  to  establish  an 
independent  Church;  but  with  the  materials, that  providence 
had.  put  in  his  hands,  the  necessities  of  the  work,  and  his 
genius  for  organization,  such  a  result  was  scarcely  evitable. 
"Dr.  Rigg,  in  his  essay  on  "  Wesley  and  the  Church  of  En- 
gland," says:   ''His  whole  soul  revolted  from  the   thought 


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1881.]  The  Wesley  Memorial  Vohime.  613 

of  his  people  deliberately,  for  reasons  assigned,  and  npon  a 
manifesto  of  dissent  and  separation,  severing  themselves  from 
the  Chnrch.  If  there  were  to  be  a  separation,  his  determina- 
tion through  life  was,  that  the  separation  should  be  imposed 
and  forced  upon,  not  sought  or  determined  by,  the  Methodists." 
On  the  other  hand,  he  adds  that  it  seems  to  be  undeniable 
*'that  the  utmost  divergence  of  Methodism  from  the  Church 
of  England  at  this  day  is  but  the  prolongation  of  a  line  the 
beginning  of  which  was  traced  by  Mr.  "Wesley's  own  hand." 
Bishop  Stevens  affirms  that  the  fatal  point  of  departure  "  was 
the  ordination  of  Coke  and  Asbury  as  superintendents  of  the 
American  Societies  in  1784,"  and  that  previous  to  that  time 
"  there  waa  nothing  in  the  views,  or  plans,  or  usages  of  the 
Wesleys  which  might  not,  without  any  wrenching  or  violence 
have  been  brought  into  harmony  with  the  Anglican  system." 
But  there  was  in  the  Methodist  movement  something  more 
than  "  views,  or  plans,  or  usages ; "  it  was  instinct  with  spiritual 
life  from  its  center  to  its  circumference,  and  in  nothing  but  a 
separation  could  that  life  find  scope  for  healthful  growth  and 
fruitage.  Its  tendency  from  the  beginning  was  in  that  direc- 
tion. The  principle  of  independency  was  constitutional  in  the 
system  ;  the  system  must  perish  or  the  principle  must  develop 
into  a  fact. 

Mr.  Wesley  was  too  much  of  a  philosopher,  as  well  as  a  philan- 
thropist, not  to  include  education  in  his  system  of  agencies  for 
the  elevation  and  salvation  of  men.  Bishop  Haven,  writing  of 
"  Wesley  as  an  Educator,"  after  making  mention  of  his  edu- 
cational work  during  his  brief  stay  in  Georgia,  says  it  was  after 
his  return  to  England  and  his  conversion  that  he  "  began  to 
manifest  his  strong  interest  in  education,  not  as  some  would 
say,  second  only  to  religion,  but  actually  one  with  and  insepa- 
rable from  it."  In  1740  he  began  his  school  at  Kingswood, 
which  "  has  expanded  and  been  multiplied  into  colleges,  theo- 
logical schools,  and  academic  institutions  of  every  grade.  To 
the  establishment  and  encouragement  of  schools  both  secular 
and  religious,  he  added  educational,  literary,  and  religious 
authorship.  Keckoning  his  abridgments  and  compilations," 
says  Dr.  Punshon,  "more  than  two  hundred  volumes  pro- 
ceeded from  his  fertile  pen.  Grammars,  exercises,  dictiona- 
ries, compendiumsy  sermons  and  notes,  a  voluminous  Christian 


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614  MeOiodist  Qua/rterhf  Bemew.  [July, 

library,  a  miscellaneous  monthly  magazine,  tracts,  addresses, 
answers,  apologies,  works  polemical,  classical,  poetic,  scientific, 
political,  were  poured  forth  in  astonishing  succession."  And 
in  all  this  work  his  single  aim  was  to  supply  what  he  conceived 
to  be  some  present  demand.  He  was  not  a  dreamer,  or  mere 
theorist,  but  eminently  utilitarian  in  his  views  and  plans.  It 
was  to  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  to  its  intellectual  and  moral 
improvement  that,  under  the  impulse  of  a  profound  religious 
conviction,  he  gave  his  time  and  toil.  And  if  any  man  has 
labored  more  earnestly  for  his  generation,  history  has  failed  to 
record  his  name. 

To  him  belongs  the  honor  of  having  inaugurated  the  Sun- 
day-school enterprise.  All  honor  to  Robert  Eaikes  for  the 
part  he  bore  in  the  great  work  in  England.  But  he  was  yet 
an  infant  when  Mr.  Wesley  organized  a  Sunday-school  in 
his  Church  in  Savannah.  Sir  Charles  Reed,  in  his  contribn- 
tion  on  "  Wesley  and  Sunday-Schools,"  says  that  in  1736  "  he 
had  commenced  the  work  which  Raikes  was  permitted  to  ac- 
complish in  England  more  than  forty  years  afterward."  But 
even  in  England  the  Sunday-school  work  was  begun  by  Han- 
nah Ball,  a  Methodist,  twelve  years  before  Raikes  engaged  in 
it.  "  The  very  idea  was  suggested  to  his  mind  by  Sophia 
Cook,  another  Methodist."  To  Mr.  Wesley,  therefore,  as  the 
indirect  instrument,  belongs  the  credit  of  the  origin  of  this 
movement  both  in  Europe  and  America.  His  active  interest  in 
it  to  the  close  of  his  life  is  abundantly  manifested  in  his  Jour- 
nal and  correspondence. 

And  into  what  field  of  Christian  activity  did  he  not  enter  ? 
In  almost  every  such  field  he  was  a  pioneer.  In  the  able  paper  on 
"  Wesley  and  Methodism,"  Dr.  Clark  says,  "  The  great  enter- 
prises of  the  evangelical  Churches  which  have  distinguished 
the  last  century  and  a  half  received  their  origin  and  im- 
petus from  his  labors  and  zeal."  This  is  a  high  claim,  but  it 
is  substantiated  by  the  facts.  The  first  tract  society  the  world 
ever  had,  and  the  first  Bible  society,  the  first  Stranger's  Friend 
Society,  the  first  Medical  Dispensary,  he  and  his  co-workers 
organized  and  operated.  The  great  missionary  societies  of  the 
world  are  traceable  directly  to  him  and  his  preachers.  "  The 
world  is  my  parish,"  said  he,  and  no  uninspired  man  ever  con- 
ceived and  put  in  operation  agencies  so  numerous,  so  compre- 


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1881.]  The  Wedey  Memorial  Volume.  515 

hensive,  far-reaching,  and  magnificent  in  their  results.  In  the  re- 
markable article,  "Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement,  Jndged 
by  Nearly  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Writers,  Living  or  Ddad," 
Dr.  Clark  has  collected  and  skillfully  arranged  a  great  nnmber 
of  expressions  of  opinion  concerning  Wesley,  and  estimates  of 
his  character  and  work  by  men  of  learning  in  the  Church  of 
England,  among  Dissenters,  among  his  own  followers,  and 
•from  the  ranks  of  skepticism.  No  one  ^sentence  will  express 
the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  these  witnesses  more  fully  than 
these  words  of  Dr.  Dobbin :  "A  greater  poet  may  arise  than 
Homer  or  Milton  ;  a  greater  theologian  than  Calvin ;  a  greater 
philosopher  than  Bacon  or  Newton ;  a  greater  dramatist  than 
any  of  ancient  or  modem  fame  ;  but  a  more  distinguished 
revivalist  of  the  Churches,  minister  of  the  sanctuary,  believer 
of  the  truth,  and  blessing  to  souls,  than  John  Wesley,  never. 
...  In  the  firmament  in  which  he  was  lodged  he  shone  and 
shines  ^  the  bright  particular  star,'  beyond  comparison,  as  he  is 
without  a  rival." 

It  is  impossible  to  form  any  adequate  conception  of  the  in- 
fluence of  such  a  man,  either  on  his  own  or  subsequent  gener- 
ations. Mr.  Overton  says,  "  The  world  has  at  length  done  tardy 
justice  to  its  benefactor ; "  but  full  justice  can  never  be  done 
until  his  benefactions  are  fully  measured  and  appreciated.  "And 
if  Southey  is  right  is  considering  Mr.  Wesley  as  "  the  man  who 
will  have  produced  the  greatest  effects  centuries,  or  perhaps 
miUcnninms,  hence,"  then  the  world  will  not  do  him  full  justice 
for  centuries  or  millenniums  to  come. 

No  one  has  contributed  more  than  he  to  the  stability,  order, 
and  prosperity  of  the  British  Empire.  Eminently  loyal  him- 
self, the  whole  of  his  wonderful  personal  influence  with  the 
masses  of  his  followers  was  in  favor  of  subjection  and  fidelity 
to  the  powers  that  be.  More  potential  than  this  was  the  pro- 
foundly religious  sentiment  which  he  awakened  among  the 
people,  and  the  practical  piety  which  he  inculcated  and  il- 
lustrated. Even  those  who  maligned  and  opposed  him  could 
not  but  feel  the  influence  of  his  life  and  labors.  That  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  could  openly  pray  that  the  blessing 
of  God  might  rest  upon  him ;  and  that  the  Bishop  of  London 
could  say  to  him,  "Mr.  Wesley,  may  I  be  fonnd  at  your  feet 
in  heaven,"  is  evidence  that  the  pulsations  of  the  mighty  move- 


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516  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [July, 

ment  which  was  going  forward  among  the  masses  were  felt  in 
the  high  places  of  both  Church  and  State.  While  it  was 
working  a  moral  renovation  in  the  governed,  and  developing 
their  Christian  patriotism,  it  was  working  a  wise  moderation 
in  the  throne.  To  Charles  "Wesley,  Jnn.,  King  George  III. 
said :  "  To  your  uncle  (John  Wesley)  and  your  father  (Charles 
Wesley)  and  to  George  Whitefield  and  the  Countess  of  Hun- 
tingdon, the  Chv/rch  in  this  realm  is  more  indebted  than  to 
all  others ; "  and  it  may  be  truthfully  added  that  to  them  more 
than  to  his  own  political  wisdom,  or  the  genius  of  his  counsel- 
ors, or  the  prowess  of  his  arms,  the  State  was  indebted  for  its 
security  and  well-being. 

That  he  and  his  colaborers  wrought  a  revolution  in  the 
theological  thought  and  teaching  of  his  age  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. It  was  at  their  hands  that  high  Calvinism  received 
the  blow  which  drove  it  from  the  pulpits  of  the  Establish- 
ment. They  did  more  than  check  the  prevalent  Antinomian- 
ism — they  lopped  off  its  branches,  cut  down  its  trunk,  and 
di'ew  out  and  destroyed  its  roots.  They  sapped  the  foun- 
dations of  that  self-complacent  Pelagianism  which  rested  on 
the  fancied  moral  ability  and  dignity  of  human  nature.  They 
demonstrated  the  worthlessness  of  a  mere  traditionalism,  and 
indirectly,  as  MX*.  Abbey  says,  "  gave  a  death  blow  to  the  then 
existing  forms  of  Deism."  They  did  not  preach  any  new 
Gospel.  The  truths  they  proclaimed  were  all  contained  in  the 
formularies  of  the  Church,  "  but  they  had  become  buried  and 
fossilized  in  learned  folios,  and  throughout  Christendom  they 
had  but  few  living  witnesses."  With  nothing  but  the  accepted 
creed  of  the  Church,  they  revolutionized  the  Church  itself, 
and  turned  the  world  upside  down.  That  Mr.  Wesley  was  the 
father  ol  the  evangelical  party  in  the  Church  of  England  may 
not  be  assented  to  by  all.  Some,  indeed,  claim  that  honor  for 
Whitefield.  Whatever  its  parentage,  Mr.  Gladstone  affirms 
that  it  received  its  main  impulse  from  Methodism.  A  Church- 
man, then,  being  witness,  the  arrest  of  the  Romish  heresy  of 
salvation  by  the  Church  and  its  sacraments  was  largely  if  not 
primarily  due  to  the  Wesleyan  revival.  It  gave  to  the  doc- 
trines of  justification  by  faith  alone  and  the  witness  of  the  Spir- 
it, and  to  practical  experimental  religion,  a  place  in  the  relig- 
ious thinking  and  teaching  of  the  times  of  first  importance  and 


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1881.]  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  517 

greatest  power.  This  was  the  secret  of  its  success.  It  was  this 
that  made  it,  as  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  says,  "  by  far  the  most 
important  phenomenon  of  the  eighteenth  century,"  and  gave 
it  that  reactive  force  "upon  other  bodies"  which,  he  adds, 
"  was  as  important  as  its  direct  influence." 

Such  are  the  relations  of  theology  and  psychology  that 
changes  or  modifications  in  the  former  will  work  correspond- 
ing changes  or  modifications  in  the  latter.  Especially  is  this 
true  of  any  modification  of  the  conception  of  God,  or  of  the 
human  mind.  That  the  "Wesleyan  conception  of  both  God  and 
man  differed  from  that  of  Augustine,  Calvin,  Luther,  and  the 
Church  of  the  eight^nth  century,  is  a  fact  that  will  not  be  called 
in  question.  It  is  equally  plain  that  that  conception  has  entered 
into,  and  in  a  large  degree  leavened,  all  theological  thought 
and  teaching.  That  it  should  affect  psychological  inquiry  and 
modify  philosophic  systems  was  but  a  natural  and  necessary 
result.  A  true  philosophy  must  proceed,  not  as  Augustine's 
did,  from  God  manward,  but  from  man  Godward.  It  must 
have  its  foundation  in  a  true  analysis  of  the  human  mind.  In 
the  Arminian  or  Wesleyan  theology  more  than  in  any  other  sys- 
tem, moral  freedom  is  the  predominant  factor  in  the  complex 
conception  of  man.  It  emphasizes  also,  not  only  the  value  of 
experience,  or  consciousness,  but  its  authority  as  a  witness  to 
the  phenomena  of  the  inner  life.  How  much  the  psychology 
of  the  present  time  is  indebted  for  its  healthful  tone  to  the 
Wesleyan  emphasis  of  these  two  doctrines  it  is  impossible  to 
determine.  But  that  to  it  belongs  in  a  large  measure  the 
credit  of  the  liberation  of  both  philosophy  and  religion  from 
the  blight  of  necessitarianism  will  not  be  doubted.  Some  fu- 
ture history  of  philosophy  will  mark  the  Wesleyan  period  as 
the  beginning  of  a  psychological  as  well  as  religious  epoch. 

The  fact  that  Methodism  thus  modified  doctrinal  systems 
that  had  all  the  prestige  of  antiquity,  and  were  accepted  and 
defended  by  the  genius  and  learning  of  the  greatest  men  the 
Church  had  produced,  is  sufficient  evidence  that  it  was  not 
merely  emotional  in  its  origin.  It  embodied  principles  that 
were  in  prof  ounder  harmony  with  the  religious  consciousness  of 
men,  and  therefore  mightier,  than  the  ancient  beliefs.  Those 
beliefs  had  survived  the  shocks  and  vicissitudes  of  centuries : 
that  they  should  be  displaced  or  modified  by  a  sudden  outburst 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIU.— 34 

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518  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [July, 

of  emotion  is  as  inconceivable  as  that  the  granite  bowlder 
should  be  dislodged  and  ground  to  powder  by  a  dash  of  spray. 
Emotion  is  ephemeral  in  its  manifestations,  and  uncertain  in 
its  operation  and  issues ;  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  have 
witnessed  no  abatement  of  the  forces  of  Methodism,  nor  oblit- 
eration of  any  of  its  original  distinctive  characteristics.  Isaac 
Taylor  assigns  fifty  years  as  "  the  extreme  limit  of  the  personal 
energy  and  inflnence  "  of  the  originators  "  of  those  revolutions 
that  mark  the  history  of  the  human  mind,"  and  adds  :  "  Never 
hitherto  has  any  new  impulse,  or  any  strenuous  moral  move- 
ment, been  taken  up  and  carried  forward  by  the  sons  and  ewic- 
cessors  of  its  originators,  in  the  same  mind,  or  with  the  same, 
or  with  nearly  the  same,  singleness  of  purpose."  He  affirms 
also  that  the  peculiar  relationship  of  Methodists  of  the  present 
day  to  "  the  fathers  and  founders  of  their  communion  appears, 
to  the  eye  of  the  impartial  by-stander,  to  be  made  up  more  of 
what  is  technical,  or  conventional,  than  of  what  is  substantial 
in  a  purely  religious  sense."  Mr.  Taylor  does  not  define  evh- 
stcmtial  for  his  readers ;  but  it  may  be  assumed  that  as  a  phi- 
losopher he  used  the  term  to  denote  that  which  was  original 
and  essential  in  the  Methodist  movement — ^its  underlying,  orig- 
inating, and  formative  principles,  without  which  it  could  not 
have  been.  If  this  was  his  meaning,  then  it  may  be  shown 
that  he  made  his  assertion  without  a  careful  analysis  of  the 
facts  of  Methodist  history.  In  *'  what  is  technical,  or  conven- 
tional," there  may  have  been  divergences ;  in  what  is  sicbstan- 
tial,  Methodism  has  preserved  its  unity  and  identity. 

Its  doctrinal  basis  h'as  undergone  no  change.  No  stone 
placed  in  its  foundation  by  Mr.  Wesley  has  been  removed ; 
none  has  been  added.  Watson's  "Institutes"  is  but  a  system- 
atic development  of  the  theology  of  Wesley's  "  Sermons  "  and 
"  Notes."  Advance  have  been  made  in  philology  and  biblical 
criticism,  in  hifetory  and  philosophy ;  but  the  theology  of  Will- 
iam Burt  Pope,  D.D.,  a  magnificent  compendium  of  which  is 
given  in  the  article  on  "  Methodist  Doctrine,"  rests  squarely  on 
the  foundation  laid  by  Wesley,  and  is  of  a  piece  with  the  su- 
perstructure reared  by  Watson.  And  in  all  the. branches  of 
the  Methodist  family,  however  much  they  may  differ  in  polity, 
there  is  but  one  faith.  Individuals  differ  on  questions  of  specu- 
lative theology,  or  in  those  intellectual  speculations  which  have 


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1881.1  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  519 

reference  merely  to  the  maimer  of  explaining  that  which  is 
fundamental ;  but  with  respect  to  that  which  is  essential  there 
is  not  nor  has  there  ever  been  any  serious  divergence.  Nor  has 
there  been  any  change  of  opinion  with  respect  to  the  relative 
position  and  importance  of  the  doctrines  of  Methodism  in  its 
system,  either  theoretically  or  practically.  The  doctrines  which 
Mr.  Wesley  emphasized  are  emphasized  to-day — not,  it  may  be, 
with  the  same  constancy,  but  with  a  strength  of  conviction  no 
less  complete  and  controlling. 

Doctrine  is  the  subsoil  on  which  rests  experience.  As  the 
former  has  maintained  its  integrity  through  all  the  history  of 
Methodism,  so  has  the  latter.  Bishop  Foss  has  written  elo- 
qnently  of  "  Wesley  and  Personal  Keligious  Experience."  Such 
experience  he  characterizes  as  "  the  grand  formative  principle 
of  Methodism;  its  central,  uniting,  explaining  idea,  without 
which  it  could  not  have  been."  That  there  have  been  changes 
of  opinion  and  practice  with  respect  to  some  of  the  conven- 
tional means  whereby  experience  may  be  developed  is  unde- 
niable. But  as  to  experience  itself,  the  privilege  of  its  enjoy- 
ment, and  the  importance  of  enjoying,  cultivating,  and  matur- 
ing it  in  order  to  the  strength  and  force  of  religions  character 
and  life,  Methodism  has  suflEered  no  relapse.  It  is  written  in 
its  latest  as  well  as  its  oldest  books;  it  is  preached  from  its 
thousands  of  pulpits  in  city  and  country  no  less  truly  than  by 
Wesley  himself  in  the  Old  Foundry,  or  on  Moorfield  Common ; 
and  it  is  enjoyed  in  its  predousness  and  power  by  multitudes 
to-day  as  really  as  by  any  of  those  who  through  his  preaching 
believed  on  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God.  Justification  by 
faith,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  peace,  joy,  rest,  triumph  in 
Christ,  the  cleansing  of  the  soul  from  all  sin  by  the  blood  of 
the  cross,  are  now,  as  then,  facts  written  in  the  spiritual  history 
of  thousands. 

Experience  is  the  soil  out  of  which  comes  the  life  with  all  its 
activities.  "  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory,"  is  the  inspira- 
tion of  Christian  toil,  self-denial,  endurance,  and  devotibn.  The 
joy  of  the  Lord  is  the  strength  of  his  people — ^their  strength 
for  work  and  for  suffering.  This  experience  in  Wesley  un- 
folded itself  in  a  life  unexampled  in  activity  and  fmitfnlness 
since  the  days  of  Paul.  Indeed,  that  great  apostle  was  not  more 
abundant  in  labors  than  the  apostle  of  Methodism.     John 


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520  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview,  [July, 

Wesley  laid  all  his  powers  on  the  altar ;  Paul  did  no  more. 
Both  alike  counted  all  things  but  loss  for  Christ ;  and  neither 
sought  any  higher  honor  or  knew  any  deeper  joy  than  to  glo- 
rify Christ  and  do  good  to  men.  And  Methodism  from  that 
day  until  now  has  not  been  wanting  in  lives  of  like  devoted- 
ness.  Many  a  follower  of  Wesley  is  as  thoroughly  consecrated 
as  he  was,  and  is  as  pure  in  life  and  in  all  manner  of  conver- 
sation. The  fruits  of  righteousness  are  as  abundant  and  no 
less  perfect  now  than  then.  What  work  of  Wesley  for  the 
elevation  and  salvation  of  men  has  not  been  taken  up  and  vig- 
orously pressed  forward  by  his  sons  ?  The  mantle  of  Elijah 
may  not  have  fallen  on  any  single  Elisha ;  but  his  spirit  has 
been  breathed  into  a  multitude,  and  their  aggregated  forces 
have  wrought  results  of  which  he  never  dreamed.  When  he 
went  to  his  reward  Methodism  counted  660  preachers  and 
140,000  members — the  astonishing  fruit  of  about  sixty  years' 
toil  To-day  it  numbers  over  50,000  preachers,  8,000,000  com- 
municants and  12,000,000  hearers,  or  about  one  sixtieth  of  the 
human  race !  Six  years  before  his  death  he  said  of  his  people 
that  tliey  "  walked  by  one  rule,  knowing  religion  is  holy  tem- 
pers ;  and  striving  to  worship  God,  not  in  form  only,  but  like- 
wise in  spirit  and  in  truth " — words  equally  applicable  to  the 
great  mass  of  his  followers  now. 

Doctrine,  experience,  and  life — these  comprise  all  that  was 
substantial  and  essential  iu  the  Methodism  of  the  fathers  and 
founders  of  the  communion  ;  and  in  the  possession  of  these,  in 
their  original  integrity,  the  Methodism  of  the  present  demon- 
strates its  oneness  with  that  of  the  past.  Nor  "  is  it  going  for- 
ward now,  commingled  with  other  moral  forces,  and  having  its 
own  abated,"  as  Taylor  suggests.  It  is  quickening,  modifying, 
and  assimilating  all  other  evangelic  forces.  It  has  swelled  the 
ranks  of  other  communions  directly  by  thousands,  indirectly 
by  hundreds  of  thousands.  It  has  relegated  doctrines  once 
most  prominent  in  the  instructions  of  the  pulpit  to  merited 
obscurity.  It  has  breathed  life  and  kindled  a  holy  enthusi- 
asm where  before  was  nothing  but  the  rigidity  of  a  dead 
orthodoxy,  or  the  delusion  of  a  self-complacent  fonnalism. 
But  the  process  from  first  to  last  has  been  one  of  assimilation, 
and  not  of  abatement  or  loss  of  its  own  inherent  and  distinct- 
ive forces.     It  has  methodized  others  without  unmethodizing 


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1881.]  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  521 

itself,  and  thus  given  to  evangelical  Christendom  its  mightiest 
impulse  to  a  grand,  complete  spiritual  unity  in  Christ. 

One  in  doctrine,  experience,  life,  and  aims,  there  may  be, 
and  ought  to  be,  genuinely  fraternal  relations  established  and 
maintained  among  all  the  branches  of  the  Methodist  family. 
Consistency  demands  it ;  the  honor  of  Christ  and  the  mission 
of  Methodism  demand  it.  While  unitizing  others,  Methodism 
within  its  own  household  should  "  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  bonds  of  peace."  The  coming  Ecumenical  Conference  is 
an  omen  of  a  closer  union  and  a  deeper  fellowship.  The  "Wes- 
ley Memorial  Volume  "  points  in  the  same  direction  ;  and  the 
Wesley  Monumental  Church,  while  commemorating  the  past, 
will  stand  as  a  perpetual  memorial  of  the  brotherhood  of  the 
Methodisms  of  the  world.  A  godspeed  to  all  the  agencies  and 
movements  "which  make  for  peace"  and  "love  unfeigned ! " 


Art.  Vn.— THAKOMBAU,  CANNIBAL  AND  CHRISTIAN. 

The  King  and  People  of  Fiji,    By  Rev.  Joseph  Waterhouse.    London :  Wesleyan 
Conference  Office. 

The  beautiful  islands  forming  the  subject  of  Mr.  Waterhouse's 
deeply  interesting  book  have  been  the  scene  of  crae  of  the  most 
signal  triumphs  ever  achieved  by  the  Christian  religion. 
They  are  one  hundred  and  j&fty  in  number,  of  which  one  hun- 
dred are  inhabited  by  a  population  variously  estimated  at 
from  one  hundred  and  J&fty  thousand  to  three  hundred  thou- 
sand, the  two  largest  being  Viti  Levu,  (Great  Fiji,)  eighty-five 
miles  by  forty,  and  Vanan  Levu,  (Great  Land,)  ninety-five  miles 
by  thirty.  Of  all  the  Polynesians  the  Fijians  were  addicted  to 
a  most  inveterate  cannibalism,  and  had,  in  consequence,  be- 
come characterized  by  an  almost  ineradicable  and  hopeless 
ferocity,  when,  less  than  fifty  years  ago,  they  received  for  the 
first  time  the  visit  of  a  Christian  missionary.  In  1835  a  pru- 
dential agreement  was  come  to  between  the  Wesleyan  Mission- 
ary and  the  London  Missionary  Societies,  whereby  the  former 
were  left  in  sole  possession  of  the  group  for  Protestant  mis- 
sionary work.  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Cross  and  Cargill  were  the 
first  Wesleyan  missionaries,  who  were  succeeded  by  Messrs. 
Hunt,  Calvert,  Waterhouse,  Lyth,  Williams,  Hazlewood,  Wats- 


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522  Methodist  QuoHerly  JRemew,  [July, 

ford,  TVikon,  and  others.  The  complete  triumph  of  Christian- 
ity over  heathenism  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  gained  for 
twenty  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  mission;  for, 
although  considerable  success  had  attended  the  arduous  la- 
bors of  the  heroic  missionaries,  it  was  not  till  1854  that  Tha- 
kombau,  the  King  of  Ban,  embraced  Christianity.  For 
his  conversion  unfaltering  efforts  had  been  put  forth,  the 
missionaries  believing,  as  the  sequel  proved,  that  the  renuncia- 
tion of  cannibal  heathenism  in  favor  of  Christianity  by  one  of 
immense  personal  authority,  irresistible  force  of  character,  and 
overpowering  military  reputation,  would  be  attended  with 
immediate  and  very  decided  results  favorable  to  the  Christiani- 
zation  of  the  entire  people. 

Formerly  the  two  Fijian  powers  were  centered  in  Verata 
and  Kewa,  towns  of  Viti  Levu ;  subsequently  there  rose  into 
power  an  independent  and  warlike  kingdom  known  by  the 
name  of  Bau.  Bau  had  its  sacred  king,  Roko  Tui  Bauy  (the 
reverenced  King  of  Bau,)  who  was  relieved  from  all  warlike 
engagements,  but  held  to  be  bound  to  uphold  religion,  and 
especially  to  maintain  cannibalism.  After  him  came  another 
monarch,  VuniA)alUj  (the  root  of  war,)  the  military  com- 
mander and  State  officer.  These  two  kings  were  advised  by 
Ttcnitogay  who  was  also  their  spokesman.  As  the  guardian  of 
all  the  daughters  of  the  kings  and  chiefs,  he  was  the  State 
match-maker,  and  disposed  absolutely  of  all  the  young  chief- 
tainesses  in  marriage.  Next  in  the  social  scale  were  the  Betej 
the  priests,  and  the  Matcmwcma^  the  royal  messengers.  To 
Bau,  the  priests  said,  had  the  gods  given  the  pre-eminence 
among  Fijian  kingdoms,  which  was  accordingly  known  by  the 
title  of  the  "  God-land,"  and  regarded  by  multitudes  with 
feelings  of  deep  religious  veneration.  Good  fortune  awaited 
it,  and,  as  was  meet,  the  sacred  city  attained  an  enviable  pros- 
perity. To  it  distant  provinces  paid  the  tribute  of  handsome 
women  and  spacious  canoes,  so  that  Bau  came  to  glory  in  its 
female  beauty  and  its  magniiicent  fleet.  The  island  became 
crowded  as  the  permanent  dwelling  '  of  an  increasing  and 
influential  population,  building  for  themselves  large  and 
spacious  houses,  without  partitions  or  upper  rooms,  in  an  ir- 
regular and  crowded  fashion.  Thirty  heathen  temples  reared 
their  showy  heads  ornamented  with  white  cowry  shells ;  but 


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1881.]  ThakomhoAi^  Commbal  and  Christicm.  523 

no  resting-place  for  the  dead  was  deemed  necessary,  save  the 
royal  mausoleum,  for  the  earthen  floors  of  the  dwelling-houses 
were  regarded  as  furnishing  a  sufficient  separation  of  the  dead 
from  the  living.  Three  market-places  had  been  provided, 
which,  in  addition  to  the  purposes  of  trade,  were  used  in  fur- 
therance of  general  intercourse,  and  as  human  slaughter-houses. 
Distinguished  among  the  islands  for  its  warlike  and  commercial 
superiority,  it  has  become  equally  celebrated  for  its  devotion  to 
the  rites  of  a  cannibalistic  religion.  The  sound  of  the  drum  is 
the  signal  for  a  feast  on  human  flesh ;  and  old  and  yoimg  run 
together  to  gaze  on  a  naked  victim  just  clubbed,  then  dashed 
against  a  stone  in  front  of  the  temple,  prior  to  being  cut  up 
and  divided,  if  possible  before  life  is  quite  extinct.  Or  if  stiU 
alive,  he  is  thrown  into  an  oven  and  partly  cooked.  If  decapi- 
tated, the  children  eagerly  contend  for  the  head  to  play  ball 
with  it,  and  a  superstitious  mother  begs  a  morsel  of  skin  with 
which  to  rub  the  lips  of  her  little  one  as  a  sacred  preservation 
of  her  child's  health.  The  decease  of  a  husband  must  be  hon- 
ored by  the  death  of  his  widows.  First  painted,  dressed,  and 
caressed,  they  are  strangled  by  suffocation,  preferring  death 
to  remarriage,  that  they  may  avoid  harsh  treatment,  on  rejoin- 
ing their  lord,  for  having  displayed  so  little  affection  as  to  re- 
main long  on  earth  after  his  death.  A  sick  man  or  woman  felt 
to  be  burdensome  is  sure  to  be  partially  suffocated,  then  buried 
aUve.  Tokens  of  respect  for  a  deceased  chief  must  be  sup- 
plied unstintedly,  so  that  placed  in  a  row  over  the  door-way  of 
his  former  dwelling  as  many  as  twenty  fingers,  amputated  from 
as  many  individuals,  may  be  counted. 

Over  this  flourishing  and  religious  "God-land"  Tanoa 
reigned,  to  whom,  in  1817,  the  young  Prince  Thakombau  was 
born.  Unrestrained .  jubilations  attended  his  birth,  not  mod- 
erated by  the  death  of  his  mother  a  few  weeks  after.  The 
queens  of  Eewa  nourished  and  feasted  him ;  feasted  him  on 
being  for  the  first  time  washed  in  water  from  the  sea,  when 
he  first  turned  over  of  himself,  and  when  first  he  showed  he 
had  strength  to  creep.  As  he  grew  he  became  tyrannical  and 
audacious.  "  Does  he  wish  to  take  an  airing  ?  A  man  must 
carry  him  on  his  shoulders.  Is  he  inclined  for  sleep?  The 
women  must  fan  him,  and  soothingly  press  his  untired  feet. 
Is  he  angry  with  his  nurse?    He  may  strike  her.     Does  he 


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624  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [July, 

quarrel  with  his  playmate?  He  may  bite,  strike,  or  maim 
with  impunity.  Does  a  slave  accidentally  interrupt  his  pleas- 
ure ?  lie  may  fearlessly  draw  his  bow  and  send  an  arrow  at 
the  intruder."  Without  any  provocation,  his  father  would 
cause  large  numbers  of  men  to  be  killed  and  eaten.  In  visit- 
ing an  island  he  would  refuse  to  land  until  assured  that  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  men  had  been  killed  to  do  honor  to  him ; 
while  on  launching  his  canoe  for  any  distinguished  visit  or 
important  adventure,  he  would  cause  a  number  of  bodies 
to  be  prepared  beforehand,  in  time  to  have  it  launched  by 
being  dragged  over  them  into  the  water.  Under  such  a  train- 
ing the  youthful  Thakombau  (now  known  by  the  name  of 
Seru)  grew  up  a  blood  thirsty  monster.  How  far  his  cannibal- 
istic whims  and  fancies  had  been  indulged  may  be  gathered 
from  his  requiring  on  one  occasion,  while  yet  a  youth,,  that 
the  tongue  of  a  rebel  chief  should  be  cut  out  while  yet  alive, 
which  he  devoured  raw,  gayly  chatting  and  joking  the  while 
with  the  mutilated  man,  whose  entreaties  for  a  speedy  death 
he  answered  by  prolonged,  cruel  torments,  finally  satisfying  his 
savage  hunger  by  having  him  cooked  and  eaten. 

Such  was  Thakombau,  who,  though  not  yet  king,  his  father 
being  still  and  for  many  years  after  alive,  had  already  gained  im- 
mense power,  when,  in  1835,  the  Rev.  David  Cargill,  M.  A., 
and  Mr.  William  Cross  invaded  Fiji  in  furtherance  of  His  war- 
fare whose  weapons  are  "not  carnal,  but  spiritual"  Soon 
discerning  the  premier  position  in  rank  and  influence  to  which 
Ban  had  been  advanced  among  the  islands  of  the  group,  Mr. 
Cross  formed  the  design  of  commencing  a  mission  there,  if  he 
could  but  gain  the  consent  of  the  young  prince.  The  answer 
given  to  the  request  to  be  allowed  to  reside  in  his  dominion 
was,  "  It  will  be  most  agreeable  to  me,  if  you  think  well ; 
but  I  will  not  hide  it  from  you  that  I  am  now  engaged  in  war, 
and  cannot  attend  to  your  instructions,  or  even  assure  you  of 
safety."  The  missionary  concluded,  in  the  face  of  such  an  an- 
swer, that  it  would  be  unadvisable  to  enter  upon  his  mission ; 
a  conclusion  that  would  probably  be  the  more  speedily  come 
to  from  the  fact  that  the  cannibal  king  and  his  attendants 
were  at  the  same  hour  glutting  their  ferocious  appetites  upon 
the  cooked  bodies  of  the  two  rebels,  those  of  two  others  being 
yet  in  the  native  ovens  for  the  further  gratification  of  their 


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1881.]  Tlidkwnbau^  Cannibal  and  Christian.  525 

hyena-like  propensities.  Subsequently,  however,  it  was  found 
that  Mr.  Cross  had,  through  ignorance,  given  offense  to  Thakom- 
bau  in  thus  deciding.  The  answer  it  appeared  was  intended  to 
express  permission  to  take  up  his  residence  in  Bau,  though,  of 
course,  the  missionary  did  not  so  interpret  it.  Thakombau 
wished  to  be  regarded  as  having  displayed  remarkable  conde- 
scension in  granting  permission  at  all ;  and  that  it  sliould  not 
be  made  use  of,  he  interpreted  as  distrust  of  his  ability  to  pro- 
tect him  from  his  own  enemies,  or  else  distrust  of  his  promise. 
He  conceived  himself  slighted,  and  for  fifteen  years  resisted 
appeals  from  other  missionaries  for  the  same  privilege. 

Eighteen  months  after,  the  missionaries  in  the  other  islands 
of  the  group  having  become  seven  in  number,  a  second  applica- 
tion for  permission  was  made,  this  time  to  Tanoa,  Thakom- 
bau's  father,  who,  partly  from  fear  of  his  son,  refused  it, 
alleging,  "  The  island  is  small,  the  people  foolish.  I  fear  they 
will  take  your  property  from  you.  Water  and  fire-wood  are 
diflBcult  to  obtain."  With  characteristic  courage  Mr.  Cross 
answered :  "  The  smallness  of  this  island,  the  distance  of  food 
and  water,  are  not  difficulties  to  me ;  as  for  the  people,  I  do 
not  fear  them.  I  fear  no  one  but  God ;  and  if  you  will  only 
give  your  consent,  I  will  be  in  Bau  in  three  days."  The 
king  now  gave  an  unqualified  refusal,  and  the  missionary 
turned  away  to  Yiwa,  a  beautiful  island  two  miles  from  Bau. 
Tanoa,  however,  permitted  the  missionaries  to  pay  occasional 
visits  to  his  island,  and  would  have  built  them  a  mission-house 
but  for  the  stem  opposition  of  his  son,  which,  on  one  occasion, 
found  expression  in  the  menacing  words  to  one  of  the  mission- 
aries, "  When  you  have  grown  dulo  on  yon  bare  rock,  then  I 
will  become  a  Christian,  and  not  before."  Meanwhile,  his  evil 
determination  gained  strength  by  cannibalistic  indulgences.  By 
strategy  he  caused  one  hundred  natives  of  Namena  to  be  mas- 
sacred, and  their  bodies  taken  to  Bau,  where  they  were  cooked 
and  eaten.  To  accompany  these  to  the  land  of  spirits  it  was 
deemed  necessary  to  strangle  eighty  women.  At  the  same 
time  that  Thakombau  became  more  active  and  determined  in 
warfare,  he  developed  a  finished  refinement  in  torture.  The 
"  Wesleyan  Missionary  Notices "  supply  the  following  revolt- 
ing illustration  in  connection  with  the  Namena  massacre  :  Two 
men,  unfortunately  taken  alive,  after  being  doomed  to  death, 


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526  Meihodut  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

were  ordered  to  dig  a  hole  in  the  earth  for  the  purpose  of 
making  a  native  oven,  and  were  required  to  cut  fire-wood  to 
roafit  their  own  bodies.  They  were  then  directed  to  go  and 
wash,  and  afterward  to  make  a  cup  of  the  banana  leaf,  which, 
from  opening  a  vein  in  each  person,  was  soon  filled  with  blood. 
This  blood  was  drank  in  the  presence  of  the  sufferers  by  the 
Kaba  people.  Thakombau  then  had  their  arms  and  legs  cut 
off  and  eaten,  some  of  which  were  presented  to  them.  He 
then  ordered  a  fish-hook  to  be  put  into  their  tongues,  which 
were  drawn  out  as  far  as  possible,  and  then  cut  off;  these 
were  roasted  and  eaten,  amid  the  taunt,  "  We  are  eating  your 
tongues."  As  life  was  not  extinct  an  incision  was  made  in  the 
side,  and  the  bowels  taken  out ;  which  soon  terminated  their 
sufferings. 

Along  with  all  this  was  a  most  superstitious  reverence  for  the 
Fijian  deities.  Thakombau's  great  anxiety  to  secure  their  ap- 
probation showed  itself  in  launching  a  canoe,  when,  an  acci- 
dent having  happened,  he  offered  no  less  than  twenty-one  hu- 
man sacrifices  to  appease  their  wrath.  But  his  absorbing  occu- 
pation was  war.  From  the  vessels  calling  at  Fiji  he  purchased 
neither  clothing  nor  food,  but  muskets,  cannon,  powder,  balls, 
lead,  and  spirituous  liquors.  One  Jackson,  who  at  this  time 
paid  a  visit  to  him,  thus  records  it  in  Ruskin's  "Islands  of 
the  Western  Pacific : " 

Thakombau  having  asked  me  to  cast  him  a  thousand  balls  of 
lead  for  his  muskets,  I  agreed,  and  went  to  his  house,  where  I 
was  surprised  to  see  upwards  of  twenty  chests  of  different  sorts 
with  a  good  many  china  trunks,  forty  or  fifty  pigs  of  lead,  and 
upward  of  two  hundred  kegs  of  powder.  I  asked  where  he  got 
aU  these  things  from.  He  said  he  considered  himself  very  badly 
off,  and  wished  some  becM-de-mer  vessels  would  come  so  that  he 
could  make  up  his  standing  quantity  of  powder,  which  he  said 
was  six  hundred  kegs,  with  pigs  of  lead  in  proportion.  He  also 
said  he  had  five  thousand  muskets,  but  that  he  had  distributed 
them  all  but  a  few  among  his  people.  He  then  gave  me  a 
bunch  of  keys  and  told  me  to  unlock  the  chests,  and  I  would 
find  every  thing  requisite  for  running  the  bullets.  I  found 
three  or  four  large  bullet  molds,  all  of  American  manufacture, 
of  brass,  to  run  a  dozen  balls  at  a  time,  together  with  pots, 
ladles,  and  every  thing  else.  I  soon  completed  my  task  and  gave 
him  satisfaction.  He  asked  me  to  stop  in  Bau  with  him,  his 
father  and  brothers,  and  consider  it  my  home;  that  I  could  go 
to  any  part  of  the  Fijis  I  thought  proper,  and  yet  be  under  his  pro- 


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1881.]  Thahombcm^  Ccmnihcbl  cmd  Chriitidn.  527 

tection;  and  by  and  by,  when  a  vessel  came,  he  should  buy  a  cask 
of  rum  and  we  should  drink  it  together.  He  appeared  to  me  at 
'  first  to  be  a  very  good  fellow,  and,  in  fact,  he  was  so  to  me, 
but  I  was  not  long  of  discovering  him  to  be  a  great  tyrant  to  his 
people. 

Thus  Thakomban  grew  to  be  a  monster  warrior,  the  terror 
of  all  Fiji.  Yet  missionaries  did  not  abandon  him,  nor  permit 
themselves  to  be  awed  into  silence  by  his  rapidly  acquired  in- 
fluence. One  day  the  Rev.  John  Hunt  ("the  apostle  of  Fiji") 
obtained  an  interview  with  him,  and  finding  him  in  a  pacific 
mood,  felt  encouraged  to  converse  with  him,  after  making  his 
request  for  permission  to  allow  a  missionary  at  Ban,  as  follows : 

Thakombau.  If  I  am  first  to  become  a  Christian  among  my 
people,  I  shall  be  first  in  heaven,  shall  I  not  ? 

Hunt,  If  you  love  God  the  most,  and  serve  him  the  best,  you 
may  have  a  higher  place  in  heaven. 

Thakombau,  But  Namasimalua  has  become  a  Christian.  Have 
you  given  him  glass  windows  for  his  new  house,  and  English  car- 
pets for  his  floors,  and  have  you  sent  to  England  for  a  vessel  for 
him  ?    He  gets  no  riches  because  he  has  renounced  heathenism. 

Hunt,  We  do  not  come  here  to  give  riches  to  those  who  be- 
come Christians,  but  to  tell  you  about  Ood  and  Jesus  Christ,  that 
you  may  love  him,  and  your  souls  be  saved. 

Thakombau.  Then  I  will  not  become  a  Christian.  What  will 
become  of  the  bodies  of  those  who  have  been  eaten,  and  of  those 
who  have  been  buried  ?     Will  they  rise  again  from  the  dead  ? 

Hunt,  Your  body,  the  bodies  of  all  those  whom  you  have  eat- 
en, and  the  bodies  of  all  who  are  in  the  graves,  will  rise  again  at 
the  day  of  judgment ;  and  if  you  and  they  have  not  repented 
you  will  all  be  condemned  and  cast  into  hell-fire. 

Thakombau,  Ah,  well  I  it  is  a  fine  thing  to  have  a  fire  in  cold 
weather. 

Hunt,  I  shall  pray  for  you  with  a  good  mind,  although  you 
treat  the  subject  so  lightly. 

Thakombau,  Go  on  with  that. 

A  short  while  after  this  interview  Thakomban  became  great- 
ly enraged  on  learning  that  his  companion  in  arms,  Varina, 
chief  of  Viwa,  with  many  of  his  people,  had  accepted  Chris- 
tianity, and  determined  on  taking  revenge.  Arriving  at  Viwa 
for  that  intent,  he  ordered  Namasimalua,  Varina's  counselor, 
into  his  presence,  who  obeyed,  showing  his  respect  by  creeping 
into  the  house  on  hands  and  knees.  "  Split  his  head  with  an 
ax  1"  cried  the  savage  Thakombau,  afi  Namasimalua  approached 
him.    At  this  moment  Mr.  Hunt's  voice  was  heard,  in  pacific, 


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628  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

respectful  terms,  saying,  "  My  love  to  you,  sir ! "  The  mission- 
ary's object  in  securing  a  diversion  and  gaining  time  was  accom- 
plished, and  the  opportunity  taken  to  induce  the  monster  to 
abandon  his  cruel  purpose.  All  the  day  warriors,  armed  with 
clubs  and  muskets,  were  arriving,  but  so  effective  was  the  plead- 
ing of  the  missionaries  that,  as  the  numbers  increased  the  pur- 
pose wavered,  until  the  admission  was  made,  "  We  came  to  kill 
these  people,  and  we  cannot  lift  a  hand!"  Under  the  shadow 
of  night  they  quiefly  withdrew  to  Ban,  acknowledging  that 
"the  Christian's  God  was  too  strong  for  them."  Passing 
through  the  bush  to  the  canoes,  many  of  the  Viwans,  whom 
they  had  come  to  destroy,  carried  for  them  the  clubs  which  had 
been  brought  for  the  death-dealing  work. 

Hitherto  unimpressible,  the  untamable  monster  was  now  giv- 
ing signs  of  contrition.  In  1847  Rev.  Walter  La  wry.  General 
Superintendent  of  Wesleyan  Missions,  visited  Fiji,  and  found 
him,  upon  the  whole,  favorable  to  the  mission.  Mr.  Lawry  said 
of  him  that  war  and  feasting  upon  human  bodies  was  his  de- 
light; but  that  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  promise  that  he  would 
one  day  abandon  heathenism  and  embrace  the  Gospel ;  a  prom- 
ise which  Mr.  L.  regarded  as  to  some  extent  sincere  because  he 
had  ceased  to  blaspheme  the  Christian  religion,  as  had  been  his 
habit  formerly.  He  also,  about  this  time,  took  an  amusing 
method  of  evincing  an  evident  respect  for  it,  by  punishing  a 
woman  of  his  household  who,  having  first  embraced  Christian- 
ity and  afterward  apostatized,  offered  in  mockery  to  preach  a 
sermon,  and  made  a  beginning ;  but  the  king  hearing  her,  per- 
emptorily stopped  her,  saying,  "  You  shall  not  ridicule  the  loPu 
here.  Religion  is  true,  and  a  weighty  matter,  not  to  be  trifled 
with."  To  this  remonstrance  he  added  punishment  in  a  novel 
fashion.  Standing  near  was  a  huge  heche-de-^mer  pot,  which  he 
ordered  his  attendants  to  turn  over  upon  the  woman,  under 
which,  coiled  and  cramped,  she  remained  in  terror  all  night, 
not  daring  to  stir  until  orders  for  her  release  were  given  by 
Thakombau  himself.  The  personal  influence  of  the  Rev.  John 
Hunt  over  him  was  also  of  a  very  favorable  character.  It  is 
quite  evident  that  Thakombau  regarded  Mr.  Cross  as  his  per- 
sonal enemy,  because  of  the  affront  he  ignorantly  gave  him  in 
refusing  to  take  up  his  residence  at  Ban  on  first  seeking  per- 
mission to  do  so.     In  an  interview,  which  lasted  four  hours, 


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1881.]  Thakomhcmj  Cannibal  and  Christian.  529 

the  powerful  chief  vehemently  asseverated  that  he  never  would 
become  a  Christian.  "  But  yonr  children  will,"  said  Mr.  Cross. 
"  They  shall  not,"  was  the  immediate  reply ;  "  for  I  will,  on  my 
death-bed,  enjoin  them  not  to  change  their  religion."  To  Mr. 
Hunt,  on  the  contrary,  he  gave  great  heed,  allowing  him  to 
hold  regular  divine  service  on  the  Sabbath  in  Bau,  and  even 
giving  permission  to  one  of  his  children  not  only  to  embrace 
Christianity,  bnt  likewise  to  receive  religious  instruction  at  his 
hands.  '*We  are  at  war,"  said  he  to  him  on  one  occasion,  "  and 
cannot  attend  to  Christianity  at  present;"  and  on  another, 
"  You  can  go  to  any  part  of  our  dominions,  but  we  at  Bau  shall 
not  become  Christians  at  present."  The  different  relations  of 
Messrs.  Cross  and  Hunt  to  this  self-willed  and  ferocious  chief 
very  clearly  show  the  great  value  to  a  missionary  of  a  {)ersonal 
influence  which  shall  operate  favorably  to  his  work ;  and  in  the 
case  of  the  latter  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  power  for 
good  he  had  brought  to  bear  upon  Thakombau  while  living  was 
increased  when,  in  1848,  he  ceased  from  his  labors,  and,  as  he 
did  so,  left  as  his  dying  message  the  instruction :  "  Tell  the  king 
that  I  love  him.  I  entreat  him  not  to  forget  his  oft-repeated 
promise  to  me  that  he  would  become  a  Christian.  Tell  him 
that  religion  is  profitable."  Before  Mr.  Hunt  died,  Thakombau 
acknowledged  the  secret  of  his  power  over  him  to  have  lain  in 
his  amiable  and  self-sacrificing  disposition,  by  the  remark  he 
once  made  when  speaking  of  him,  "He  is  a  loving  man." 
That  was  the  conquest  of  the  missionary  over  the  cannibal ;  the 
conquest  of  the  Gospel  every-where — love. 

But  submission  was  not  yet.  Hunt's  influence  was  personal, 
at  the  same  time  that  it  was  in  favor  of  Christianity.  Yet 
there  were  many  reasons  to  the  proud  and  cruel  monster  why 
he  should  not  place  himself  under  the  latter.  He  was  Fiji's 
great  chief ;  history  told  of  no  greater ;  and  if  he  were  not  a 
god  already,  he  would  become  one  at  his  death.  But  the 
Christians  regarded  him  as  a  mere  man,  not  over  good  at  that. 
Then,  again,  they  would  not  assist  him  in  his  wars  ;  and  as  the 
natives  of  other  islands  became  Christian,  they  told  him  they 
could  not  give  him  the  assistance  in  warfare  which  he  had  long 
ago  regarded  as  beyond  any  question  his.  That  they  should 
refuse  to  fight  for  him  was  as  preposterous  as  it  was  aggravat- 
ing.   Accordingly,  he  rightly  concluded  that  as  the  Fijians 


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530  Methodiit  QaoHerhi  Review.  [July, 

abandoned  the  faith  of  their  fathers  he  became  a  sufferer  by 
the  loss  of  political  and  martial  influence.  His  pride  could  not 
brook  this,  and  he  resolved  upon  the  extirpation  of  all  the  na- 
tives who  had  become  Christian.  The  missionaries  and  their 
families — ^thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  departed  Hunt — were 
to  be  spared,  but  all  the  native  disciples  were  to  be  put  to 
death.  War  was  declared  and  actually  entered  upon,  and  the 
entreaties  of  the  missionaries  against  it  treated  with  contempt. 
It  happened  that  at  the  time  (1851)  a  Tongan  chief  with  three 
hundred  men  was  at  Ban.  The  missionaries  besought  his  in- 
fluence with  Thakombau,  and  in  the  consequent  interview  he 
informed  the  latter  that  he  would  feel  called  upon  to  defend 
them  if  he  judged  their  lives  to  be  imperiled  by  the  war. 
Thakombau,  fearing  a  contest  with  Tongans  as  well  as  the 
Christian  Fijians,  saw  it  to  be  politic  to  bring  warlike  opera- 
tions  to  a  close,  and  although  siege  had  been  laid  to  Dama,  it 
was  raised  and  peace  proclaimed.  At  the  same  time  he  cursed 
both  the  missionaries  and  the  Tongans,  secretly  vowing  to  carry 
out  his  bloody  designs  at  a  more  opportune  season. 

In  the  same  year  a  further  step  in  advance  was  taken.  One 
Sabbath  in  March  the  Eev.  Joseph  Waterhouse  was  conduct- 
ing divine  service  in  a  house  when  he  was  greatly  alarmed  by 
a  shower  of  stones  upon  it,  which  he  thought  for  the  time 
would  bury  him.  As  soon  as  possible  most  of  the  congregation 
fled  in  terror,  among  those  remaining  being  a  chief  of  rank, 
whose  indignation  found  vent  in  the  exclamation,  "Am  I  a 
pig,  that  I  should  be  stoned  ? "  But  the  stoning  had  been  done 
by  order  of  Thakombau  himself,  and  when  the  courageous 
Waterhouse  learned  this  he  determined  to  accuse  the  tyrant  of 
it.  In  company  with  the  Eev.  J.  Calvert,  another  devoted 
missionary — who  at  the  time  trembled  for  his  friend's  safety — 
he  dealt  faithfully  with  the  persecuting  king.  In  spite  of  his 
denial  of  it  Mr.  Waterhouse  reiterated  the  charge,  and  threat- 
ened the  judgments  of  heaven  upon  him  if  he  persisted  in  op- 
posing the  work  of  the  Lord.  The  king  listened  with  aston- 
ishment, and  the  faithful  missionary,  encouraged  by  the  evident 
embarrassment  of  his  unwilling  listener,  followed  up  his  reproof 
by  making  a  threefold  demand :  1.  That  he  should  receive  a 
missionary ;  2.  That  he  should  allow  public  worship  at  Ban 
every  Sabbath;   3.  That  he  should  declare  freedom  of  con- 


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1881.]  ThakomboM^  Ccmntbal  amd  Christia/ii.  531 

science  in  matters  of  religion.  Says  the  missionary  :  "  Thakom- 
ban  was  thunderstruck,  and  I  immovable.  At  last  he  yielded,  and 
the  day  was  apparently  gained."  But,  as  yet,  not  really  gained. 
Though  a  site  had  been  granted  and  preparations  made  for  the 
erection  of  a  church,  the  native  priests,  in  the  course  of  a  few- 
weeks,  persuaded  the  king  to  reverse  his  decision.  For  this 
breach  of  faith  Mr.  Waterhouse  expostulated  with  him  for  a 
couple  of  hours,  but  in  vain.  Finding  it  impossible  to  induce 
him  to  return  to  his  promise,  he  concluded  the  interview  by 
reminding  him  that  they  two,  and  the  native  priests  who  had 
influenced  him,  would  one  day  meet  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  God,  to  which  the  contemptuous  king  replied  in  derision, 
"  O  !  I  suppose  a  vessel  from  the  other  world  has  arrived  in 
England.  You  seem  to  be  well  up  in  information  from  the 
day  of  judgment ! "  Often.reproved,  he  was  yet  too  much  of 
a  rebel  against  God  to  submit* 

It  was  at  this  time  that  a  papal  bishop  visited  Fiji,  and  tried 
to  induce  Thakombau  to  receive  a  French  Eomanist  mission- 
ary. The  friendship  of  the  king  was  solicited  by  the  pre- 
sentation of  a  couple  of  muskets,  but  the  request,  which  it 
was  hoped  the  present  would  be  likely  to  extort  from  the  war- 
rior, was  sternly  refused.  Alluding  to  the  failure  of  the  Prot- 
estant missionaries  to  obtain  their  long-sought  permission,  the 
bishop  inquired  of  the  king  how  it  was  that  it  had  been  denied 
them.  Receiving  a  negative  reply,  the  bishop  vouchsafed  the 
information  that  "  the  Virgin  Mary  was  keeping  Bau  for  the 
Catholics,  and  that  when  Thakombau  became  a  Catholic  he 
would  have  to  order  the  Protestants  to  change  their  faith.'* 
The  king's  ready  rejoinder  was,  that  the  bishop  had  better  be 
gone  and  leave  him  and  his  city  to  the  care  of  the  Virgin,  and 
to  come  again  when  she  had  converted  them  ! 

Tanoa,  Thakombau's  father,  did  not  die  until  December  8, 
1852,  when  the  latter  became  king  in  title,  as  he  had  for  many 
years  been  in  every  other  respect.  The  death  of  a  king  was 
an  occasion  when  heathen  rites  could  not  possibly  be  dispensed 
with,  however  hesitating  the  attitude  of  Thakombau  had  be- 
come toward  the  heathen  religion.  The  old  m^  died  with  the 
faint  inquiry  on  his  lips,  how  many  would  be  strangled  to  ac- 
company his  spirit  to  his  fathers ;  and  the  son  determined  that 
his  royaJ  parent  should  not  be  unhonored  in  his  death,  and  so 


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532  Methodist  Quwrterly  jReview.  [July, 

subject  to  the  reproaches  of  all  Fiji.  The  Rev.  John  Watsford, 
who  happened  to  be,  at  the  time,  the  only  missionary  near  to 
Bau,  at  once  made  his  way  to  the  royal  residence,  only  to  learn, 
as  he  feared,  that  Thakombau  had  given  orders  for  the  perform- 
ance of  the  usual  bloody  custom.    Says  Mr.  Waterhouse  : 

The  principal  widow  was  a  lifeless  corpse,  with  the  strangling 
drapery  round  her  neck.  A  second  was  in  the  midst  of  death, 
her  strangulation  being  effected  by  the  prince  himself  and  his 
companions.  Two  or  three  were  pulling  the  cord  on  either  side, 
while  a  lady  of  rank,  forgetting  her  Christianity  in  her  desire  to 
honor  her  royal  relative,  pressed  down  the  covered  head.  Just 
as  the  third  was  making  her  appearance  Thakombau  recognized 
the  missionary.  "  How  now  !  "  exclaimed  the  prince.  "  Re- 
frain, sir,"  said  Mr.  Watsford,  with  tears  in  his  eyes  and  com- 
passion beaming  from  his  whole  countenance.  "  Two  are  already 
strangled  ;  let  them  suffice  ;  spare  the  remainder.  I  love  them." 
"  We  also  love  them,"  replied  Thakombau.  "  But  there  are  only 
a  few— only  five.  But  for  you  missionaries  many  more  would 
have  been  strangled."  The  third  lady  then  bade  farewell  to  her 
relatives  and  knelt  down.  The  cord  was  then  adjusted,  the 
covering  thrown  over  her,  and  she  died  without  a  sound  or 
struggle.  Two  others  followed.  All  this  was  effected  without 
the  slightest  noise,  hurry,  or  confusion.  A  stranger  might  have 
supposed  it  to  have  been  a  wedding  of  the  living  rather  than  of 
the  dead.  Yet  [continues  Mr.  Waterhouse  reflectively]  the 
voice  of  conscience  made  itself  heard.  For  several  days  Tha- 
kombau was  frequently  engaged  in  talking  about  the  departed 
women,  and  expressing  his  wonder  whether  mankind  will  know 
each  other  in  the  eternal  world," 

Still  the  king  continued  his  cannibalistic  and  warlike  pur- 
suits ;  but,  as  if  the  judgments  were  overtaking  him,  to  bring 
about  his  humiliation  preparatory  to  his  accepting  the  Saviour, 
he  had  to  contend  with  the  rebellion  of  a  portion  of  his  subjects, 
and  sustain  the  loss  of  Bau  by  fire.  Hoping  to  find  him  in  a 
somewhat  softened  mood,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Lyth,  Watsford, 
and  Waterhouse  obtained  an  interview  with  him,  to  press  once 
more  upon  him  their  offer  of  a  missionary.  But,  proud  and 
contemptuous  as  ever,  he  refused  the  permission  as  before, 
telling  the  deputation  that  no  missionary  should  ever  reside  at 
Bau,  though  his  habitation  were  merely  an  empty  oil-cask.  The 
missionaries,  however,  did  not  relax  their  importunities,  but  on 
every  suitable  occasion  renewed  them.  The  proud  warrior's 
successes  in  war  were  not  so  frequent  as  of  yore,  and  a  series 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


1881.]      •     Thakombcm^  Cwanibai  and  Christian.  533 

of  reverses  of  various  kinds  overtook  him  in  rapid  succession 
for  the  next  two  years.  On  October  30,  1853,  Mr.  Waterhouse 
obtained  another  interview,  at  which  the  long-delayed  consent 
was  granted  to  him,  after  a  promise  had  been  made  to  the  Rev. 
James  Calvert  to  the  same  purport  a  few  days  before.  The  f ol- 
iowlng  conversation  passed  between  Mr.  W.  and  the  king : 

Mr,  Waterhouse.  As  you,  sir,  are  now  willing  to  build  a  mission- 
house,  and  have  sent  for  me  to  reside  at  Bau,  I  have  come  to  re* 
port  my  arrival 

£ing.  'Twas  Mr.  Calvert's  mind,  not  mine. 

Mr.  Waterhouse.  Don't  trifle  with  me,  sir.  Mr.  Calvert  brought 
your  message  to  me,  in  consequence  of  which  I  have  come. 

King.  No,  no;  not  my  message,  but  his  own. 

Mr.  Waterhouse.  Impossible!     But  what  am  I  to  do ? 

King.  Do  ?    Go  and  live  art  Viwa  for  the  present. 

Mr.  Waterhottse.  Chief,  listen  to  me  for  a  few  moments.  You 
have  frequently  befooled  the  missionaries.  For  years  we  have 
listened  to  you,  and  have  kept  a  missionary  uselessly  waiting  un- 
til you  would  build  him  a  house  at  Bau.  We  can  be  played  with 
no  longer.  I,  myself,  have  left  an  island  where  your  countrymen, 
though  heathens  and  cannibals  like  yourself,  love  and  respect  me 
as  a  missionary ;  the  dead  have  been  given  me  for  burial,  and  the 
lives  of  many  been  spared  at  my  intercession.  I  know  that  you 
will  not  be  very  ready  to  follow  their  example,  for  you  told  my 
father  that  you  would  destroy  and  kill  as  long  as  your  life  lasted. 
But  if  you  will  build  me  a  nouse,  though  I  may  labor  without 
success,  yet  I  will  reside  with  you,  and  endeavor  to  do  you  good. 

King.  Very  well ;  don't  be  angry.  Go  to  Viwa,' and  when  we 
are  at  leisure  we  will  build  your  house. 

Mr.  Waterhouse.  Angry  I  am  not,  as  the  king  well  knows.  But 
I  reprove  you  publicly  on  the  present  occasion,  as  private  expos- 
tulation has  failed.  Flease  oblige  me  with  a  house  in  which  to 
deposit  my  books,  furniture,  etc. 

King.  Bau  is  quite  full ;  we  have  no  room.     Go  to  Viwa. 

Mr.  Waterhouse.  I  must  now  respectfully  but  firmly  inform  the 
king  that  he  must  be  pleased  to  furnish  me  with  a  shed  for  my 
goods,  and  also  to  send  a  canoe  to  the  vessel  for  the  said  goods, 
or  I  shall  be  compelled  to  return  to  Ovalau  to-morrow.  The  king 
cannot  have  forgotten  that  the  goods  belonging  to  the  missionary 
Watsf ord  were  brought  to  Bau,  with  the  king's  full  consent,  who 
then  refused  to  allow  of  the  landing  of  the  same.  To  guard 
against  a  similar  mishap,  the  king  must  be  pleased  in  this  instance 
to  dispatch  his  own  men  to  the  vessel,  more  especially  as  the  brig 
is  six  miles  distant. 

King,  {inwardly  agitaied,  but  endeavoring  to  maintain  an  out- 
ward composure.)  Don't  talk  like  that.  Perhaps  the  Manilla  man 
would  lend  his  store  hut  to  you. 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 35 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


634  Methodist  Quarterly  JSeoiew.  [July, 

The  missionary's  effects  were  landed  at  the  command  of  the 
king,  and  temporarily  stored  in  the  building  referred  to  him, 
and  a  house  afterward  built  on  the  Bauan  summit.  The  erection 
of  this  house  was  largely  due  to  the  influence  of  the  queen  over 
the  king  in  the  missionary's  favor.  Henceforward,  divine  serv- 
ice was  conducted  twice  every  Lord's  day  in  the  mission-house. 
The  missionaries'  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  Thakombau  were 
now  seconded  by  a  letter  from  the  Tongan  King  George,  who 
strongly  advised  him  to  become  a  Christian.  His  principal 
queen,  Adi  Samanuuu,  used  her  influence  to  the  same  end, 
though  exposed  to  much  ridicule  from  most  of  the  favorites  of 
the  regal  harem,  who  taimted  her  with  wanting  to  escape  the 
strangling  which  would  take  place  at  the  death  of  her  lord; 
while  others  accused  her  of  the  design  of  securing  him  to  her- 
self as  his  sole  wife,  and  for  that  reason  desired  him  to  become 
a  Christian.  Soon  came  the  decision.  On  April  27,  1854,  the 
missionary  had  a  prolonged  interview  with  him,  and  faithfully 
and  affectionately  dealt  with  him  as  a  sinner  before  God.  The 
Lord  had  evidently  been  at  work  by  his  Spirit  upon  the  proud 
savage's  heart,  for  he  wept  profusely  before  his  faithful  re- 
prover. "Will  not  God  cast  me  off,"  he  tearfully  inquired, 
"if  I  call  upon  his  name  whom  I  have  so  iU-treated?"  Then, 
with  a  spirit  of  meekness  never  before  displayed  by  him,  he 
announced  his  decision  to  accept  the  offers  of  God's  mercy ;  afed 
the  missionary,  excited  with  thankfulness  and  joy,  left  him. 
The  day  following,  at  a  full  meeting  of  the  chiefs  and  govern- 
ors from  adjacent  towns  on  the  mainland,  the  king  announced 
his  decision;  and  at  a  meeting  of  his  male  relatives  and  prin- 
cipal chiefs  on  the  following  day,  it  was  resolved  that  the  relig- 
ion of  Christ  should  be  substituted  for  that  of  their  fathers. 
Bales  of  native  calicoes  were  opened  and  distributed  among 
those  who  wished  to  clothe  themselves,  and  provision  was 
shared  out  among  those  who  intended  to  renounce  heathenism. 

That  was  a  memorable  Sabbath  that  followed,  April  30, 1854, 
but  it  is  fitting  that  Mr.  Waterhouse  should  himself  describe 
its  services : 

It  was  one  of  Fiji's  loveliest  cloudless  days.  Early  in  the 
morning  the  mission  family  arrived  from  Viwa,  incluaing  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Calvert  and  their  children,  and  Mr.  E.  P.  Martin,  whose 
hearty  and  praiseworthy  labors  in  the  printing  department  have 


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1881.]  .  Thakoinhau^  Ccmnihal  omd  Christicm.  535 

greatly  enriched  all  Fiji.  The  word  was  passed  to  "  beat  the 
drum."  The  sound  thrilled  the  hearts  of  all.  The  two  great 
wooden  drums  of  Fiji — known  to  the  natives  by  the  name  of 
**the  publisher  of  war" — had  never  before  been  used  but  to 
congregate  warriors  and  cannibals.  Their  sounds  had  often 
betokened  death  to  the  living  captives  who  awaited  the  strong 
arm  of  their  human  butchers  to  relieve  them  from  their  awf lu 
suspense;  their  piercing  "pat-pat-pat "  had  resounded  when  two 
hundred  victims  were  piled  in  a  heap,  and  had  rolled  as  an  ac- 
companiment at  all  the  bloody  orgies  of  Bau.  These  drums  are 
now  beaten  to  assemble  those  who  were  willing  to  enroll  them- 
selves under  the  banner  of  the  Prince  of  peace.' 

The  place  set  apart  for  the  public  service  was  the  large  dwell- 
ing (one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  by  thirty  feet)  known  as  the 
Strangers'  House.  In  front  is  the  Bau  assembly  grounds,  in 
which  the  reviews  are  generally  held.  At  the  back  are  a  num- 
ber of  ovens  for  cooking  human  flesh,  now  filled  up,  it  is  hoped, 
forever.  Near  these  is  a  large  tree  on  which  are  notched  the 
number  of  those  who  have  been  cooked  and  eaten;  it  is  covered 
from  top  to  bottom  with  these  mementos  of  Fijian  disgrace. 
Close  by  are  the  evergreen  shrubs  where  certain  portions  of  the 
eaten  parties  were  hung  as  ornaments,  and  were  now  removed 
for  the  first  time.  This  was  the  spot  where  the  message  of  love 
to  God  and  to  man  was  now  publicly  proclaimed.  The  king, 
preceded  by  his  gray-headed,  long-bearded  family  priest,  first 
entered  the  dwelling.  About  three  hundred  chiefs,  women,  at- 
tendants, and  children,  followed  the  ruler.  His  own  children  sat 
in  the  front,  his  wives  and  sisters,  the  other  women  of  rank,  and 
all  the  females,  on  the  right  hand;  the  king  and  all  of  his  sex 
occupied  the  left.  The  change  in  the  people  was  very  striking. 
All  bad  clean  faces  and  were  suitably  clad.  True,  the  long 
beards  of  the  men  and  the  well-dressed  heads  of  hair  of  both 
men  and  women  remained;  but  the  congregation  was  orderly, 
serious,  and  attentive.  Previous  to  the  commencement  of  wor- 
ship, the  chiefs  respectfully  removed  their  snow-white  turbans. 

The  Kevs.  James  Calvert  and  Joseph  Waterhouse  were  the 
preachers  who  delivered  God's  message  of  mercy  to  sinners 
with  profound  and  conflicting  emotions.  The  next  day  family 
prayer  was  established  in  many  of  the  natives'  houses,  and  on 
the  following  Sabbath  three  hundred  more  embraced  the 
Christian  religion.  The  despoiling  of  the  heathen  temples 
and  the  destruction  of  trees  in  the  sacred  forests  were  works 
accomplished  not  without  fear  and  trembling  on  the  part  of 
those  natives  to  whom  they  were  committed.  Langa,  the  god 
of  rain  and  of  fine  weather,  found  a  place  in  the  mission  house, 
whither  he  was  borne  in  triumph.      Public  day-schools  for 


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536  MethocUst  Quarterly  Review.  fJuly, 

teaching  reading  and  writing  were  at  once  commenced,  at 
which  some  of  the  young  men  learned  to  read  in  three  days. 
So  rapidly  was  heathenism  renounced  that  by  June  1  more 
than  a  thousand  had  placed  themselves  under  the  religious 
instruction  (rf  the  missionary. 

As  might  be  expected,  Thakombau  did  not  escape  persecu- 
tion and  annoyance  from  his  enemies,  in  bearing  which  he  ac- 
knowledged that  he  deserved  death  for  his  great  crimes,  and 
evinced  a  humble  and  teachable  disposition,  though  it  was 
some  time  ere  he  could  display  a  forgiving  spirit  toward  his 
implacable  foes.  By  the  advice  of  Mr.  Waterhouse  he  at  once 
gave  himself  to  the  initiation  of.  a  scheme  of  political  reform 
formed  upon  a  Christian  basis,  though  he  rejected  all  proposals 
in  favor  of  constitutional  government  with  the  characteristic 
remark,  "  I  was  bom  a  chief,  and  I  will  die  a  chief."  In 
1870-71  an  attempt  was  made  to  set  up  a  sort  of  native  Euro- 
pean government,  but  it  proved  a  failure.  Since  then,  how- 
ever, Fiji  has  become  a  dependency  of  England  which  has 
been  ably  presided  over  by  Sir  Arthur  Gordon,  who,  at  this 
writing,  is  being  removed  to  New  Zealand. 

Thakombau  having  become  a  Christian,  the  one  formidable 
obstruction  in  the  way  of  Christianity  triumphing  over  Fiji  no 
longer  barred  the  way,  and  now  there  gather  every  Sabbath 
one  hundred  thousand  natives  to  hear  the  word  of  life.  The 
Fijian  group  is  one  of  the  Gospel's  greatest  triumphs,  and  with 
the  certainty  of  effect  following  cause,  commerce  has  begun  to 
tread  with  vigorous  steps  in  the  wake  of  religion.  To  those  who 
once  knew  Fiji  as  unclean  and  cannibal,  the  change  is  marvelous. 
They  remember  that  the  first  greeting  given  to  some  of  them 
was  a  chuckle  of  delight  as  cannibal  fingers  tested  their  fitness 
for  the  oven ;  now  they  witness  law,  order,  religion,  and  trade, 
exerting  regnant  powers  where  life  had  no  respect  shown  it. 
Twenty-three  years  ago,  Missionary  Wilson,  running  short  of 
bread  and  shoes,  had  to  take  a  voyage  one  hundred  miles  out 
and  one  hundred  miles  back  with  the  result  of  a  "  stone  of 
flour  and  a  pair  of  old  shoes  thj^t  might  have  belonged  to  the 
Gibeonites."  Then  there  was  neither  merchant  nor  trader 
nor  store.  In  1878  Fiji's  shipping  amounted  to  twenty-three 
thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty  to»s,  trading  in  goods  to  the 
value  of  £329,573.     To  Fiji  herself,  to  the  Australian  colonies, 


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1881.]  Thdkombauy  Cwrmibal  cmd  ChrisUan.  537 

and  to  the  British  Empire  the  gain  haa  been  beyond  all  estimate 
in  both  material  and  spiritual  interests,  and  it  is  no  boast  to  say 
that  that  gain  is  the  result  of  the  Wesleyan  mission  work 
there,  upon  which  so  signally  rested  the  enriching  Messing  of 
the  Most  High  God. 


Akt.  Vm.— synopsis  op  the  quarterlies  Aln)  OTHERS  OF 
THE  HIGHER  PERIODIOALa 

Americcm  Reviews. 

BApnsT  Riyhw,  April,  May,  June,  1881.  (CSncinnatL) — 1.  Testimony  of  the 
Hesopotamian  Monuments  to  the  Reliability  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures ;  by  Rey. 
G.  E.  Lesson.  2.  The  Acta  Johannis — the  New  Edition  by  Prof.  Zahn ;  by  Prof. 
H.  M.  Schaffer.  8.  Ck>mmerce  and  Literature;  by  W.  Carey  Crane,  D.D. 
LL.D.  4.  What  Latitude  of  Belief  is  Allowed  by  the  Doctrine  of  Inspiration ; 
by  Rev.  0.  P.  Eaches.  5.  Balthazer  Hubmeyer ;  by  Rev.  W.  W.  Everts,  Jun. 
6.  Theism;  by  Wayland  Hoyt,  D.D.  7.  Thomas  Carlyle;  by  Rev.. Philip  L. 
Jones. 

Cumberland  Presbttkbian  Quarterly,  April,  1881.  (Lebanon,  Tenn.) — 1.  Min- 
isterial Education ;  by  Prof.  S.  T.  Anderson,  D.  D.  2.  The  Supernatural ;  by 
S.  H.   Buchanan,  D.D.     8.  The  Possibilities  of  Faith ;  by  Rev.  S.  L.  Russell. 

.  4.  Tobacco ;  by  Prof.  J.  L  D.  Hmds,  Ph.D.  6.  The  Presbyterian  Alliance  and 
the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  ;  by  Prof.  R,  V.  Foster.  6.  Theopneusty ; 
by  Rev.  C.  P.  Durall.  7.'  H.  M.  Irwin's  Criticism  on  "  Mosaic  Jurisprudence ; " 
by  Hon.  R.  C.  Ewing.  8.  Prof.  James  M'Greggor,  D.D.,  on  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Confession  of  Faith ;  by  Prof.  S.  G.  Bumey,  D.D.  9.  Notes. — 
Christ's  Miracles,  Spurious  Zeal,  Catechetics,  Revivals ;  by  Prof.  R.  Y.  Foster. 
The  Eldership. 

Lutheran  Quarterly,  April,  1881.  (Gettysburgh.)^!.  Feasibility  of  a  Service  for 
all  English-Speaking  Lutherans ;  by  Rev.  Edward  T.  Horn,  A  M.  2.  The  Origin 
of  Royal  Government  In  Israel ;  by  Prof.  Dr.  G.  H.  Shoode.  8.  Luther's  Doc- 
trine of  Predestination  and  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Translated  from  the  German 
by  Rev.  G.  F.  Behringer.  4.  The  Stability  of  the  Church ;  by  Rev.  John  Bru- 
baker,  A.  M.  5.  Moral  and  Religious  Education  in  Connection  with  Intellect- 
ual ;  by  Rev.  Professor  J.  W.  Richard,  A.  M.  6.  The  Predestination  Contro- 
versy ;  by  Rev.  Adam  Martin,  A.  M.  7.  The  Supernatural  Element  of  the  Bible : 
Its  Nature,  Necessity,  and  Importance ;  by  Rev.  P.  Rizer.  8.  Baptism :  Thoughts 
Suggested  by  the  Ninth  Aiticle  of  the  Augsburg  Confession;  by  Rev.  J.  R. 
Dimm,  A  M. 

North  American  Review,  April,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Reform  ««•««  Reforma- 
tion ;  by  Judge  Albion  W.  Tourgee.  2.  The  Thing  that  Might  Be ;  by  Mark 
Pattison.  8.  Religion  in  Schools ;  by  Bishop  B.  J.  M'Quaid.  4.  The  Ownership 
of  Railroad  Property ;  by  George  Ticknor  Curtis.  6.  The  Historic  Genesis  ol 
Protestantism;  by  John  Fiske.  6.  The  Telegraph  Monopoly;  by  William  M. 
Springer.     7.  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow ;  by  Anthony  Trollope. 

June. — 1.  Our  Future  Fiscal  Policy;  by  Hugh  M'CuUoch.  2.  The  Patrician 
Element  in  American  Society ;  by  George  B.  Loring.  8.  A  New  Phase  of  the 
Reform  Movement ;  by  Dorman  B.  Eaton.  4.  Shall  Americans  Own  Ships  7  by 
Prof.  W.  G.  Sumner.  6.  The  Color  Line;  by  Frederick  Douglass.  <J.  The 
Ruins  of  Central  America.  Part  VIII;  by  D^ir^  Chamay.  7.  Vaccination; 
by  Dr.  Austin  Flint.  8.  The  Right  to  Regulate  Railway  Charges;  by  J.  M. 
Mason.    9.  Prehistoric  Man  in  America ;  by  Prof.  Edward  S.  Morse. 


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538  Methodist  QaaHerly  Beoiew.  [July, 

Pbisbttiriah  Rbvibw,  April,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Inspiration;  by  Prof.  A. 
A.  Hodge,  D.D.,  and  Prof.  B.  B.  Warfield,  D.D.  2.  The  Prevalent  Confusion 
and  the  Attitude  of  Christian  Faith ;  by  Prof.  Ransom  B.  Welch,  D.D.  8.  The 
Book  of  Discipline  in  a  Reyised  Form,  as  Proposed  by  the  Assembly's  Revision 
Committee ;  by  Rev.  Edward  P.  Humphrey,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  and  Prof.  Alex.  T. 
H*Gill,  D.D.,  LL.D.  4.  Hormonism ;  by  Rev.  Robert  O.  H*Niece.  6.  Charles 
Hodge ;  by  Prof.  F.  L.  Patton,  D.D.,  LL  D. 

pRiNCvroN  Rbyibw,  March,  1881.  (New  York.)^l.  Evolution  in  Relation  to 
Materialism ;  by  Joseph  Le  Conte,  LL.D.  2.  A  Moral  Argument ;  by  John  P. 
Coyle.  8.  The  Historical  Proofs  of  Christianity ;  by  George  P.  Fisher,  D.D., 
LL.D.  4.  The  Study  of  Anglo-Saxon  ;  by  Prof.  Theodore  W.  Hunt.  5.  The 
Argument  Against  Protective  Taxes;  by  Prof.  William  C.  Sumner.  6.  The 
Reasonableness  of  Faith ;  by  Principal  Shairp,  D.C.L. 

May. — 1.  Practical  Uses  of  Electricity;  by  Charles  A.  Young,  Ph.D.  2.  Chris- 
tian' Metempsychosis ;  by  Prof.  Francis  Bowen.  8.  The  Silver  Question  and 
the  International  Monetary  Conference  of  1881 ;  by  President  Barnard,  LL.D., 
L.H.D.  4.  On  Causation  and  Development  ;•  by  President  M^Cosh,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
6.  The  Sculptor  and  His  Art ;  by  John  F.  Weir,  N.A.  6.  The  Regulation  of 
Railroads ;  by  Prof.  Lyman  H.  Atwater,  D.D.,  LL.D.  7.  On  the  So-called 
Science  of  Religion ;  by  William  D.  Whitney,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Unitkbsalist  Quartsrlt,  April,  1881.  (Boston.)^l.  The  Sin  Against  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  by  T.  J.  Sawyer,  D.D.  2.  Certain  Phases  of  Our  Growth  ;  by  Rev.  G. 
M.  Harmon.  8.  Lesslng's  Theological  Opinions ;  by  Orello  Cone,  D.D.  4.  The 
Power  and  Progress  of  Universalism  ;  by  Rev.  Henry  Blanchard.  6.  Mrs. 
Judith  Murray;  by  Rev.  Richard  Eddy.  6.  New  Testament  Synonyms;  by 
Nehemiah  White,  Ph.D.  7.  A  Restatement  of  the  Temperance  Problem ;  by 
Rev.  E.  A-  Perry. 

Quarterly  Retibw  of  thb  MrrHODurr  Episcopal  Church,  South,  April,  1881. 
(Nashville,  Tcnn.) — 1.  The  Bar:  Its  Ethics  and  Characteristics.  2.  Janet  on 
Final  Causes.  8.  The  Drama.  4.  God  in  History.  5.  Miracles.  6.  The  Re- 
vised New  Testament  7.  The  Wesleys  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  8.  The 
Catacombs  of  Rome. 

New  Enolander,  March,  1881.  (New  Haven.)  —  1.  Historical  and  Personal 
Reminiscences  of  the  Spanish  Revolution ;  by  Prof.  William  I.  Knapp.  2.  The 
Personality  of  God ;  translated  by  W.  Haskell,  Ph.D.  8.  Miss  Bird's  Japan 
and  Yezo ;  by  Prof.  S.  W.  Williams.  4.  Ireland  as  it  is ;  by  Prof.  WilHam 
M.  Barbour.  5.  The  Life  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge ;  by  Prof.  Timothy  Dwight 
6.  Preaching  to  the  Boys  and  Girls ;  by  Rev.  James  G.  MerrilL  7.  The 
Evangelical  Hymnal ;  by  Rev.  Edward  W.  Gilman,  D.D. 

May,  1881. — 1.  Pre-adamites ;  by  Rev.  Joseph  D.  Wilson.  2.  Shakespeare  in 
the  Opinion  of  thp  Seventeenth  Century ;  by  B.  C.  Burt  8.  The  Jewish  Ques- 
tion in  Europe ;  by  Prof.  S.  H.  Kellogg,  D.D.  4.  The  Sunday-school  Library ; 
by  Rev.  0.  A.  Kingsbury.  5.  The  Wines  of  the  Bible ;  by  Rev.  T.  Laurie,  D.D. 
6.  A  Lesson  for  England :  an  American  Anti-rent  Excitement,  and  How  it  was 
Quelled ;  by  Oliver  £.  Lyman,  Esq.  7.  Thomas  Carlyle ;  by  Rev.  William  M. 
Barbour. 

The  Article  on  Pre-adamites,  by  Mr.  Wilson,  is  an  admirable 
discussion  of  an  important  subject,  introducing  some  new  and 
valuable  points.  It  answers  Dr.  Winchell's  book  with  great 
success,  but  with  entire  courtesy.  It  takes  up  the  argument 
as  based  in  archaeology,  ethnology,  linguistics,  Egyptology,  and 
Scripture,  and  deals  with  it  concisely  but  effectively. 

In  regard  to  Professor  "Whitney's  Calaveras'  skull,  the  sole 
fossil  piece  of  humanity  upon  which  Dr.  W.  founds  an  argu- 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qua/rterlies.  639 

ment,  Mr.  Wilson,  (in  addition  to  Mr.  SonthalFs  discussion  of 
that  specimen  in  our  last  Quarterly,)  furnishes  the  following 
statements : 

This  "  find  "  is  a  human  skull  taken  from  a  shaft  near  Angelos, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep  in  the  gold-hearing  gravel;  the 
shaft  pierces  five  heds  of  lava  and  other  volcanic  matter.  Pro- 
fessor Whitney,  who  ohtaiued  this  skull  for  the  museum  of  Cali- 
fornia, has  no  douht  of  its  great  antiquity.  As  late  as  1878,  in 
a  lecture  delivered  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  he  re-affirmed 
his  conviction  that  it  belonged  to  the  Pliocene  epoch.  At  the 
time  it  came  into  Whitney's  hands  it  was  still  embedded  in  its 
gravelly  matrix.  "  In  the  skull  and  about  it  were  found  other 
human  bones,  including  some  that  must  have  belonged  to  an 
infant.  The  skull  was  not  inferior  to  those  of  existing  races. 
Its  organic  matter  was  almost  entirely  lost,  and  the  phosphate  of 
lime  was  replaced  by  carbonate  of  lime." 

Several  circumstances  raise  a  suspicion  of  the  extreme  age  of 
this  skull.  The  gravel  in  which  it  is  found  is  a  surface  deposit 
"  covering  the  face  of  the  country  "  in  some  regions,  and  there- 
fore a  man  of  the  present  day  might  leave  his  skull  in  it.  "  But 
it  was  found  under  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  of  lava."  True. 
And  how  long  a  period  would  it  take  a  volcano  to  deposit  that 
amount  of  lava?  Within  the  present  century  volcanoes  have 
deposited  as  much  as  six  hurfdred  feet  of  lava  in  a  single  erup- 
tion. The  important  question  is  not,  How  thick  is  the  lava,  but 
how  long  has  it  been  in  situ?  The  United  States  geological 
survey  of  the  Territories,  1871,  1872,  declares  that  "the  effusion 
of  the  basal  if  a  modem  event,  occurring  for  the  most  part  near 
the  commencement  of  our  present  period,  after  the  entire  surface 
reached  nearly,  or  quite,  the  present  elevation."  Volcanoes  still 
exist  in  the  Pacific  region,  and  from  recent  signs  at  Pike's  Peak 
and  elsewhere  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  generation  may  wit- 
ness eruptions  in  many  old  craters  whose  fires  have  been  sup- 
posed extinct.  Earthquakes  are  not  uncommon  in  California, 
and  the  hot  springs,  which  are  numerous,  are  looked  upon  by 
geologists  as  "  the  last  of  a  series  of  volcanic  events."  So  that 
the  thickness  of  the  lava  above  the  Calaveras  skull  shows  nothing 
but  that  the  bones  were  deposited  before  any  white  man  visited 
those  regions.  As  for  the  "  gravelly  matrix,"  any  bones  depos- 
ited in  the  gravel  where  the  warm  waters  of  a  geyser  may  per- 
colate to  them,  will  become  incrusted  with  a  "  gravelly  matrix." 
All  along  the  Illinois  River  bones,  brickbats,  and  even  bits  of 
wood  may  be  found  cemented  to  the  river  pebbles  by  carbonate 
of  lime. 

The  absence  of  gelatinous  matter  in  bones  is  a  criterion  of  age 
only  when  all  the  chemical  circumstances  are  known.  The  Pa- 
cific slope  has  been,  until  very  recently,  the  scene  of  violent 
volcanic  action.     The  geysers  and  hot  springs,  still  numerous  in 


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540  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jnly, 

that  reffion,  are  but  the  dying  embers  of  fierce  chemical  action. 
Were  those  Calaveras  bones  subjected  to  the  chemical  action  of 
geysers  ?  Were  they  immersed  in  the  boiling  water  of  hot 
springs  ?  Were  they  calcined  by  the  molten  lava  flowing  over 
the  gravel  in  which  they  rested  ?  If  "  yes  "  is  answered  to  any 
of  these  questions,  then  the  animal  matter  may  have  been  ex- 
tracted as  quickly  as  in  a  modern  kitchen  or  glue  factory. 

These  considerations  show  on  how  slender  evidence  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  Calaveras  man  is  hung,  and  when  there  is  added 
the  confession  of  the  miner,  one  Brier,  who  took  the  skull  out  of 
a  cave  and  placed  it  in  the  shaft  for  the  purpose  of  hoaxing  a 
geologist,  it  must  be  admitted  that  this  last  survivor  of  the  vast 
army  of  Pre-adamic  remains  may  as  well  be  gathered  unto  his 
fathers.— Pp.  283-286. 

Mr.  Wilson  gives  a  fresh  revision  of  the  geology  of  the  Nile 
delta,  which,  if  tenable,  seems  to  expunge  very  conclusively 
the  tall  chronologies  of  the  Egyptologists.  That  delta  is  com- 
posed simply  of  the  sediment  brought  down  by  the  Nile  from 
Northern  Egypt,  poured  into  the  Mediterranean  so  as  to  form 
made  land  far  into  the  sea.  The  amount  of  that  sediment, 
vast  as  it  is,  is  capable  of  a  very  fair  scientific  measurement. 
The  rate  of  the  accumulation  of  ^ne  sediment  can  also  be  ap- 
proximately estimated.  We  can  tell,  then,  how  old  Egyptian 
soil  is.  Lanoye,  in  his  "  Rameses  the  Great,"  as  noticed  in  a 
former  number  of  our  Quarterly,  gives  4,500  years  B.  C.  as 
the  period  at  whose  commencement  Egypt  began  to  be  inhab- 
itable. Our  present  reviewer,  under  the  light  of  the  examina- 
tions made  by  the  French  and  English  nayal  oflScers  preparatory 
to  the  constructing  the  Suez  Canal,  elaborately  ciphers  out  a 
new  result.  His  conclusion  is  that  "  prior  to  2320  B.  C, 
therefore,  there  was  no  delta,  and,  of  course,  there  were  no  in- 
habitants in  Lower  Egypt.  The  Mississippi  River  began 
building  its  delta  at  the  same  time.  There  is  good  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Danube  began  forming  land  at  the  same  time, 
and  doubtless  the  same  geological  convulsion  accounts  for  the 
present  location  of  all  these  rivei-s." — ^Pp.  300,  301. 

If  the  following  statement,  drawn  from  Herodotus,  is  sus 
tainable,  it  is  very  important : 

A  study  of  his  [Herodotus']  journey  to  Memphis  makes  it  plain 
that  the  coast  of  the  delta  was  thirty-three  miles  south  of  ite 
present  position.  A  line  drawn  thirtv-three  miles  inland  from 
the  present  coast  divides  the  alluvial  land  nearly  in  the  middle. 

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1881.1  Syifiopds  of  the  Quwrterlies.  541 

About  as  maoh  land  has  been  formed  since  Herodotus'  time  as 
was  formed  before.  He- visited  Egypt  440  B.  C,  a  little  earlier 
than  half  way  back  to  4,200  years  ago. — P.  301. 

These  views,  if  established,  would  produce  a  fearful  crash  of 
the  stately  structures  reared  by  Manetho  and  his  modern  fol- 
lowers.   And  the  reviewer  well  adds : 

If  these  calculations  are  correct,  it  is  evident  that  a  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  already  much-revised  system  of  Egyptian  chronology 
will  be  necessary.  The  most  recent  and  most  moderate  estimates 
of  the  Memphite  dynasties  places  their  rise  at  2400  B.  C.  But 
at  that  time  the  site  of  Memphis  was  under  water,  and  for  many 
years  after  the  whole  narrow  valley  of  the  Nile,  as  far  south  as 
Thebes,  was  a  swamp,  just  as  Herodotus  says  it  was.     The  sus- 

Eicion  begins  to  dawn  that  perhaps  Prof.  Seyffath  is  right  when 
e  tells  us  that  our  interpretations  of  the  hieroglyphics  has 
been  a  blunder  from  the  first.  Egypt  is  ancient,  but  Egypt  is 
not  older  than  the  deluge. — P.  301. 

The  article  closes  with  the  following  very  suggestive  par- 
agraph: 

In  concluding  this  paper  we  draw  attention  to  the  calculations 
of  Fa4  de  Bruns,  professor  at  Turin,  (ie«  MbndeSy  1863,)  on  the 
rate  of  increase  in  the  human  family.  As  is  well  known,  France 
is  the  only  country  possessing  accurate  statistics  of  population 
extending  back  two  hundred  years.  During  that  time  France 
has  suffered  from  devastating  wars,  from  famine,  and  from  epi- 
demic disease.  Neither  immigration  nor  emigration  has  greatly 
disturbed  the  normal  rate  of  increase.  Fortunately,  therefore, 
the  only  available  statistics  are  of  the  countrv  which  is  more 
nearly  a  microcosm  than  any  other.  Taking,  then,  the  average 
annual  increment  in  France,  and  appl}rin^  it  to  the  whole  human 
race,  it  will  be  found  that  six  persons  will  increase  to  1,400,000,000 
persons  in  4,211  years.  1,400,000,000  persons  was  the  estimated 
population  of  the  world  in  1863,  and  4,211  years  before  A.  D. 
1863  brings  us  to  2348  B.  C,  the  common  date  of  the  flood. — 
P.  303. 

The  article  on  the  Jewish  Question  in  Europe  unfolds  a 
curious  state  of  affairs.  A  general  alarm  is  felt  through  Teu- 
tonic Europe,  extending  even  into  Sclavonic  Russia,  at  the 
growing  intellectual  ascendency  of  the  Jewish  race.  The 
Jews  are  becoming  masters  in  finance,  in  education,  in  politics, 
and  even  in  religion.  They  rule  over  the  bourse,  and  are  the 
bankers  of  Europe.  They  fill,  out  of  proportion  to  their  num- 
ber in  the  State,  the  universities.     They  outstrip  the  Gentiles 


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542  Methodist  Qua/rterVy  Review.  [July, 

in  authorship.  They  rule  in  popular  journalism,  and  are 
thereby  the  promoters  of  democracy,  communism,  nihilism, 
and  anarchy.  They  are  becoming  the  industrial  upper  stratum, 
crowding  the  Teutons  into  a  menial  rank.  Thus  it  is  said, 
"  All  the  lower  forms  of  labor,  in  the  workshops,  the  fields, 
the  ditches,  and  the  swamps,  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  German  ele- 
ment, while  the  constantly  increasing  Jewish  element  obtains 
enormous  possessions  in  capital  and  land,  and  raises  itself  to 
power  and  influence  in  every  department  of  public  life." — 
P.  335.  Their  professional  predominance  is  thus  illustrated  : 
"At  the  post-mortem  examination  of  a  body  lately  there  were 
present  the  district  physician,  the  lawyer,  the  surgeon,  and  a 
fourth  official,  all  Jews,  and  none  but  the  corpse  was  a  Ger- 
man."— P.  340.  How  they  thrive  and  rule  by  the  liquor  trade 
is  thus  described : 

More  than  a  sixth  part  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  live  by  means 
of  the  liquor  trade>  as  is  admitted  by  the  Jews  themselves.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  Jews  in  Roumania  and  aU  the  Slavic  lands.  .  . . 
With  the  liquor  trade  usury  goes  hand  in  hand.  "As  the  re- 
sult," we  are  told,  "  it  is  a  fact  which  can  no  longer  be  denied 
that  the  population  of  the  remote  districts  of  Russia,  Austria, 
Hungary,  and  Roumania,  are  only  the  nominal  possessors  of  the 
soil,  and  for  the  most  part  quite  strictly  cultivate  the  land  only 
for  the  Jews,  to  whom  they  nave  mortgaged  their  lands  for  their 
liquor  debts."— Pp.  335,  336. 

There  is  an  equal  alarm  in  the  ranks  of  Christianity.  The 
Jews,  being  masters  of  European  journalism,  employ  that 
instrumentality  with  great  effect  in  assailing  Christianity  in 
the  most  opprobrious  style,  and  diffusing  rationalism  and 
open  infidelity  among  the  masses.  To  this  is  due,  to  a 
large  extent,  the  dechristianization  and  demoralization  of  tiie 
times. 

For  all  this  alarm  there  seems  ample  proof  that  there  is  just 
ground.  But  to  remedy  the  evil  by  proscriptive  laws  and  the 
imposition  of  legal  disabilities  and  disfranchisements  is  an 
obsolete  method.  Fair  play  is  a  priceless  jewel.  The  pro- 
scriptive method  is  too  much  like  the  despotism  of  our  Ameri- 
can slave-holders,  who  prohibited  negro  education,  and  then 
made  the  negro's  intellectual  degradation  a  ground  of  enslav- 
ing him.     Nor  will   it   be  a  feasible  plan   to  undertake  to 


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1881.1  JSynopsia  of  the  Quarterlies.  543 

trepan  the  Shemite  in  order  to  take  out  his  snrplus  of  brains. 
If  the  Jew  can  beat  the  Gentile  he  is  entitled  to  the  premium. 
Eight  it  is  to  make  public  exposition  of  his  growing  ascend- 
ency and  reveal  the  great  danger  of  his  success.  But  the  true 
and  final  method  for  Japheth  is  to  rou6e  to  a  higher  level  his 
energy  and  beat  them  in  the  contest.  The  late  Rev.  Phineas 
Eice,  a  member  once  of  our  New  York  Conference,  sometimes 
said  things  that  were  witty  and  wise.  Bishop  Hedding  said  to 
him  in  open  Conference,  "  What  have  you  to  say.  Brother  Eice, 
to  this  charge  ? "  "  What  is  the  charge,  sir  ? "  "  They  say," 
pursued  the  Bishop,  "  that  you  preach  over  the  people's  heads." 
"  Then  let  them  elevate  their  heads,  sir,"  responded  Phineas. 
And  so  when  we  are  told  that  the  Teutons  find  tlie  Jews 
mounting  over  their  heads,  we  respond,  "  Let  them  elevate 
their  heads  then." 

But  it  seems  a  singular  problem  that  no  such  Shemite 
ascendency  prevails  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  We  count 
rarely  a  Jew  among  our  millionaires,  statesmen,  scholars,  jour- 
nalists, or  other  eminent  ranks.  Subjected  to  no  disabilities, 
he  attains  no  popularity  or  ascendency  here.  Is  this  because 
the  American  Jew  is  inferior,  or  because  the  American  Teu- 
ton is  superior,  to  the  European  ?  Modesty  forbids  our  aflSrm- 
ing  the  latter,  tenderness  to  the  humble  f ol-bids  the  former. 
We  leave  the  query  unanswered. 

It  needs  no  Shemites  to  render  our  American  journalism 
irreligious  or  unchristian.  Gentile  semi-infidelity  amply  does 
the  deadly  work  in  our  leading  metropolitan  periodicals.  Our 
daily  presses  pour  cataracts  of  sarcastic  skepticism  into  the 
bosom  of  our  families.  It  is  a  wonder  that,  in  spite  of  the 
reckless  ribaldry  spread  before  the  eyes  of  our  children,  there 
remains  with  them  so  much  Christian  faith.  The  Christian 
preacher  comes  but  once  a  week ;  the  newspaper  theologian 
comes  perhaps  seven  days  a  week  ;  and  it  is  a  wonder  he  does 
not  undo  all  the  pulpit  does.  Of  the  Christian  preacher  the 
world  requires,  justly,  holiness  of  life.  Otherwise  his  gospel 
is  pronounced  false.  But  the  newspaper  theologian  may  be 
as  loose  in  life  as  in  creed,  and  his  reckless  rant  goes  for 
sweeping  truth.  It  diminishes  nothing  of  the  force  of  a  news- 
paper pronunciamento  on  the  highest  points  of  eternal  inter- 
ests that  the  writer  is  a  rowdy. 


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544:  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

BiBLiOTHBOA  Sacra,  April,  1881.  (Aiidover.)— 1.  The  Serpent  Tempter  in  Oriental 
Mythology ;  by  Rev.  William  Hayes  Ward,  D.D.  2.  Two  Isaiahs,  or  One ;  bv 
Rev.  William  Henry  Cobb.  8.  The  Sabbath :  Did  the  Eariy  Fathers  Hold  that 
the  Foorth  Commandment  is  Abolished  ?  by  Rev.  William  Be  Loss  Love,  D.D. 
4.  The  Nature  and  Object  of  Penalty;  by  Rev.  William  W.  Patton,  D.D. 
6.  The  Fundamental  Laws  of  Belief;  hj  Rev.  Charies  F.  Thwing.  6.  The  Syn- 
tax of  jnt;  by  the  late  Rev.  Robert  Hutchesou.     7.  Note  on  Acts  li,  26;  by 

Rev.  Frederic  Gardiner,  D.D.  8.  Does  the  Preface  to  Luke^s  Gospel  Belong 
also  to  the  Acts  ?  by  Prof.  Lemuel  S.  Potwin.  9.  Remarks  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards on  the  Trinity ;  by  Edwards  A.  Park.     10.  Theological  Education. 

In  the  first  article  Dr.  Ward  furnishes  an  interesting  discus- 
sion of  the  relations  of  ancient  serpent  symbols  to  the  Mosaic 
history  of  the  temptation,  especially  as  revealed  by  the  late 
discoveries  in  archaeology. 

That  archaeology  seems  to  disclose  two  forms  of  animal  be- 
ing somewhat  related,  the  Griffin  or  Dragon  and  the  Serpent. 
Lenormant  recognizes  only  the  former,  which  he  asserts  sym- 
bolizes chaos,  and  denies  the  appearance  in  archaeology  of  the 
latter,  and  so  any  indication  of  the  temptation.  Lenormant's 
view  is :  "  The  Chaldean  mythologers  called  the  power  of  dis- 
order and  evil  Tihamti,  or  Tiamat,  the  Deep,  who  was  not  a 
serpent  at  all,  but  a  griffin,  with  the  jaws  of  a  lion  and  the 
talons  of  an  eagle ;  and  with  them  the  attack  of  Bel-Merodach 
upon  the  Dragon  was  not  so  much  in  punishment  for  the 
temptation  of  man  as  it  was  to  represent  the  warfare  of  light 
and  order  upon  darkness  and  ^haos." — P.  209.  Dr.  Ward  brings 
us  proofs  that  additional  to  the  chaotic  griffin  there  are  to  be 
found  traces  of  the  Edenic  serpent. 

This  duality  is  very  interesting.  The  battle  between  Bel- 
Merodach  and  the  Griffin  we  would  say  symbolizes  Gen.  i,  2. 
"  The  earth  was  without  form  and  void,  j£nd  darkness  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  deep,"  and  that  is  the  terrible  griflin ; 
"  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  waters,"  and  that  is 
Lord  Merodach  subduing  the  monster.  With  our  Moses, 
however,  as  a  monotheist  there  is  no  hatUe  between  Elohim  and 
Chaos.  Rather  it  is  Elohim  hrooding  over  the  abyss,  generat- 
ing order  from  confusion.  Second,  as  the  griffin  form  symbol- 
izes the  work  of  creation^  the  serpent  form  symbolizes  Glen, 
iii,  1-15,  faU  <md  redenvption.  The  first  is  the  work  of 
Elohim,  the  second  of  Jehovah-Elohim.  It  is  the  true  arch- 
aeological existence  of  the  latter  that  Dr.  Ward  maintains.  He 
thus  indicates  at  once  his  view  of  the  source  whence  reliable 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  545 

information  can  be  obtained,  and  the  real  agency  by  which  the 
cosmogonic  narrative  was  brought  into  Hebrew  poseesBion : 

It  is  to  Chaldea,  and  Cbaldea  only,  that  the  Bible  itself  seems  * 
to  direct  us  for  li^ht  on  this  subject.  Genesis  begins  with 
Shinar,  as  it  ends  with  Eeypt.  Abraham  comes  from  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees,  and  must  be  thought  of  as  bringing  with  him  the 
lore  of  Chaldea.  The  two  nvers  that  we  can  recoenize  which 
surrounded  Eden  are  the  two  between  which  lies  Mesopotamia. 
The  first  event  recorded  after  the  Flood  is  the  destruction  of 
the  Tower  of  BabeL  The  four  kings  who  fought  against  five 
in  the  Yale  of  Siddim  came  from  beyond  the  Euphrttes.  It 
was  Bel-Merodach,  Bin,  Sin,  Hea,  and  Ishtar,  the  gods  of  the 
Babylonians,  that  were  the  gods  of  Terah  and  Nahor,  "  the  gods 
whom  your  fathers  served  beyond  the  flood,"  to  whom  Joshua 
bade  the  people  return  if  they  would  not  serve  the  Lord.  The 
remarkable  discovery  by  George  Smith  a  few  years  t^go,  of  a 
Babylonian  story  of  the  Deluge,  very  like  that  told  in  Genesis, 
gives  us  reason  to  believe  that  other  parts  of  the  earliest  Mosaic 
history  of  the  world  were  as  familiar  to  the  Chaldeans  as  to  the 
Jews.  Jewish  and  Christian  writers  had  preserved  an  account 
of  the  Delude  said  to  have  been  written  from  national  records 
by  the  Babylonian  priest,  Berosus;  but  it  was  easy  to  assert  and 
difficult  to  disprove  that  it  was  merely  the  Hebrew  story  carried 
to  Babylon  at  the  Captivity.  But  we  now  possess  the  very, 
tablets,  laid  away  nearly  a  hundred  years  before  the  Captivity  in 
the  royal  library,  and  which  are  indorsed  as  copied  from  others  a 
thousand  years  older  still,  written  in  the  Assyrian  cuneiform 
characters,  on  which  is  recorded  the  complete  story  of  the  Ark, 
the  destruction  of  men  and  beasts,  the  deliverance  of  Xisuthrus, 
the  sending  out  of  the  birds,  the  resting  of  the  Ark  on  a  high 
mountain,  the  sacrifice,  and  the  divine  promise.  There  is  con- 
siderable reason  to  believe  that  the  old  Chaldeans  also  possessed 
legends  of  the  creation  of  the  world  and  of  the  confusion  of 
tongues,  correspondmg  more  or  less  with  the  accounts  given  in 
Genesis.  We  might,  then,  look,  with  some  reasonable  expecta- 
tion of  finding  it,  for  a  legend  of  the  temptation  of  our  first 
Barents  by  the  serpent  which  will  illustrate  the  Mosaic  story. — 
'p.  216,  216. 

Does  not  onr  author  assert  too  strongly  the  exchcsiveness  of 
the  Chaldean  source?  Dr.  Geikie,  in  his  "Hours  with  the 
Bible,"  elsewhere  noticed,  adduces  from  Wilkinson  an  Egyptian 
figure  of  a  serpent's  head  being  pierced  by  a  goddess,  and  an 
Indian  Krishna  treading  on  a  serpent's  head. 

Dr.  Ward  furnishes  three  leading  Assyrian  engravings  in 
which  the  Edenic  serpent  may  be  recognized.  The  first  presents 
a  tree  with  two  human  figures  plucking  the  fruit,  with  a  serpent 


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646  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [July, 

in  the  rear.'  That  we  consider  a  clear  case,  and  is  confirmed 
by  the  Egyptian  figure  above  mentioned.  Of  the  other  two 
engravings  given  we  are  not  so  fully  convinced.  The  one  is 
a  long  wavy  figure,  which  may  be  merely  an  elongation  of  the 
griffin,  rising  into  apparently  a  griffin's  head,  and  representing 
by  its  impressive  undulations,  perhaps  the  chaotic  dbyss.  We 
should  then  have  the  symbolization  of  Gen.  i,  2,  with  which, 
however,  the  struggle  of  redemption  with  moral  disorder  may 
be  blended,  confusing  the  two  great  battles  into  one.  The  third 
figure  18  clearly  griffin  and  not  serpent,  and  is  not  a  strong  con- 
firmation. A  significant  point  is  made  by  our  author,  namely, 
that  the  serpent  is  a  malignant  being  among  the  Semitic  and 
Aryan  peoples  only,  but  is  a  good  deity  among  the  Turanians. 

Dr.  Ward,  with  most  scholars,  derives  the  Tiamat  or  per- 
sonification of  chaos  in  the  Assyrian  archaeology  from  the 
Tehom  "  waters  "  or  ahyss  of  Gen.  i,  2.  It  would  seem  then 
that  a  term,  lying  in  the  bed  of  the  Hebrew  language  and  the 
Hebrew  narrative,  is  taken  by  polytheism  and  formed  into  a 
symbolical  liame  of  a  symbolical  figure  representing  the 
.chaos.  Does  not  this  suggest  that  the  polytheistic  name  is  a 
derivation  from  the  Mosaic,  and  that  the  Mosaic  is  the  primitive 
document  ?  We  mean  not  that  the  document  is  truly  original 
with  Moses;  but  provisionally  supposable  to  be  derived 
through  Abraham  from  the  antediluvian  monotheistic  Church, 
through  perhaps  the  patriarch  Shem.  It  may  then  be  a  trans- 
lation from  an  earlier  language,  of  which  the  Hebrew  and 
Arabic  are  twin  daughters.  And  the  poetic  rhythm  and  style 
of  the  Chaldean  records,  as  well  as  that  of 'the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  strongly  confirm  the  theory  that  that  wonderful  com- 
position is  truly  an  antediluvian  Psalm  of  the  Creation. 

Dr.  Ward  thus  concludes  with  a  careful  recognition  that 
our  Ophiology  is  as  yet  very  much  in  a  provisional  state,  wait- 
ing for  further  disclosures  to  decide  how  fully  it  confirms  the 
historic  character  of  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  Fall : 

I  hesitate  to  claim  for  these  Chaldean  myths  that  they  do  any 
thing  more  than  illustrate  the  Bible  account.  There  is  too  much 
yet  imcertain  to  allow  us  to  claim  that  they  confirm  it.  The 
form  of  these  myths  is  not  so  self-evidencing  as  to  allow  us  to 
settle  off-hand  that  they  represent  nothing  more  than  mere 
myths,  either  like  the  Yedic,  which  sees  a  serpent  in  the  storm- 


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1881.1  Synopsis  of  the  Qua/rterlies.  547 

oload,  or  like  the  Mazdean,  which,  occupied  with  ereat  moral 
problems,  and  no  loneer  with  the  phenomena  of  the  sky,  looks  at 
evil  and  disorder  under  the  form  of  a  serpent  hostile  to  Ahura- 
mazda.  Their  form  is  not  really  inconsistent  with  the  faith  of 
those  who  prefer  to  regard  them  as  the  perversion  through  tra- 
dition of  a  great  historical  fact  at  the  be^nning  of  the  history  of 
the  human  race.  We  need  a  clearer  notion  of  the  myths  of  the 
various  ^eat  families.  We  need  to  understand  what  is  the 
ethnic  relation  of  Turanian  to  the  Hamitic  races.  We  need  also 
to  be  able  to  answer  more  certainly  the  question  whether,  as 
would  seem  from  the  language  in  which  tnese  myths  appear, 
they  have  a  Turanian  origin,  or  whether  they  can  belong  to  the 
extremely  early  Shemitic  eruption  over  Mesopotamia  from  the 
Persian  Gulf.  This,  however,  it  seems  to  me,  must  be  recog- 
nized as  a  fact,  that  there  had  been  somehow  developed,  and  had 
become  perfectly  familiar  in  Mesopotamia,  at  a  period  centuries 
anterior  to  the  time  of  Moses,  as  far  back  as  the  age  ascribed  to 
Abraham,  stories  perfectlv  parallel  to  those  of  Moses,  which  in 
form  are  purely  mythical;  and  that,  therefore,  the  bm*den  of 
proof  will  rest  upon  those  who  regard  the  Mosaic  stories  as  his- 
torical to  prove  that  the  earlier  Chaldean  stories  had  an  origin 
different  from  other  myths.  This  they  will  not  be  slow  to  at- 
tempt; and  Dr.  Tyler  Lewis,  in  an  able  discussion  on  the  Chal- 
dean Deluge,  which  ought  to  be  rescued  from  the  columns  of  the 
New  York  "  Times,"  in  which  it  is  now  lost,  has  indicated  what 
would  be  the  direction  of  the  argument. — ^Pp.  229,  230. 


English  Heviews. 

British  Qvarterlt  Rktiiw,  April,  18S1.  (London.^ — 1.  Gongragatioiialisin. 
2.  Our  Salmon  Fisheries.  8.  The  Masora.  4.  Mr.  Hardy's  Novels.  6.  Schlie- 
monn's  Ilios.  6.  The  Bane  of  English  Architecture.  7.  The  Irish  Land  Question. 
8.  Independency  and  the  State. 

London  Quartbrlt  Riynw,  April.  (London.)—!.  South  African  Confederation. 
2.  The  Father  of '  Penny  Postage.  8.  Sacred  Music  4.  Kant's  Philosophy  of 
Experience.  5.  Are  the  Chinese  a  Religious  People  ?  6.  St.  John  Chrysostom. 
7.  Buskin's  Letters  to  the  Clergy.  8.  The  Latest  Commentaries  on  St.  John's 
Gospel    9.  Mr.  Carlyle. 

Wmtminstbr  RiviEW,  April,  1881.  (New  York.)— 1.  Kant's  Moral  Philosophy, 
2.  Lord  Campbell's  Memoirs.  8.  The  Origin  of  Religion.  4.  The  Persian  Em- 
pire. 6.  Electoral  Reform,  Electoral  Bribery:  The  Ballot  6.  Thomas  Carlyle : 
His  Life  and  Writings.    7.  Should  University  Degrees  be  Given  to  Women  7 

London  Quartkrlt  Rbvebw,  April,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  The  Revolutionary 
Party.  2.  Literary  Life  of  Lord  Bolingbroke.  8.  The  Speaker's  Commentary 
on  the  New  Testament.  4.  Thomas  Carlyle  and  his  Reminiscences.  5.  Russian 
Land  Laws  and  Present  Proprietors.  6.  Sir  Anthony  Panizzl  7.  Endowments 
of  the  Church  of  EngUnd  in  1830  and  1880.     8.  Ministerial  Embarrassments. 

The  English  reviews  indicate  that  in  the  highest  literature  of 
England  no  very  profound  homage    is    paid    to  Carlyle. 


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548  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [July, 

Both  the  Edinburgh  and  London  Quarterlies  have  rigidly 
critical  articles  on  his  intellectual  character  and  his  literary 
value. 

The  following  passage  was  received  after  the  writing  of  our 
book-notice,  on  another  page,  and  it  shows  that  our  view, 
though  subjectively  original,  has  been  anticipated  elsewhere  : 

Carlyle's  popularity  is  mainly  owing  to  his  eccentricities,  and 
an  enunent  French  critic,  M.  Scherer,  maintains  that  they  are 
the  result  of  calculation.  "The  author  delights  in  odd,  rude, 
uncouth  phrases,  odd  exclamations,  interrogations,  apostrophes 
to  actors  on  the  scene,  to  the  reader,  to  heaven,  to  all  thmgs. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  abuse  he  makes  of  the  words  of  God, 
Infinite,  Eternity,  Profundity.  It  is  true  that  he  gives  them  an 
air  of  youth  by  putting  them  in  the  plural;  he  says  the  Immens- 
ities, the  Silences,  the  Eternal  Veracities,  etc.,  etc.  It  is  need- 
less to  say,  this  mixed  part  of  prophet  and  buffoon,  these  labored 
eccentricities  produce  less  the  effect  of  a  conviction  or  a  nature 
than  of  the  desire  to  attract  attention." 

M.  Soberer  justifies  this  view  by  the  cold  reception  of  the 
"  Life  of  Schiller,"  which  was  written  in  ordinary  English,  and 
he  shows  that  the  change  began  with  "  Sartor  Resartus,"  which 
first  brought  Carlyle  prominently  into  notice.  "Thenceforth, 
at  all  events,  the  writer  takes  to  a  manner  which  has  the  double 
advantage  of  bein^  easier  than  the  purely  simple  one,  and  of 
piquing  the  curiosity  of  the  public.  'Our  own  impression  is 
that  he  slipped  or  'drifted'  into  this  manner  imperceptibly,  led 
on,  no  doubt,  by  the  growing  demand  for  what  he  would  call 
the  '  shoddy '  article  and  the  injudicious  praises  of  friends.  His 
admirers,  especially  his  lady  admirers,  have  a  great  deal  to 
answer  for.  Bearing  in  mind  that  his  world  was  a  little  world, 
a  microcosm,  we  might  apply  to  him  what  was  said  of  Voltaire, 
"  Enfant  gat6  d'un  monde  qu'il  gdte."  The  deification  of  force 
is  not  a  manly  doctrine.  It  commends  itself  more  to  women 
than  to  men.  It  is  conscious  weakness  clinging  instinctively  to 
strength. — P.  208,  209. 

The  following  passage  narrates  Carlyle's  onset  upon  one  of 
his  devoted  admirers  in  America : 

Emerson,  the  celebrated  American,  was  well-known  as  an 
abolitionist.  When  he  came  to  England,  Mrs.  Procter  took 
him,  at  his  own  request,  to  see  Carlyle,  who  immediately  in- 
troduced the  subject  of  slavery  and  said:  "God  has  put  into 
every  white  man's  hand  a  whip  to  flog  the  black."  Emerson 
made  no  reply. — P.  207. 

The  following  passage  indicates  the  value  put  upon  the  ac- 
curacy of  Carlyle's  recollections  of  the  opinions  attributed  by 


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1881.]  Synopds  of  ike  Qua/rterliea,  649 

him  to  his  intimates  in  regard  to  other  eminent  characters.  It 
confirms  our  doubt  of  his  recollection  of  the  words  of  Edward 
Irving  expressed  in  our  book  notice. 

Wilberforce  fares  quite  as  badly,  if  not  worse,  for  Words- 
worth is  introduced  as  adopting  and  expressing  the  opinion 
Carlyle  had  formed  concerning  him:  "One  of  the  best- remem- 
bered sketches  (almost  the  only  one  now  remembered  at  all)  was 
that  of  Wilberforce,  the  famous  Nigger  philanthropist,  drawing- 
room  Christian,  and  busy  man  and  politician.  In  all  which 
capacities  Wordsworth's  esteem  of  him  seemed  to  be  privately 
as  small  as  my  own  private  one,  and  was  amusing  to  gather. 
No  hard  word  of  him  did  he  speak  or  hint;  told  in  brief  firm 
business  terms,  how  he  was  bom  at  or  near  the  place  called 
Wilberforce,  in  Yorkshire,  ("  force,"  signifying  torrent  or  angry 
brook,  as  in  Cumberland  ?)  where,  probably,  his  forefathers  may 
have  been  possessors,  though  he  was  poorish;  how  he  did  this 
and  that  of  insignificant  (to  Wordsworth  insignificant^  nature; 
"  and  then,"  ended  Wordsworth,  "  he  took  into  the  oil  trade," 
(I  suppose  the  Hull  whaling,)  which  lively  phrase,  and  the  in- 
comparable historical  tone  it  was  given  in — "  the  oil  trade  " — as 
a  thing  perfectly  natural  and  proper  for  such  a  man,  is  almost 
the  only  point  in  the  delineation  which  is  now  vividly  present  to 
me.  I  remember  only  the  rustic  picture,  sketched  as  with  a 
burnt  stick  on  the  board  of  a  pair  of  bellows,  seemed  to  be  com- 
pletely good;  and  that  the  general  effect  was,  one  saw  the  great 
Wilberforce  and  his  existence  visible  in  all  their  main  lineaments, 
but  only  as  through  the  reversed  telescope,  and  reduced  to  size  of 
a  mouse  and  its  nest,  or  little  more! " 

If  Wordsworth  neither  spoke  nor  hinted  a  hard  word,  his 
sketch  of  Wilberforce  has  evidently  been  distorted  by  Carlyle's 
habitual  cast  of  mind  into  a  studied  depreciation.  It  is  incredi- 
ble that  Wordsworth  could  have  spoken  of  Wilberforce  (who 
inherited  a  considerable  fortune,  was  educated  at  Cambridge, 
and  entered  Parliament  soon  after  he  came  of  age)  as  poorish,  or 
as  having  taken  to  the  oil  trade;  and  the  intensely  low-bred, 
low-minded  allusion  to  it  may  pair  off  with  Howard  s  "  disgust 
at  the  grocer  business." — P.  207. 

Edikbvrob  Rstuw,  April,  1881.  (New  York.)—!.  The  Oxford  School  2.  Egypt 
Bound  and  Unbound.  8.  The  Song  of  Roland.  4.  The  Public  Life  of  Mr. 
Herries.  5.  River  Floods.  6.  The  Pellagra  in  Italy.  7.  Reminiscences  of 
Thomas  Carlyle.  8.  Darwin  on  the  Movements  of  Plants.  9.  Schliemann's 
Ilios.    10.  liocal  Debts  and  Government  Loans. 

The  Edinburgh  article  on  Oarlyle  is  superior  in  style  to  the 
London,  but  not  less  severe.     It  opens  with  the  following 
generons,  though  qualified,  and,  on  the  whole,  just  tribute  to 
the  best  qualities  of  Carlyle's  earlier  writings : 
FoiTRTH  Sebibs,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 36 


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550  Methodist  Qawrterly  Review.  [Jnly, 

Carlyle's  contributions  to  the  "  Edinburgh  Review,**  the  arti- 
cle on  "  Burns,"  the  article  entitled  "  Signs  of  the  Times,**  and 
the  article  entitled  "  Characteristics,"  are  not  inferior  to  any  of 
his  later  works,  and  may  be  said  to  contain  the  pith  and  marrow 
of  them  all,  without  the  blemishes  of  a  corrupt  style  and  the 
paradoxes  of  an  unsettled  faith.  It  is,  and  will  ever  remain,  the 
honor  and  glory  of  Thomas  Carlyle  that  he  contended  without 
ceasing  for  what  he  termed  the  dynamical  energy  of  the  human 
soul  in  opposition  to  the  tendencies  of  a  mechanical  age.  His 
whole  work  was  an  indignant  protest  against  the  materialism  of 
modern  science,  and  an  assertion  of  the  spiritual  dignity  and 
duty  of  man.  He  poured  forth  a  torrent  of  scorn  and  invective 
agamst  the  vulgar  passions  and  motives  which  degrade  society; 
he  poured  forth  in  a  perpetual  anthem  his  veneration  for  the 
higher  powers  to  which  he  attached  all  that  is  noble,  heroic, 
dutiful,  and  true  in  human  life.  The  mode  of  thought,  expressed 
in  highly  rhetorical  and  eccentric  language,  and  enhanced  by  a 
strong  northern  dialect,  a  rugged  aspect,  and  blunt  manners, 
gave  him  the  demeanor  of  a  mystic,  or,  as  some  said,  of  a 
prophet.  His  influence  over  the  younger  generations  of  this 
century  became  considerable;  his  works  which  had  not  found 
much  acceptance  when  first  written,  became  popular;  and  his 
authority  has  extended  beyond  the  circulation  or  his .  writings. 
Doubtless,  then,  he  proclaimed,  or  was  supposed  to  proclaim, 
either  some  new  truth  to  the  world,  or  some  old  truth  m  a  new 
and  striking  form. — ^P.  239. 

The  following  shows  Carlyle  after  that  memorable  year  of 
his  "  conversion  *'  given  in  our  book-notice : 

Mr.  Carlyle  was  at  war  with  all  the  tendencies  of  his  own 
age,  and  all  the  social  elements  that  surrounded  him — the  best  as 
well  as  the  worst.  The  spirit  of  inquiry  and  investigation  was 
to  him  but  another  name  for  a  disease  of  the  human  mind. 
What  are  "  the  Improvement  of  the  Age,  the  Spirit  of  the  Age, 
Destruction  of  Prejudice,  Progress  of  the  Species,  and  the 
March  of  Intellect,  but  an  unhealthy  state  of  self -sentience,  self- 
survey;  the  precursor  and  prognostic  of  still  worse  health?'* 
AU  heroism,  ne  said,  departed  from  this  country,  if  not  from 
this  earth,  with  the  last  of  the  Puritans  in  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury. The  whole  life  of  society  is  carried  on  by  dru^.  All  our 
institutions  are  shams.  Parliamentary  government  is  the  worst 
of  shams.  The  idea  of  government  by  the  voice  and  will  of 
numbers  is  a  preposterous  delusion.  What  is  called  **  the  peo- 
ple "  is  a  multitude  of  fools.  The  only  real  ruler  of  men  is  the 
tyrant  who  has  strength  or  cunning  to  grasp  and  retain  supreme 
power.  Slavery  is  a  natural  institution,  since  it  is  based  on  the 
evident  superiority  of  the  white  race  over  the  black.  Force  not 
only  governs  the  world,  but  it  absorbs  and  extinguishes  the 
rights  of  those  who  presume  to  resist  it.     All  these  propositions 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QtuxrterUes.  551 

may  be  found  in  Mr.  Carlyle's  writings,  or  may  fairly  be  deduced 
from  them.  They  might  serve  as  an  apology  for  the  most  ex- 
ecrable forms  of  oppressions.  They  are  absolutely  opposed  to 
the  spirit  of  freedom,  to  the  active  sympathies  of  humanity, 
and  to  the  respect  due  to  the  independent  opinions  of  the  hum- 
ble and  weak.  It  has  ever  been  to  us  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
a  writer  wbose  works  are  distinguished  by  principles  more  cynic- 
al than  Mandeville,  and  more  tyrannical  than  Hobbes,  should  be 
regarded  with  enthusiastic  admiration  by  numbers  of  persons 
who  profess  advanced  liberal  opinions  in  this  countrv,  and  even 
in  the  United  States.  The  net  result  of  Mr.  Carlyle's  political 
opinions  would  seem  to  be  that  a  government  of  Bismarcks  or 
^mbettas  is  the  perfection  of  statesmanship. — ^P.  241. 

The  following  illustrates  the  absolute  want  of  consistency 
in  his  so-called  opinions : 

With  strange  inconsistency  he  will  exclaim  at  one  moment : 
"Truly  it  may  be  said  that  divinity  has  vrithdrawn  from  the 
earth,  or  veils  himself  in  that  wide-wasting  whirlwind  of  a  de- 
parting era,  wherein  the  fewest  can  discern  his  goings.  Not 
Godhood,  but  an  iron  ignoble  circle  of  necessity  embraces  all 
things;  binds  the  youth  of  these  times  into  a  sluggish  thrall,  or 
else  exasperates  him  into  a  rebel  Heroic  action  is  paralyzed,  for 
what  worth  now  remains  unquestionable  with  him  ?  " 

And  then,  ten  pages  further  on  in  the  same  essay:  "Truly 
every- where  the  eternal  fact  bcj^ns  again  to  be  recognized  that 
there  is  a  godlike  in  human  affairs;  that  Grod  not  only  made  us 
and  beholds  us,  but  is  in  us  and  around  us ;  that  the  age  of 
miracles,  as  it  ever  was,  now  is.  .  .  .  He  that  has  an  eye  and  a 
heart  can  even  now  say,  *  Why  should  I  falter  ?  Light  has  come 
into  the  world;  to  such  as  love  light,  so  as  light  must  be  loved, 
with  a  boundless,  all-doing,  all  enduring  love.' "  And  the  pas- 
sage concludes  with  a  magnificent  exhortation  to  conquer  and 
create  uncreated  and  unconquered  continents  and  Eldorados, 
since  from  the  bosom  of  eternity  shine  for  us  celestial  guiding 
stars. 

Each  of  these  paragraphs  bears  the  stamp  of  Carlyle's  fervid 
eloquence;  but  placed  side  by  side  they  openly  contradict  each 
other,  and  neither  of  them  is  rational  or  exactly  true. — ^P.  243. 

The  Eighth  Article  brings  to  view  the  results  of  the  stvMes 
in  the  growth  of  plcmts  by  that  wonderful  observer  of  nature, 
Chables  Dabwin. 

The  Eeviewer  agrees  with  Mr.  Darwin  as  to  the  real  action 
of  plants  in  growing,  but  decisively  differa  with  him  in  his 
surreptitious  attempt  at  obliterating  the  distinction  between 
plant  action  and  animal  action.    Mr.  Darwin  insinuates  analo- 


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552  Methodist  Quarterly  JReview.  [Jnly, 

gies  tending  to  identify  plant  life  with  animal  intelligence. 
The  Reviewer  first  states  the  true  nature  of  plant  movement, 
showing  that  it  is  aU  mechanical ;  being,  in  fact,  caused  by  the 
incoming  of  new  force  and  substance  in  the  process  of  growth. 
Plants,  Mr.  Darwin  shows,  "  circumnutate,"  that  is,  nod  about, 
and  with  the  tip  of  their  radicle  adapt  themselves  to  conditions 
of  warmth,  light,  and  softness  of  adjacent  substance.  The  Re- 
view replies : 

But  animals  do  not  circumnutate.  Their  movements  are  of  a 
strikingly  different  character  from  the  nodding  and  staggering 
gyration  which  is  here  pointed  to  as  the  primary  process  m  the 
plsmt.  The  stems,  roots,  and  leaves  are  thrust  out  in  consequence 
of  the  interstitial  deposit  of  new  material  in  the  growing  text- 
ures, and  the  extending  shoots  assume  a  spiral  form  of  advance 
because  the  thrust  is  exerted  more  on  one  side  than  on  the  other. 
The  onward  projection  is  thus  essentially  a  process  of  growth 
from  the  addition  of  substance,  and  all  tne  irregularities  in  the 
halting  progress  are  immediately  ascribed  to  a  purely  physical 
cause,  the  swelling  or  increased  turgidity  of  the  tissue  at  the 
point  where  the  sidelong  thrust  occurs.  The  only  circumstance 
that  at  all  warrants  the  assumption  of  a  resemblance  in  the 
strongly  contrasted  processes  is  the  fact,  which  Dr.  Darwin  has 
brou^t  prominently  into  notice,  that  the  mechanical  impulse  of 
the  disturbing  influence  originates  not  at  the  spot  upon  which 
the  effect  of  that  impact  is  transmitted  by  an  intermediate 
agency  seated  in  the  organization  of  the  plant.  He  is  obviously 
aware  that  this  is  the  strong  point  of  the  argument  for  resem- 
blance which  he  suggests,  as  m  one  notable  paragraph  he  says, 
^'  But  the  most  striking  resemblance  is  the  localization  of  sensi- 
tiveness, and  the  transmission  of  an  influence  from  the  excited 
part  to  another,  which  consequently  moves."  The  effect  here 
alluded  to  is,  no  doubt,  very  remarkable,  and  well  deserving  of 
the  further  examination  which  it  will  assuredly  receive  at  the 
hands  of  physiologists.  But  it  can  hardly  be  conceived  to  be 
strong  enough  to  support  any  comprehensive  hypothesis  of  the 
identity  of  vegetable  and  animal  movements.  t>r.  Darwin  him- 
self saps,  '^  Plants  do  not,  of  course,  possess  nerves  or  a  central 
nervous  system."  But  he  then  deprecatingly  and  somewhat 
significantly  adds,  ^*  And  we  may  infer  that  with  animals  such 
structures  serve  only  for  the  more  perfect  transmission  of  im- 
pressions, and  for  the  more  complete  inter-communication  of  the 
several  parts." — Pp.  258,  259. 

The  line  between  intelligence  and  volitional  action  in  the 
animal,  on  one  side,  and  the  merely  mechanical  action  under 
growth  forces  in  the  plant,  is  drawn  by  the  Reviewer  at  length 


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1881.]  Synopsis  qf  the  QuoH&rUea.  553 

and  witji  great  clearness  and  beauty.    For  this  purpose  he  se- 
lects the  lowest  known  form  of  animal  life,  the  Amceba. 

The  creature  is  found  most  commonly  in  the  slime  which  col- 
lects upon  submerged  or  floating  objects.  It  is  apparently 
destitute  even  of  a  skin,  and  it  has  no  internal  organ  of  any 
kind.  It  is  simply  a  small  mass  of  animated  jelly,  possessing  the 
power  of  streaming  half  coherently  about  under  some  mys- 
terious and  apparently  spontaneously  exerted  impulse.  When 
first  placed  upon  the  glass  slide  of  a  microscope,  it  presents  the 
aspect  of  a  small,  round,  transparent  mass;  but  finger-like  proc- 
esses soon  begin  to  be  pushed  out  from  the  pulp  in  various 
directions,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  the  horns  of  a  snail. 
Some  one  of  these  having  at  last  fixed  itself  to  the  glass,  the 
rest  of  the  mobile  jelly  rolls  over  the  attached  part,  and  then 
begins  to  push  out  other  processes.  The  amoeba,  in  reality, 
travels  along  the  glass  in  this  grotesque  shambling  way.  By  the 
mere  flow  of  its  half -coherent  livmg  substance,  it  not  only 
changes  its  form,  but  shifts  its  position.  If,  during  its  Protean 
shambling  progress,  it  comes  in  contact  with  any  fragmentanr 
morsel  suitable  to  be  turned  to  account  as  food,  it  spreads  itself 
over  the  fragment  until  it  envelops  it  within  its  own  substance, 
and  in  that  way  extemporizes  a  digestive  cavity  or  stomach, 
where  the  morsel  soon  gets  dissolved  and  converted  into  living 
protoplasm.  Indigestible  matters,  which  cannot  be  so  tumeS 
to  account,  are  dismissed  by  a  reversal  of  the  process;  the  fluent 
ielly  loosening  its  grasp,  rolling  itself  off,  and  so  leaving  them 
behind  as  it  moves  away  in  some  other  direction. 

This  microscopic  changeling  of  Ehrenberg  is  an  object  of  the 
very  deepest  interest  to  jihysiologists,  because  it  is  a  typical 
specimen  of  the  raw  material  of  animal  life  presented  to  obser- 
vation in  its  simplest  and  least-disguised  form.  Although  a 
mere  lump  of  animated  jelly,  without  any  trace  of  specialized  or- 
ganization, it  yet  manages  to  perform  several  of  the  most  im- 
portant operations  of  animal  life,  accomplishing,  in  its  organless 
state,  results  which,  in  the  more  highly  endowed  animals,  are 
performed  only  through  the  instrumentality  of  an  elaborately 
complex  and  diversified  apparatus.  It  extemporizes,  in  the  rud- 
est, but  nevertheless  most  effective  way,  actions  which  are  essen- 
tial to  its  lowly  form  of  existence.  Its  fluent  pulp  ser^  it  in 
the  place  of  limbs.  It  turns  its  own  flesh  into  a  stomach,  and 
secretes  a  digesting  juice  round  its  entangled  prey.  It  assim- 
ilates and  appropriates  food,  and  turns  it  into  mobile  living  sub- 
stance like  itself.  It  consumes  its  own  pulp  by  the  wasting 
efforts  of  its  movements.  It  reproduces  living  lumps  like  itseS 
by  breaking  up  into  fragments,  and  above  all  it  breathes,  not 
through  the  specialized  appendage  of  lungs,  but  throughout  its 
entire  gelatinous  mass.  Ihe  air  permeates  its  naked  or  skinless 
pulp,  and  oxygen  is  appropriated  and  carbonic  acid  generated 
and  expelled.    It  is  oxidized,  or  burned,  so  to  speak,  and  its 


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554  Methodist  Qtiarterly  Beview.  [Jnly^ 

powers  of  Bhambling  movement,  of  digesting  food,  of  elaborating 
secretions,  and  of  performing  other  allied  operations,  are  as  es- 
Bentiallj|r  a  result  of  that  combustive  oxidation  as  the  flame  of  a 
candle  is  the  result  of  the  burning  of  its  stearine  or  wax.  This 
process  of  oxidation,  or  faculty  of  breathing,  indeed,  constitutes 
its  claim  to  the  distinction  of  being  "animated."  The  word 
simply  implies  that  it  possesses  anima,  or  breath.  This,  then,  is 
radically  the  difference  to  which  it  is  our  purpose  to  draw  at- 
tention. Plants  move  because  they  grow.  The  circumnutation 
which  Dr.  Darwin  discovers  at  the  bottom  of  the  movements  of 
the  plant,  is  an  effect  of  growth.  It  is  due  to  the  elaboration 
and  building  up.  Wherever  it  is  manifesting  itseli^  carbon  is  in 
process  of  being  fixed,  and  oxygen  in  the  process  of  emancipa- 
tion and  discharge.  But  the  animal  protoplasm — the  basement 
of  animated  flesh — moves  because  it  is  in  process  of  combustive 
destruction,  which  is  the  exact  opposite  of  elaborating  construc- 
tion. Heat  is  appropriated  in  the  case  of  the  vegetable  move- 
ment, and  rendered  latent  as  one  of  the  constituents  of  the 
accumulating  structure,  and  as  an  implement  of  cohesion.  The 
sunshine  is  actually  put  to  the  work  of  holding  together  the  con- 
stituent elements  of  the  molecules  of  the  enlarging  mass.  Heat 
is  set  free,  in  the  case  of  the  animal  movement,  as  a  supply  of 
energy  or  power  capable  of  doing  work,  and  in  the  breathing 
animal,  as  a  result  of  the  dissolution  and  destruction  of  the  cohe- 
sive integrity  of  previously  built-up  molecules. — ^Pp.  269, 260. 


abt.  IX —foreign  religious  intelligence. 

THE  CONVENT  SCHOOLS  IN  BELOroM. 

SoMB  astonishing  disclosures  have  just  been  made  in  Oodenarde,  regard- 
ing the  utter  depravity  of  both  teachers  and  pupils  in  the  school  of  a 
convent  bearing  the  dubious  title  of  "Good  Works,"  {Banne$  (Eutres.) 
For  some  time  the  attention  of  the  correctional  police  has  been  called 
to  the  rumors  regarding  those  having  the  establishment  in  charge,  which 
has  been  a  rival  of  the  secular  schools  of  the  government.  An  investiga- 
tion proiKd  the  guilt  of  about  thirty  teachers  of  complicity  in  indecent 
outrages  on  the  girls,  and  of  violence  and  cruelty  in  tlieir  general  treat- 
ment. The  revelations  made  on  the  witness-stand  were  simply  frightful; 
not  isolated  acts,  but  a  studied  and  systematic  practice  of  the  basest 
crimes  committed  in  a  large  educational  establishment,  and  one  of  the 
first  schools  of  Belgium  ;  teachers  and  pupils  seemed  alike  to  indulge  in 
the  most  obscene  orgies— depravity  reduced  to  a  veritable  system.  This 
Convent  of  **Good  Works"  (ticf)  is  the  mother-house  of  the  order,  and 
here  the  young  novices  go  through  their  training;  and  the  ^^Flandre 
Lib^ale"  is  our  authority  for  saying  that  this  "congregation"  has  ex- 


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1881.]  Foreign  Religious  IrUelUgenoe.  655 

tended  its  propaganda  not  only  throughout  Belgium,  where  it  has  eleyen 
houses,  but  also  in  Holland,  where  it  has  six,  and  even  in  America. 

These  disclosures  have  set  the  authorities  at  work  against  other  '^con- 
gregations" of  like  stamp  which  they  have  discovered.  Public  indigna- 
tion is  intense  throughout  Belgium,  and  in  Ghent  the  Bishop  was  com- 
pelled to  close  the  boarding  establishments,  and  only  take  day  scholars, 
who  would  be  there  simply  in  study  hours.  The  diocesan  authority  must 
have  known  of  much  of  this  abuse,  for  a  clerical  journal  confesses  that 
the  difficulty  is  not  of  yesterday,  and  that  a  more  prompt  solution  of  it 
would  have  prevented  much  trouble.  The  Bishop  helped  as  many  as 
possible  of  the  brothers  to  escape,  and  the  most  of  them  have  crossed  the 
froDtier  into  Holland,  where  they  find  shelter  in  the  affiliated  establish- 
ments. In  Belgium,  as  in  France,  the  members  of  the  religious  orders 
nearly  always  succeed  in  avoiding  punishment  by  retreating  for  awhile, 
and  then  returning  under  another  Church  name ;  and  these  are  so  much 
alike  and  so  general  that  it  is  quite  difficult  to  distinguish  them,  and 
detect  their  bearers  as  former  criminals.  This  utter  depravity  of  the  con- 
vent system  of  popular  schools,  proved  before  a  court  of  justice,  must  do 
much  toward  breaking  up  these  pesthouses  in  the  rural  districts  of  Bel- 
gium, where  they  sow  vice  as  weeds.  And  in  view  of  these  disclosures 
it  is  astounding  that  their  supporters  can  have  the  brazen  impudence  still 
to  oppose  and  embarrass  the  communal  schools  in  all  possible  ways, 
under  the  plea  that  they  are  "  Gk>dless  schools,"  in  which  the  children 
learn  nothing  but  vice  and  immorality. 

THE  GERMAN  ULTRAM0NTANB8. 
Under  their  indefatigable  leader,  Windhorst,  the  German  Ultramontanes 
seem  determined  to  annoy  the  government,  and  prevent  rather  than  aid 
in  restoring  pastors  to  the  parishes  left  unprovided  for  by  the  deposition 
of  the  recalcitrant  bishops.  After  a  recent  tirade  on  the  parliamentary 
floor  on  the  part  of  Windhorst,  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship  brought 
out  some  significant  figures  to  show  that  matters  in  Catholic  Germany  are 
by  no  means  as  bad  as  they  are  painted.  The  entire  number  of  parishes  in 
Prussia  for  8,800,000  souls  amount  to  4,804;  of  these  1,108  were  without 
regular  pastors,  with  a  population  of  280,000.  But  even  this  gap  has  been 
largely  filled  by  the  compromise  laws  lately  passed,  and  in  some  regions 
in  active  and  successful  operation,  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the 
party  of  the  Center,  which  seems  to  prefer  discord  and  disintegration  to 
harmony  and  affiliation.  445  parishes  have  been  already  supplied  through 
the  operation  of  these  laws,  with  a  population  of  1,900,000.  The  parishes 
now  reported  as  not  being  well  or  fully  supplied  number  150,  with 
170,000  souls.  According  to  this  showing  there  is  therefore  now  but  a 
small  percentage  of  the  parishes  without  religious  privileges.  With  this 
view  of  the  case  the  spirit  of  exaggeration  in  the  Catholic  party  has  done 
a  good  work  in  greatly  magnifying  their  persecution.  The  Minister  of 
Public  Worship  has  again  and  again  expressed  an  ardent  desire  to  settle 
the  troubles  and  arrive  at  a  condition  of  peace ;  but  with  a  persistent 


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656  Methodist  Qumierly  Review.  fJuly, 

opposition  to  the  State  authorities  this  is  not  easy.  If  the  controlling 
Catholic  circles  could  only  see  that  such  means  will  never  lead  to  any 
thing  profitable,  and  will  certainly  never  coerce  the  State  into  any  humil- 
iating measures,  they  might  be  induced  to  cease  bickering,  and  join  in 
mending  the  fragments  of  churches  and  parishes  now  left  as  a  wreck  of 
the  struggle.  It  is  now  understood  that  the  Papal  authorities  are  no 
longer  in  sympathy  with  those  irreconcilables. 

THE  ANTI-SEMITIC  PERSECUTIONS. 

The  fearful  agitations  against  the  Jews  in  (Germany  are  now  bearing 
their  fruits  in  Russia  and  other  semi-oriental  lands  in  excessive  personal 
violence,  which  cabinets  and  rulers  will  vainly  try  to  quell.  It  seems  to 
be  manifest  destiny  that  periodical  outbreaks  of  violence  against  them 
shall  have  their  course,  notwithstanding  all  theories  to  the  contrary. 
When  the  Jews  are  allowed  the  full  exercise  of  their  talents  under  liberal 
rule,  the  story  of  Joseph,  the  son  of  Jacob,  who  became  privy-counselor 
to  Pharaoh,  and  finally  ruler  of  Egypt,  finds  its  counterpart  in  Christian 
Europe,  where  many  men  of  Jewish  birth  or  origin  have  arrived  at  the 
premier's  chair.  The  most  noted  one  of  these  was  Beaconsfield,  a  de- 
scendant of  the  Spanish  Jews  driven  from  their  homes  by  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  Inquisition ;  and,  though  generations  removed  from  those 
fathers  in  Israel,  the  Jewish  spirit  is  manifest  in  his  statecraft  and  his 
pen.  Other  noted  statesmen  of  Jewish  origin  or  birth  may  be  found  scat- 
tered over  the  Continent.  France  had  Fould,  the  renowned  financial  min- 
ister of  Napoleon  III.,  Cremieux,  the  liberal  statesman,  lately  deceased, 
and  Gambetta — for  it  is  claimed  that  he  is  by  origin  an  Italian  Jew.  In 
Prussia,  the  late  Minister  of  Agriculture,  Friedenthal,  was  of  Jewish  ex- 
traction, as  is  the  present  Minister  of  Justice,  Dr.  Fried  berg.  The  two 
recently  retired  Austrian  ministers,  Unger  and  Glasser,  were  of  the  Jew- 
ish line,  and  the  gap  has  been  filled  by  Baron  Haymerle,  the  new  Austrian 
Chancellor  of  State,  whose  parents  turned  from  the  Jewish  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  Haymerle  began  his  career  as  a  revolutionist,  and  in  1849 
was  condemned  to  death.  The  present  Emperor  pardoned  him,  and  in  a 
few  years  he  entered  the  civil  service,  and  rose  so  rapidly  from  post  to 
post  that  last  year  he  took  the  place  of  Andrassy.  The  Finance  Minister 
of  Baden  is  a  Jew  in  faith.  Thus  Jewish  genius  is  avenging  itself  for 
the  humiliations  of  the  past,  and  hoping,  by  the  help  of  Providence,  to 
win  back  all  it  has  lost.  And  thus  the  Jews  in  every  sphere  of  life  are 
hoping,  while  their  enemies  are  fearing. 


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1881.]  Foreign  LvUrwry  IntelUgence.  557 

abt.  X.— foreign  literary  intelligence. 

ILLUSTRATED  BIBLE  STORY. 

Thbre  18  a  veritable  furore  in  Qermany  in  the  line  of  Bible  illustrations 
as  a  means  of  popular  instruction,  as  is  proved  by  the  success  of 
*'  BSmheld'i  IlhutrirU  BiblUchs  Oesehiehte^^*  that  has  already  passed 
through  several  editions,  though  recently  published  by  Velhagen  A 
Elasing,  of  Leipsic.  The  present  generation  is  a  difficult  one  to  preach 
to.  The  church  is  well-nigh  deserted,  at  least  by  the  male  portion  of 
the  commuuity ;  and  those  who  sit  under  the  droppings  of  the  Gospel 
are  much  inclined  to  criticise  and  argue.  And  the  most  simple  and 
attractive  homilies  are  not  favorite  reading  in  the  modem  family.  The 
great  success  of  this  book  is,  therefore,  a  literary  event,  as  it  professes  to 
be  '*  the  sacred  GkMpel,  in  sermons  for  all  Sundays  and  sacred  days  of 
the  year,  narrated  and  explained  to  the  people."  The  author  is  a  plain 
country  pastor  of  a  little  village;  but  he  has  learned  to  be  concise,  clear, 
and  forcible  in  his  narrative,  and  preaches  the  Oospd  of  the  Saviour 
rather  than  about  the  Gospel.  And  still  more,  he  has  learned  how  to 
narrate  the  gospel  story  in  the  simple  language  of  his  people,  afhd  adapt 
it  to  their  circumstances,  so  that  it  becomes  a  living  and  present  history, 
and  the  events  themselves  stand  out  in  bold  relief  before  his  congrega- 
tion. This  is  the  secret  of  his  influence  rather  than  any  peculiarity 
of  style  or  originality  of  expression.  R5mheld,  with  these  rare  qualities, 
seeks  to  make  this  book  a  Bible  story  for  the  elementary  schools  of 
Germany,  and  he  certainly  has  met  with  rare  success  thus  far.  This  is 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  he  for  a  time  was  a  practical  teacher, 
himself  under  the  guidance  of  one  of  the  most  renowned  pedagogues  of 
the  land ;  this  gives  him  easier  access  to  the  teachers,  and  a  readier 
acquiescence  to  his  methods.  The  principles  that  he  lays  down  for  im- 
parting these  truths  are  a  treasure  of  pedagogic  wisdom,  and  his  meth- 
ods a  useful  key  to  the  popular  work.  He  makes  a  careful  selection 
of  his  narratives,  dropping  Job,  for  instance,  and  taking  Daniel  in  the 
Lion's  den,  the  Centurion  of  Cornelius,  etc.  The  narratives  are  some- 
times shortened,  so  as  to  contain  the  cream  of  the  event,  retaining  all 
the  original  spirit  and  coloring,  with  omission  of  whatever  might  perhaps 
make  it  too  lengthy  to  secure  the  undivided  attention  of  the  child.  Other 
narratives  have  been  expanded  and  explained  more  fully  for  the  same 
ulterior  purpose.  All  through  the  work  the  object  is  to  secure  the  ex- 
pression best  adapted  to  effect  the  purpose  of  lasting  impression  on  the 
young  mind,  so  that  the  story  shall  be  interesting  enough  to  secure  the 
return  to  it  without  urging  from  the  teacher.  But  all  through  the  story 
the  woof  is  the  word  of  God ;  that  is,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  real  purport  of 
Holy  Writ,  and  thus  in  the  Old  Testament  the  story  is  of  Christ  and 
Uie  Gospel  eventually.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  this  important 
elation  of  the  Old  to  the  New  is  used  with  care  and  fidelity.     The 


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558  Methodist  QttaHerly  Review,  [July, 

author  has  been  careful  to  avoid  any  doctrinal  teaching ;  the  narratiye 
is  to  speak  for  itself,  and  the  doctrines  taught  are  those  to  be  de- 
duced from  the  diviue  words.  These  impressions  are  heightened  by  a 
judicious  choice  of  illustrations  from  the  best  collections  and  the  most 
faithful  artists  of  the  day  in  biblical  picturing,  Carolsfeld,  Richter, 
Jftger,  and  SqhDorr.  We  need  hardly  say  that  Qerman  evaogelical 
Christians  are  giving  the  work  a  hearty  approval  because  it  may  prove 
a  welcome  and  admitted  messenger  to  the  popular  schools  where  no 
other  would  gain  admission  from  its  merita  so  much  as  from  authority. 
The  Germans  still  see  the  necessity  of  teaching  the  Bible  to  the  young  in 
the  secular  schools,  and  wisely,  instead  of  excluding  it  from  these  Chris- 
tian scholars,  are  trying  to  make  it  so  welcome  that  it  will  be  invited. 

A  noble  man  and  pure  critic  thus  speaks  of  the  book  to  his  country- 
men :  ^*  We  congratulate  the  elementary  schools  with  all  our  heart  at  the 
acquisition  of  this  masterly  manual  of  Scripture  teaching,  and  we  wish 
that  it  might  not  be  confined  to  the  common  school ;  for  biblical  teach- 
ing it  is  quite  as  well  adapted  to  the  gymnasium,  the  scientific  schools, 
and  those  for  our  daughters,  as  it  is  for  the  school  of  the  people.  And, 
finally,  it  is  a  book  for  the  house  and  the  family,  and  where  it  does  not 
gain  entrance  to  the  schools  let  the  mother  look  to  it  that  it  at  least  has 
a  warm  welcome  in  her  domain ;  she  can  find  no  better  assistant  in  in- 
troducing to  her  children  the  cardinal  points  of  Bcripture  history  so 
that  these  will  remain  with  them  through  life."  We  have  purposely 
lingered  on  this  subject  to  show  our  readers  the  thought  that  still  lies 
heavily  on  German  minds,  amid  the  rush  of  all  sorts  of  books  circulated 
to  lessen  the  love  of  young  hearts  for  the  pure  Bible  teaching  as  it  is 
in  the  Saviour's  life,  and  the  history  that  foreshadows  and  portrays  it. 
It  is  encouraging  that  there  is  still  a  popular  leayen  in  the  Fatherland 
that  may  leaven  the  lump. 

SCHNORR'S  BIBLE  IN  PICTURES. 

In  the  same  general  spirit,  and  because  of  its  harmony,  we  allude  to 
the  above  classical  Bible- work,  which  has  become  a  great  national 
treasure  of  biblical  art.  When  this  great  enterprise  was  started  German 
publishers  were  inclined  to  hold  aloof  from  it.  But  Gteorge  Wigand 
took  the  enterprising  author  and  artist  by  the  hand,  and  amid  the 
doubts  and  fears  of  his  compeers,  helped  him  to  the  execution  of  some 
of  the  finest  specimens  of  woodcut  engraving  in  the  annals  of  their 
trade.  Very  soon  the  leading  spirits  of  that  guild  gathered  around 
him,  and  now  he  was  assisted  by  Flegel,  Gaber,  Graeff^  Aarland,  and 
other  notabilities  of  the  craft,  whose  careful  execution  of  the  ideas  of 
the  author  have  helped  him  to  produce  a  masterpiece  of  the  first  rank. 
The  publisher  spared  no  labor  nor  expense  in  his  part  of  the  work,  and 
spent  a  modest  fortune  in  the  drawing  and  engraving  of  the  blocks. 
In  order  to  make  tliese  *•"•  Bible  pictures  "  accessible  to  the  poor  as  well 
as  the  rich,  cheap  popular  editions  have  been  placed  on  the  counters 
beside  those  bound  in  the  height  of  luxury.    Each  of  these  pictures  is 


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1881.]  Foreign  Litera/ry  Intelligence.  569 

provided  with  a  short  explanatory  text  in  German,  which  has  lately 
been  extended  to  the  French  and  English,  and  the  last  venture  is  a 
polyglot  edition,  with  the  text  in  fourteen  languages.  So  famous  a  work 
as  this  could  not  iA\  of  the  honor  of  a  reproduction.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  these  is  by  the  house  of  Didot  &  Co.,  Paris;  it  is  entitled,  *^Xa 
SainU  Bible  par  Salmon.^  In  this  the  entire  number,  two  hundred  and 
forty  sheets,  are  splendidly  reproduced  by  the  heliograph  process.  As 
a  curiosity  we  may  mention  in  this  connection  that  the  complete  Bible 
has  been  reproduced  by  a  firm  in  Holland,  in  the  original  size,  through 
what  is  called  lithographic  impression,  and  it  is  so  well  done  that  none 
but  an  experienced  eye  can  distinguish  it  from  the  original.  Full  suc- 
cess has  crowned  these  great  exertions.  The  sale,  counting  the  single 
sheets,  each  with  an  engraving,  amounts  up  to  the  present  time  to  about 
five  millions.  The  printing  is  all  done  by  single  sheets,  and  the  sale 
mostly  occurs  in  this  way,  as  special  sheets  and  subjects  are  most  fre- 
quently demanded  by  the  public.  The  publishers  generally  keep  two 
hundred  thousand  on  hand,  and  daily  sales  send  forth  into  all  the  world 
this  word  of  God  in  pictures. 

AN  IMPERIAL  HYMN  BOOK. 

The  Prussian  hosts  in  the  last  war  with  France  went  into  battle  with 
the  war-cry,  *'With  God  for  King,  and  Fatherland  I  "  and  when  victory 
was  won  the  venerable  leader  was  the  first  to  order  a  grand  ^^  Praise  God  1  ^ 
from  all  his  children;  for  even  the  Catholic  regiments  caught  the. spirit, 
and  soon  learned  to  sing  with  their  comrades  the  hymns  of  Luther. 
The  emperor  still  wants  his  army  to  sing  these  stirring  anthems,  and  has 
bidden  a  conference  to  meet  at  Eisenach  (a  fitting  spot)  to  draw  up  for 
it  an  **  Evangelical  Hymn  and  Prayer  Book."  It  was  a  happy  thought 
to  give  to  the  sods  of  the  Fatherland  that  are  still  gathered  under  its 
fiag  the  best  that  could  be  procured  of  the  rich  mine  of  German  sacred 
song,  that  is  now  the  common  property  of  all,  to  the  end  that  their  com- 
mon faith  might  grow  strong  in  times  of  peace.  The  poetic  power  of 
the  German  nation  in  this  species  of  literature  is  an  eloquent  testimony  ' 
of  the  true  Christian  heart  that  beats  outside  of  the  limits  of  all  dog- 
matic strife  and  jealousy. 

The  hymns  of  Germany  reflect  the  noblest  conceptions  and  loftiest 
strivings  of  the  people,  and  the  day  is  now  past  when  the  choice  ones 
shall  wander  about  the  land,  like  lost  children,  singing  the  lays  of  home. 
They  are  to  gather  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  others  for  his  army 
hymn  book,  and  he  bids  the  conference  of  Eisenach  make  the  choice. 
The  variety  of  hymnals  in  evangelical  Germany  has  been  very  great,  no 
less  than  sixty  in  one  province  of  "Prussia.  This  has  led  the  people  to 
desire  a  selection,  and  thus  this  measure  is  popular  throughout  Protest- 
ant Germany.  If  the  conference  has  a  happy  inspiration  in  the  selection, 
this  new  collection  will  doubtless  become  popular  throughout  the  land, 
and  its  introduction  into  the  army  may  lead  to  its  adoption  on  the  part 


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560  Methodist  QuarterVy  JReview.  [July, 

of  many  Churches.  It  is  proposed  to  have  cheap  editions,  so  that 
schools,  charitable  institutions,  and  religious  associations  of  a  general 
character  may  be  induced  to  sfdopt  it,  as  well  as  German  families.  It 
will  be  accompanied  by  a  choral,  with  about  eighty  of  the  most  cher- 
ished melodies  of  the  German  Erangelical  Churches.  A  very  pretty 
thought  is  that  of  an  imperial  birthday  hymn  to  head  the  collection, 
and  this  has  been  submitted  to  the  authorities  for  their  judgment;  the 
emperor  himself  will  doubtless  have  a  voice  in  the  matter.  It  is  by  Julius 
Strum,  and  breathes  a  beautifully  patriotic  and  religious  spirit,  alluding 
to  their  noble  chief,  and  the  fact  that,  by  the  help  of  God,  he  has  united 
his  people  in  the  face  of  their  enemies,  and  done  all  to  the  honor  of  his 
name,  (Zu  Deina  Nameiu  Ehre^  which  b  the  refrain  of  each  of  the  four 
verses. 


Abt.  XL— quarterly  BOOK -TABLE. 

Religion^   Theology^   cmd  JBiblical  LUeraiv^e. 

The  New  Testament  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jeem  Christ,  Translated  out  of  the 
Greek :  being  the  version  set  forth  A.  D.  1611.  Compared  with  the  most  an- 
cient Authorities,  and  rerised  AD.,  1881.  Printed  for  the  Universities  of  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge,  Oxford,  at  the  UniTersity  Press,  1881.  Long  Primer, 
crown  8vo.     All  rights  reserved. 

The  History  of  the  Bible:  including  its  Canon,  Grenuineness,  Authenticity,  and  In- 
spiration ;  as  also  the  Ancient  Versions  and  the  Famous  Miwuscripts ;  a  Special 
Account  of  the  Eariy  English  Versions  and  Revisers,  and  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion of  Sling  James ;  the  Reason  for  and  History  of  the  New  Revision ;  the 
Principles  of  Revision,  and  Conditions.  With  full  index.  By  the  Rev.  L  T. 
Chamberlain,  D.D.,  Norwich,  Conn.  12mo,  pp.  47.  The  Henry  Hill  Publish- 
ing Company,  Norwich,  Conn.    1881. 

The  quiet  corps  of  scholars  who  so  patiently  and  faithfully  toiled 
through  long  uncompensated  years  in  the  revision  scarce  imagined 
to  themselves  what  a  commercial  sensation  they  were  preparing — 
what  a  commotion  in  the  sale  of  the  first  editions,  and  what  a 
tumult  in  the  columns  of  our  daily  seculars.  And  the  momen- 
tous inference  arises  that  the  Bible  has  not  lost  its  power.  It 
stirs  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  as  it  never  stirred  men 
before.  Men,  to  whom  it  was  apparently  a  buried  book,  betray 
an  interest  in  its  pages  which  slept  in  their  minds  unknown,  per- 
haps, even  to  their  own  consciousness.  We  have  almost  written 
the  conclusion  that  there  is  more  religion  in  our  world  than  we 
had  imagined.  The  prophets  of  our  day,  who,  inspired  by  their 
own  wishes,  are  predicting  the  downfall  of  Christianity,  will  evi- 
dently die  without  the  sight. 

And  there  are  queries  and  quandmes  in  the  popular  heart. 
There  are  some  disturbances,  well  known  to  scholars,  many  of 


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1881.]  Qaa/rtffrly  Booh-TaOe.  661 

them  noted  in  our  commentaries,  yefr  new  to  the  readers  of  solely 
the  English  text.  The  disappearance  of  the  laceration  of  the 
text  into  separate  verses  and  chapters,  the  division  by  para- 
graphs demanded  by  the  sense,  the  removal  of  the  figures  to  the 
margins,  and  the  printing  the  poetical  quotations  in  a  poetical 
fonp,  changes  which  would  have  been  disturbing  fifty  years  ago, 
are  easily  welcome  now.  That  little  revolution  will  never  go 
back.  But  how  about  tearing  oS.  the  sublime  doxology  from  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  tucking  it  into  the  margin  ?  How  about  a 
great  many  forms  of  expression  which  thought  has  consecrated 
as  part  of  the  Bible,  and  that  yet  have  been  ruthlessly  substi- 
tuted by  some  ^^  huibail "  interpolation  ? 

Now  we  think  it  should  silence  a  large  amount  of  complaint  to 
call  to  mind  the  great  fact  that  it  is  a  question  of  tbttth.  Does 
the  revision  come  more  nearly  than  the  old  version  to  the  truth 
of  the  original  autographs  of  the  sacred  penmen  ?  This  is  the 
proper  form  of  the  question  which  the  Christian  people  are  now 
putting  to  the  biblical  scholarship  of  the  day.  And  to  that 
question  there  can  surely  come  but  one  unanimous  answer. 
Whatever  exceptions  can  be  taken  as  matters  of  taste  and  asso- 
ciation, there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  revision  is  very  greatly 
superior  to  the  old  as  a  presentation  of  the  sacred  writings  to  the 
English  mind.  And  this  to  so  great  a  degree  as  to  overbear  all 
other  considerations,  so  that  to  prefer  the  old  is  to  prefer  at  least 
the  less  true,  if  not  the  untrue. 

This  question  of  truth  regards  first  the  original  text,  and  then 
the  English  text  of  the  revision.  And  when  the  people  ask.  Is 
the  revision  made  from  a  purer  text  than  that  of  Eang  James  ? 
To  that  no  scholar  can  withhold  a  strong  affirmation.  There  is 
something  beautiful  in  the  enthusiasm  with  which  for  a  century 
or  so  the  closeted  biblical  scholars  have  hunted  for  and  collated 
manuscripts,  and  the  toil,  intellect,  and  rigid  and  pure-minded 
criticism  with  which  they  have  chastened  the  text  of  the  copies 
back  into  an  approximate  identity  with  the  apostolic  autographs. 
Here  is  new  truth  as  opposed  to  old  mistake.  A  truer  Greek 
Testament  is  now  Englished  for  our  use. 

And,  secondly,  to  the  question  of  a  more  accurate  translation 
of  this  more  accurate  text,  there  can,  in  trutJiy  be  but  one  reply. 
There  is,  indeed,  one  translation  which  we  consider  a  great  blem- 
ish, namely,  the  phrase  "evil  one"  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  In 
regard  to  this,  as  well  as  the  doxology,  we  itdvise  that  the  old 
form,  being  preserved  in  our  Discipline,  should  be  used  in  the 


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662  Methodist  QaaHerly  Review.  f  Jnly, 

public  service.  The  snbstitntion  of  love  for  charity  in  Corinth- 
ians is  made  in  every  commentary,  is  necessarily  made  in  every 
sermon  on  that  text,  and  should  unquestionably  be  made  in  a 
revision. 

We  fully  indorse  the  changes  by  the  American  revisers,  rele- 
gated by  an  Appendix,  and  wish  they  had  been  wrought  into  the 
text.  It  would  have  been  simply  a  preference  of  neu)  truth  to 
old  untruth 

The  newspapers  seem  to  say  that  the  English  public  mind 
rejects  the  revision.  We  cannot  quite  believe  that  there  will  be 
a  permanent  rejection.  It  would  be  a  curious  duality  if  the  old 
should  be  the  standard  in  England  and  the  new  in  America. 
The  cautions,  however,  given  by  the  authorities  of  the  Church 
against  an  adoption  of  the  new  into  the  public  service  sporadic- 
ally by  individual  clergymen  before  it  has  been  accepted  by  the 
legislation  of  the  Church,  is  just  and  wise.  Similarly  no  minister 
of  our  own  Church  should  adopt  it  before  the  authoritative  action 
of  our  General  Conference. 


Eoun  with  ths  Bibis  ;  or^  The  ScriptnreB  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Disooyery  and 
Knowledge,  from  Creation  to  the  Patriarchs.  By  Cunningham  Gukis,  D.D., 
author  of  "  The  Life  and  Words  of  Christ"  With  illustrations.  12mo,  pp. 
600.    New  York :  James  Pott.     1881. 

Dr.  6cikie*s  book  wonderfully  exemplifies  what  a  world  of  fresh  bib- 
lical illustration  of  Genesis  has  been  flung  up  by  modem  research. 
Some  fields,  especially  the  physical  science  department,  present 
difficulties  to  be  obviated;  others,  especially  archaeology,  furnish 
powerful  confirmations  of  the  sacred  record.  With  regard  to 
the  difficulties  coming  from  the  doctrines  of  genetic  evolution 
and  of  palaeontology,  it  would,  indeed,  seem  that  they  are  dimin- 
ishing, as  if  tending  to  vanish  away.  In  archaeology  even  the 
piles  of  parallel  illustration  are  in  a  somewhat  provisional  state, 
affording  apparent  ready  application  in  proof,  yet  needing  fur- 
ther discovery  and  critical  treatment.  But  what  verifications 
of  the  earliest  biblical  documents  crowd  upon  us  !  The  Mosaic 
cosmogony  is  found  to  be  Abrahamic  and  primitively  Shemitic; 
for  we  find  that  it  accords  with  a  blurred  parallel  account  primi- 
tively existing  in  Assyria  and  Chaldea,  whence  Abraham  emi- 
grated. Then,  in  the  Egyptian  part  of  the  Pentateuch,  Egypt- 
ology finds  the  writer  at  home  in  Egypt  at  the  age  of  the 
narrated  events.  Then,  passing  from  Egypt  into  the  desert,  we 
find  his  tracks,  as  followed  by  modem  travel,  distinctly  traceable. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Booh 'Table.  563 

with  all  the  surroundmgs  his  narrative  presupposes.  That  there 
should  be  difficulties,  our  mind  almost  demands.  But  the  surplus 
of  confirmation  is  overwhelming,  and  the  general  historic  truth 
and  clear,  simple  integrity  of  the  record,  are  safe  beyond  all  pos- 
sible impeachment,  whether  coming  from  the  heavy  lore  of  Ger- 
man criticism,  or  from  the  brilliant  rhetoric  of  a  Robert  IngersolL 

Of  the  various  publications  issued  to  illustrate  and  confirm , 
Genesis  from  the  modem  researches  Dr.  Geikie's  is  fullest,  latest, 
and  most  erudite.  His  list  of  authorities  consulted  in  all  the 
languages  of  western  Europe  fills  four  pages.  Among  his  author- 
ities we  find  our  learned  contributor  Southall,  but  miss  our  brill- 
iant deceased  contributor,  Tayler  Lewis.  The  present  volume, 
the  first  of  a  series,  extends  from  the  cosmogony  to  the  decease 
of  Joseph,  the  last  event  before  the  £zodus« 

Six  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  cosmogony  in  its  various  as- 
pects, and  the  geological  age  of  the  world,  two  to  the  creation 
of  man  and  the  Edenic  history,  and  three  to  the  antiquity  of  man 
and  his  primitive  condition.  Then  come  the  beginning  of  the 
race  and  the  deluge  in  three  chapters;  the  table  of  the  nations 
and  the  openings  of  natural  history  in  two  chapters.  Thence, 
narrowing  the  view  to  the  Messianic  race,  we  have  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Hebrew  nation  in  one  chapter,  three  very  fresh  and 
excellent  chapters  on  Abraham,  and  we  close  with  one  chapter 
on  Isaac  and  his  sons,  and  a  final  chapter  on  Joseph,  rich  with 
remarkable  illustrations,  drawn  from  secular  sources,  of  the  suc- 
cessive events  of  his  life.  Upon  the  whole  work  we  note  a  few 
points. 

Dr.  Geikie  favors  the  belief  that  the  art  of  writing  came  from 
the  antediluvian  age,  transmitted  through  the  ark,  bringing  with 
it  our  most  valuable  primitive  traditions.  To  this  source  we 
may,  doubtless,  trace  the  commencing  chapters  of  Genesis. 

He  calls  attention  to  a  significant  fact  that  seems  to  give  a  very 
severe  blow  to  the  theory  of  the  Jehovistic-Elohim  documents. 
The  Assyrian  tablets  give  these  supposed  different  narratives  in 
one  continuous  document. 

We  have  good  authority  for  saying  there  were  temperance 
societies  in  Egypt,  composed  at  least  of  the  priests,  who  imposed 
temperance  principles  on  the  kings.  "  A  despot  is  not  easily  kept 
within  bounds,  however  it  may  have  been  with  the  particular 
Pharaoh  whose  beverage  in  the  cup-bearer's  dream  was  only 
grape-juice  fresh  from  the  cluster.  But  that  this  is  a  literally 
correct  trait  of  Egyptian  life  has  been  curiously  illustrated  by  a 


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564  Methodist  QuaHerl/y  Beview.  [July, 

text  discovered  by  Ebers  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  temple  of 
£df  Uy  in  which  the  king  is  seen  standing,  cup  in  hand,  while  un- 
derneath are  the  words,  *  They  press  grapes  into  the  water  and 
the  king  drinks.' " — P.  466.  This  demonstrates  that  Egypt  had 
two  kinds  of  wine,  the  fermented  and  the  unfermented.  It  ^ug- 
gests  that  the  product  of  the  vine  in  Luke  xxii,  18,  as  used  at  the 
Lord's  Supper,  was  fresh  grape-juice.  The  ingenious  sophism 
that  Pharaoh's  drinking  such  juice  was  ^^  only  in  a  dream"  should 
not  be  repeated. 

The  whole  work  is,  within  its  range,  an  invaluable  popular 
commentary  and  a  fund  of  matter  for  the  work  of  the  com- 
mentator. 

CommerUary  an  SL  Fauti  EpuUe  to  the  Romam.  By  F.  Oodr,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Theologj,  Neuchatel.  Translated  from  the  French  by  the  Rey.  A.  Gusin^  M.A., 
Edinburgh.  YoL  II,  8yo,  pp.  484.  Edinburgh:  T.  k  T.  Oark,  88  George- 
street.     1881. 

The  large  and  stately  treatises  on  Romans  of  the  present  day 
have  so  uniformly  come  from  the  Augiistinian  side  that  our 
highly  dogmatical  friend,  Spurgeon,  has  come  to  claim  that  the 
Epistle  belongs  to  the  Calvinists  alone,  and  that  an  Arminian  is 
guilty  of  an  impertinence,  if  not  of  grand  larceny,  in  taking  pos- 
session of  the  Epistle  for  comment.  It  is,  therefore,  refreshing 
to  receive  from  the  Continent  of  Europe  a  magnificent  exposition 
from  an  eminent  biblical  scholar,  taking  what  we  might  almost 
call  the  Wesleyan  positions.  Nor  is  the  pleasure  diminished  by 
the  fact  that  the  work  comes  by  the  Edinburgh  route,  through 
which  such  liberal  evangelicism  seldom  travels. 

Professor  Godet's  name  has  already  been  introduced  to  our 
readers  through  the  "Quarterly"  from  our  notice  of  his  New 
Testament  "  Studies."  We  have  also  used  his  aid  in  our  com- 
ment on  Rev.  xiii  with  good  effect.  The  present  work  is  char- 
acterized by  its  scholarly  mastery  of  the  ground,  its  rich  biblical 
tone,  its  great  lucidity  and  vivacity  of  style. 

We  have  only  space  to  indicate  his  position  on  a  few  leading 
doctrinal  points.  On  the  seventh  chapter  he  maintains  with  great 
conclusiveness  the  thesis  that  the  Ego  of  the  closing  passage  is 
an  unregenerate  struggler  after  righteousness.  On  viii,  15  he 
notes  that  "  the  apostle  has  proved  the  fact  of  our  being  sons  or 
children,  first  by  the  filial  feeling  produced  in  us  by  the  Spirit, 
and  then  by  t?ie  direct  toitness  of  the  Spirit  himseff.^^  This  im- 
portant postulate  of  a  true  and  deep  Christian  experience  he 
defines  briefly  but  explicitly,  and  clearly  as  any  Wesleyan  need 


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188L]  Quarterly  Booh -Table.  665 

ask.  On  viii,  28-80,  his  views  are  admirably  stated,  and  his  doc- 
trinal position  is  thus  :  "  Wherein  consists  the  divine  predestina- 
tion undoubtedly  taught  by  the  apostle  in  this  passage  ?  Does 
it,  in  his  view,  exclude  the  free-will  of  man,  or,  on  the  contrarj', 
does  it  imply  it  ?  Two  reasons  seem  to  us  to  decide  the  question 
in  favor  of  the  second  alternative :  1.  The  act  of  foreknowing^ 
which  the  apostle  makes  the  basis  of  predestination,  proves  that 
the  latter  is  determined  by  some  fact  or  other,  the  object  of  this 
knowledge.  It  matters  little  that  the  object  is  eternal,  while  the 
fact,  which  is  its  object,  comes  to  pass  only  in  time.  It  follows 
all  the  same  from  this  revelation  that  the  fact  must  be  considered 
as  due  in  some  way  to  a  factor  distinct  from  a  divine  causation, 
which  can  be  nothing  else  than  human  liberty.  2.  The  apostle 
avoids  making  the  act  of  believing  the  object  of  the  decree  of 
predestination.  In  the  act  of  predestination  faith  is  already  as- 
sumed, smd  its  sole  object  is,  according  to  the  apostle's  words, 
the  final  participation  of  believers  in  the  glory  of  Christ,  Not 
only,  then,  does  Paul's  view  imply  that  in  the  act  of  believing  full 
human  liberty  is  not  excluded,  but  it  is  even  implied.  For  it 
alone  explains  the  distinction  which  he  already  establishes  be- 
tween the  two  divine  acts  of  foreknotoledge  and  predestinatioHy 
both  as  to  their  nature  (the  one,  an  act  of  the  understanding,  the 
other  of  the  will)  and  as  to  their  object^  (in  the  one  case  faith, 
in  the  other  glory.")  We  need  hardly  say  after  this  that  his  ex- 
position of  the  ninth  chapter  is  orthodox  after  the  Wesleyan- 
Arminian  standard. 

The  TVitih  of  Scripture  in  Connection  with  Revelation,  Inepiration,  and  the  C<tnon. 
By  John  James  Giysn,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew  and  Henneneutics  in  Magee 
College,  L<mdondeiTy.  8vo»  pp.  870.  Edinburgh :  T.  ft  T.  Clark.  1881.  [Scrib- 
ner's  Edition.    Price,  $3.] 

Our  Londonderry  professor  displays  much  of  the  Irish  fluency 
of  speech  and  liveliness  of  genius,  with  a  good  degree  of  scholar- 
ship, and  now  and  then  a  jet  of  true  originality.  Celtic  genius, 
it  is  well-known,  with  its  rich  imagination  is  capable,  also,  of  a 
sharp-edged  metaphysic. 

The  volume  is  tripartite;  discussing  the  three  great  topics, 
Revelation,  Inspiration,  the  Canon.  The  treatment  of  Revela- 
tion from  its  necessary  brevity  can  touch  only  on  great  leading 
individual  topics;  mountain-tops  that  project  as  islands  above 
the  surface  of  the  great  sea.  They  are  well  selected,  often 
handled  with  a  fine  dexterity,  and  that  of  miracles,  especially, 
with  subtle  insight. 

FoiTRTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXm.— 37 


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566  Methodist  QawrterVy  B&oiew.  [July, 

On  Inspiration  he  corroborates  (p.  804)  a  view,  which  we  have 
heretofore  advanced,  that  the  reality  of  the  original  inspiration 
of  the  sacred  writings  was  attested,  say  in  the  New  Testament, 
not  only  by  the  apostolic  characters  of  the  authors  and  their  own 
consciousness,  but  by  the  collective  inspired  character  of  the 
Christian  Church  which  received  them.  So  long  as  the  remains 
of  the  Pentecostal  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  survived  in  the 
apostolic  Church,  so  long  as  the  gift  of  miracles  and  the  discern- 
ing  of  spirits  existed,  so  long  was  the  Church  divinely  capacitated 
to  collectively  discriminate  not  only  between  the  truly  apostolic 
and  unapostolic  teaching  and  teacher,  but  bt^tween  the  inspired 
and  uninspired  utterances  of  the  apostles  themselves.  Over  the 
early  selection  of  the  canonical  documents  the  great  Head  of 
the  Church  held  special  guardianship,  and  specially  guided  the 
mind  of  the  Church.  Our  canon  stands  on  the  basis  of  the 
double  inspiration  of  the  writers  and  of  the  Church;  the  former 
speaking  and  the  latter  confirming.  And  this  may  serve  to  solve 
the  difficulty  often  raised  from  the  mistake  of  Peter  at  Antioch, 
and  from  the  probability  that  many  a  letter  was  written  by 
Paul  and  other  apostles  that  never  entered  the  canon.  See  our 
commentary  on  Gal.  ii,  11-21;  1  Cor.  xi,  16;  xiv,  88. 

There  are,  as  special  features  of  this  volume,  an  able  and 
very  conclusive  defense  of  the  Solomonic  authorship  of  Eccle- 
siastes,  and  a  summary  of  the  discussion,  so  deeply  now  agitating 
the  Church  of  Scotland  in  the  matter  of  Professor  Robertson 
Smith,  in  regard  to  the  canonicity  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy. 

We  quote  the  following  fresh  and  pertinent  illustration  of 
what  is  sometimes  called  ^^  the  double  sense "  of  Scripture : 
"  Who  does  not  know  that  Spenser,  in  his  Mien/  Queeriy  while 
celebrating  certain  personified  virtues,  alludes  in  a  manner  un- 
mistakable to  certain  distinguished  personages,  so  that  Sir  Ar- 
tigael  at  once  represents  Jtcstice  and  Zord  Chrey;  Duessa,  Fals^ 
Aooe^and  the  unfortunate  Q;ueen  of  ScoU ;  the  Red  Cross  Knight, 
both  Holiness  and  the  Church  f  while  Spencer's  own  letter  to 
Raleigh  clearly  states  the  plan  as  follows:  *In  the  Miery  Qiteen 
I  mean  Glory  in  my  general  intention,  but  in  my  particular,  I 
conceive  the  most  excellent  and  glorious  person  of  our  sovereign 
the  Queen  (Elizabeth)  and  her  kingdom  in  Faery  Land.  And 
yet  in  some  places  I  do  otherwise  shadow  her;  for,  considering 
she  beareth  two  persons,  the  one  of  a  most  royal  queen  or  em- 
press, the  other  of  a  most  virtuous  and  beautiful  lady,  this  latter 
part  in  some  places  I  do  express  in  Belphoebe.*  *' 


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1881.1  Qmrterly  Bocik 'Table.  567 

Tht  Ineamaie  Savumr :  A  Life  of  Jesus  Christ  By  Rev.  W.  R.  Nicoll,  M.A., 
Kelso.    12mo,  pp.  888.    Edinbtugh :  T.  k  T.  OUrk.     1881.  1 

Both  in  the  externals  of  paper,  print,  and  margins,  and  in  the 
transparency,  and  often  the  eloquence  of  its  style,  this  is  a  beauti- 
ful book.  Among  the  many  biographical  delineations  of  the 
Saviour,  the  specialty  of  this  is  claimed  to  be  that  it  designs  to 
present  the  conception  of  Christ  in  his  incarnate  unity,  so  that 
we  may  think  of  him  as  the  divine  pervading  the  human.  And  in 
the  matter  of  miracles,  they  are  not  viewed  so  much  as  proofs 
of  the  revelation,  but  simply  as  an  integral  part  of  Christ's  divine 
self-manifestation.  This  is  a  valuable  conception,  and  capable 
of  a  very  comprehensive  statement.  The  manifestation  of  the 
Son  of  God  may  in  fact  be  called  the  only  miracle,  and  all  other 
miracles  are  but  sparkles  from  that  one  great  conflagration, 
attendants  upon  and  truly  parts  of  it.  It  is  the  one  antithesis 
to  nature.  The  antecedent  miracles  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
premonitory  sparks  of  that  divine  Presence;  those  of  the  New 
Testament  were  its  direct  effects  and  issues.  If  the  Divine 
must  come  not  only  into  the  physical,  but  the  human  world,  there 
must  be  an  incarnation  ;  if  he  is  to  be  transcendently  human, 
there  must  be  the  subiimest  of  suffering  and  death ;  if  he  must 
die  and  yet  be  manifest  as  divine,  there  must  be  a  resurrection 
and  an  ascension. 

A  Hutory  of  ChritUan  Doetrine$.  By  the  late  Dr.  R.  R  Haoknbacr,  Professor 
of  Theology  at  Basel  Translated  from  the  Fifth  and  Last  German  Edition, 
with  Additions  from  Other  Sources.  With  an  Introduction  by  E.  W.  Plumtre, 
D.D.,  Professor  of  Divinity  in  King's  College,  London ;  Examining  Ghaplain  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Vol.  11,  8vo,  pp.  466.  Edinburgh :  T.  &  T.  Clark, 
88  George-street.    1880.    [Scribner*s  specially  hnported  edition,  price  $8.] 

The  present  volume  of  this  valuable  work  covers  the  great  and  im- 
portant historic  space  between  the  death  of  Origen  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  Protestantism,  extending  from  A.  D.  254  to  1720. 
It,  therefore,  portrays  the  rise  of  systematic  theology,  producing 
gradually  the  formation  of  the  scholasticism  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  finding  its  termination,  or  at  least  its  downfall,  in  the  Jie- 
naissance.  The  author  divides  the  contents  of  the  volume  into 
three  periods:  the  Age  of  Polemics,  or  discussion;  of  Systematic 
Theology;  and,  at  the  Reformation,  of  Polemico-Ecclesiastical 
Symbolism. 

It  is  a  matter  of  great  interest,  as  well  as  a  necessary  equip- 
ment for  a  veritable  theologian,  to  trace  the  progess  of  Christian 
thought  through  the  Christian  ages.  That  thought  flows  like  a 
mighty  Mississippi  through  nearly  two  millenniums.    If  the  im- 


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668  Methodist   QitoHierly  Review.  fJulj, 

mediate  details  sometimes  present  puerilities  or  eccentricities^ 
yet  the  great  body  of  doctrine,  being  the  doctrine  which  forms 
that  Christianity  which  has  created  so  wonderful  a  Christendom 
as  we  have,  is  as  a  whole  so  grandly  consistent  in  its  substance 
and  so  majestic  in  its  flow  as  to  raise  a  profound  and  rational 
-fonder.  The  great  outlines  of  doctrine,  held  by  the  Greek,  the 
Roman,  and  Anglican  Churches,  wonderfully  coincide,  forming 
an  orthodox  system,  excluding  temporary  heresies,  and  enabling 
us  to  feel  a  security  in  being  based  upon,  or,  at  least,  not  wan- 
dering far  from,  the  fundamentals  of  the  general  Church.  Hence 
a  hearty  mental  embracement  of  Dogmatic  History  is  a  great 
regulator  of  our  individual  faith,  giving  us  stability  of  belief, 
and  enabling  us  to  view  new  inventions  in  theology  with  a 
healthful  skepticism. 

Able  as  this  work  is,  and  standing  practically  almost  alone  for 
the  student  of  our  day,  we  view  it  as  in  some  degree  provisional. 
History,  like  commentary,  is  often  colored  by  the  spectacles  of 
the  historian;  and  quite  often  the  hues  of  Hagenbach's  glasses 
are  thrown  upon  his  pages.  A  history  with  a  different,  if  not  a 
neutral,  tint,  will,  we  trust,  some  day  appear,  rising  from  a  dif- 
ferent theological  quarter. 


The  AfigeU  of  GocL  By  Lewis  R.  Dunn,  D.D.,  author  of  "  The  Mission  of  the 
Spirit,"  etc.  Small  12mo,  pp.  295.  New  York:  Phillips  &  Hunt;  Cmcinnati: 
Walden  &  Stowe.    1881. 

Within  the  limits  of  Scripture  mainly  Dr.  Dunn  brings  together 
the  various  indications  that  form  our  idea  of  the  angels.  It  is 
an  attractive  subject,  appealing  to  our  higher  powers  of  imagina- 
tion, and  furnishing  to  the  writer  ample  scope  for  beautiful 
thought  in  beautiful  words.  He  unfolds  to  our  view  their  origin, 
form,  powers,  names,  orders,  number,  and  employments.  Then 
he  discusses  the  dark  and  weird  topic  of  the  fallen  angels,  Satan, 
demons,  and  demoniacs.  There  are  those  among  us  who  ask, 
How  is  it  that  in  our  day  the  angels  have  so  gone  up  into  the 
upper  heaven  that  they  are  never  seen?  And  in  the  present 
current  supematuralisms,  including  not  only  the  phenomena  of 
spiritualism,  but  the  system  of  second  sight,  wraiths,  and  appari- 
tions, they  are  never  matters  of  even  imaginary  experience  at 
the  present  day.  Probably  the  angels  do  not  associate  with  such 
company.  But,  in  the  matter  of  a  purer  and  more  blessed  expe- 
rience. Dr.  Dunn  gives  us  cheering  mention  of  angelic  revelations 
to  dying  saints  even  in  our  own  day. 


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188L]  Qua^terh/  Book-Table.  669 

dreumttarUitU  Bvidence»  of  ChritHanity.  By  Danul  Caret.  Cincinnati :  Wal- 
den  k  Btowe ;  New  Tork :  Phillips  k  Hunt    1881. 

The  common  method  with  writers  on  the  "Evidences"  is  to  con- 
nect their  argument  with  some  particular  theory  of  inspiration, 
and  to  identify  the  truth  of  Christianity  with  the  verbal  infalli- 
bility of  the  Bible.  To  some  thinkers,  however,  it  seems  to  be 
becoming  the  preferable  view  that  Christianity  depends  not  on  the 
formal  perfection  of  the  record,  but  on  the  substantial  truth  of 
its  leading  facts.  The  work  in  hand  is  written  from  this  stand- 
point. The  author  finds  certain  undoubted  facts  in  the  history 
of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  which  find  their  explana- 
tion only  in  the  essential  truth  of  the  Christian  system.  Thejvrork 
is  not  profound  enough  for  scholars,  but  would  be  useful  for  its 
own  class  of  thinkers. 

I  9 

The  Christ.  Seyen  Lectures.  By  EBNm  Katillb.  Translated  from  the  French. 
Edinburgh :  T.  &  T.  Clark.  1880.  [New  Tork :  Scribner's  spedally  imported 
edition.    Price  $2.] 

The  idea  of  these  Lectures  is  that  Christ  is  Christianity,  and 
that  all  discussion  of  the  divinity  of  Christianity  must  center 
around  Christ  himself.  Christ  is  presented  in  the  several  rela* 
tions  of  Teacher,  Comforter,  Redeemer,  Legislator,  and  Lord. 
The  aim  is  to  show  that  in  all  these  relations  Christ  appears  as 
something  new  and  divine.  There  is  a  break  of  historical  con- 
tinuity and  a  corresponding  historical  effect,  which  can  be  ac- 
counted for  on  the  assumption  that  a  new  life  had  come  down 
from  above.  The  argument  is  briefly  presented,  owing  to  con- 
ditions of  the  lecture-plan,  but  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  sug- 
gestive and  valuable.         ^ 

The  Brotherhood  of  Men ;  or,  Christian  Geology.  By  Rev.  William  TJnbwortb. 
Published  for  the  Author  at  the  Weeleyan  Conference  Offioa    London.    1881. 

The  author  aims  to  expound  the  duties  of  the  Christian  as  a 
member  of  society.  An  extreme  individuaUsm  and  subjectiv- 
ism have  prevailed  in  religious  thought  and  have  largely  banished 
the  idea  of  social  duties  from  the  popular  mind.  All  the  more 
necessary  is  it  to  insist  upon  the  fact  that  society  itself  is  a 
moral  institution,  and  that  the  moral  task  must  include  the  effort 
to  make  all  social  and  political  forms  and  relations  concrete  ex- 
pressions of  moral  ideas.  Ethics  claim  not  only  the  inner  purpose, 
but  also  the  whole  realm  of  outward  manifestation.  The  book 
in  hand  will  be  found  useful  in  giving  one  an  idea  of  the  work 
required  and  of  its  difficulty  and  importance. 


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570  Methodist  Qicarterly  Review.  [July, 

ToungWorkeri  in  the  Church;  or,  The  Training  and  Omnization  of  Tonng  Peo- 
ple for  Christian  Activity.  By  Rey.  T.  B.  Niilt,  A.  M.  With  an  Introduotion 
by  Bishop  Matthiw  Simpson.  Small  12mo,  pp.  218.  New  York :  Fhillips  k 
Hunt ;  Cincinnati :  Walden  k  Stowe.     1881. 

This  is  a  small  but  spirited  book  on  a  great  subject.  There  are 
few  problems  of  greata*  practical  importance  than  that  of  bring- 
ing the  Church  of  Christ  into  a  spirit  and  state  of  general  and 
individual  activity  and  enterprise.  This  is  the  true  hope  of  the 
world  for  spiritual  success  and  ultimate  salvation.  Mr.  Neely's 
book  is  an  admirable  contribution  to  this  end.  He  means  busi- 
ness not  only  for  a  whole,  but  for  every  individual  member  of 
the  Church  not  incapacitated.  He  has  studied  the  subject  in  its 
minute  details  and  practical  bearings.  He  aims  not  only  to 
quicken  the  spirit,  but  to  show  the  way.  It  is  a  book  for  pastors, 
for  officials,  and  especially  for  every  young  person  entering  the 
Christian  life. 

ChrUtianUi/'s  ChaUenffty  and  same  Phassa  of  Christianity^  submitted  for  Candid 
Consideration.  By  Key.  Herrick  Johnson,  D.D.  12mo,  pp.  269.  Chicago: 
Cufihing,  Thomas,  k  Co.     1881. 

With  something  of  the  air  of  an  official  champion  Dr.  Johnson 
takes  stand  on  the  summit  of  the  pedestal  of  Christianity,  and 
issues  his  ^'challenge"  to  the  opposing  hosts.  He  is  a  positive 
aggressor;  puts  them  on  the  defense,  and  threatens  them  with 
rout.  Based  upon  Christianity's  book,  Christianity's  Christ, 
Christianity's  definite  gospel,  a  Christianity  above  failure,  a 
Christianity  presenting  the  alternatives  of  eternal  death  and  eter- 
nal life,  he  affirms  that  Christianity  is  the  highest  source  of  happi- 
ness, and  the  surest  guide  in  the  business  of  life.  The  argument 
is  bold,  impressive,  and  well  sustained.  The  book  would  be  a 
fine  present  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  any  thoughtful  but  waver- 
ing person. 

•        ■ 

Th$  061dm  Dawn;  or,  Light  on  the  Great  Future,  in  this  Life,  through  the 
Dark  Valley,  and  in  the  lAte  Eternal,  as  seen  in  the  Best  Thoughts  of  over  three 
hundred  leading  Authors  and  Scholars.  Illustrated.  By  Rev.  J.  H.  Potts,  Ed- 
itor of  "  Christian  Advocate,"  Detroit;  author  of  "  Pastor  and  People,"  etc.  8vo, 
pp.  608.    Philadelphia  and  Chicago :  P.  W.  Ziegler  k  Co.     1880. 

In  spite  of  its  somewhat  sensational  title,  Mr.  Potts  has  given  us 
a  valuable  book  on  the  most  momentous  points  of  human  destiny. 
His  topics  are,  in  series.  Death,  The  Dying,  Immortality,  The 
Millennium  and  Second  Advent,  The  Resurrection  of  the  Dead, 
The  General  Judgment,  The  Punishment  of  the  Wicked,  and 
The  Reward  of  the  Righteous.  On  these  themes  he  has,  in  suc- 
cessive chapters,  brought  together  a  selection  of  the  best  thoughts 


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1881 J  QaaHerVy  Book-TcMe.  671 

of  eminent  tbinkerSy  so  that  we  have  the  doctrines  of  the  Church, 
expressed  in  choicest  language,  by  her  best  expositors,  on  the 
final  things.  It  will  be  interesting  and  salutary  reading  for  both 
theologians  and  popular  readers. 


The  Methodist  Office  Bearer,  June,  1881.    Terms,  60  cents  a  year  in  advance. 
Svo,  pp.  96.    Detroit,  Mich. :  Methodist  Book  Depository.    John  Willyoung. 

The  issuing  a  periodical  devoted  to  the  discipline  and  organic 
operations  of  our  Church  was  a  happy  thought,  and,  well  carried 
out,  may  produce  many  valuable  results.  To  our  ministers  it 
brings  information,  suggestions,  and  reminders,  w6ll  calculated 
to  stimulate  and  direct  in  practical  action.  The  present  number 
embraces  valuable  paragraphs  on  the  General  Rules,  the  Arti- 
cles of  Faith,  the  work  of  the  ministry  and  of  the  officiary,  and 
Sunday-schools.  The  enterprising  editor.  Rev.  J.  H.  Potts,  has 
done  it  up  externally  in  fine  taste,  in  a  form  well-fitted  for  bind- 
ing, and  suggesting  that  its  volumes  will  be  a  future  depository 
of  ecclesiastical  facts  and  principles. 


Philosophy^  Metaphysics^  amd  Oeneral  Sdenoe. 

lUand  Life;  or,  The  Phenomena  and  Causes  of  Insular  Faunas  and  Floras ;  includ- 
ing a  ReTision  and  attempted  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  Oeological  Climates. 
By  Alfred  Russkl  Wallace,  author  of  ^*  The  Oeographical  Distribution  of  Ani- 
mals,*' etc.    8yo,  pp.  xvi,  622.    New  York :  Harper  i  Brothers. 

It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Wallace  might  justly  dispute  with 
Mr.  Darwin  the  honor  of  having  originated  the  now  very  famous 
theory  of  development  by  natural  selection.  As  an  author  he 
became  known  by  his  work  on  the  "Malay  Archipelago,"  and  (in 
1870)  his  "  Contribution  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection ;"  and, 
about  four  years  ago,  he  gave  to  the  world  his  two  substantial 
volumes  on  "  The  Geographical  Distribution  of  Animals,"  a  work 
worthy  to  be  placed  alongside  of  those  of  Darwin  and  Lyell  in  the 
field  of  biological  and  geological  research.  The  present  volume 
is,  as  the  author  tells  us  in  his  Preface,  designed  to  be  supple- 
mentary to  this  last-named  work,  and  to  be  of  a  more  popular 
character.  It  may  be  regarded,  however,  as  in  fact  a  more  delib- 
erate and  matured  expression  of  Mr.  Wallace's  views  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  present  island  faunas  and  floras  of  the  globe — the 
tracing  ba^k  of  them  to  their  original  ancestors,  and  an  explana- 
tion of  how  they  became  what  they  are,  and  where  they  are.    The 


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673  Methodist  QiuxHerly  Reinew.  Uuly, 

appearance  of  a  South  American  species  in  the  {ax-off  islands  of 
the  Indian  Ocean,  or  of  the  plants  of  Great  Britain  in  the  island 
of  Japan,  was  naturally  pointed  to  by  the  opponents  of  evolution 
as  an  insurmountable  objection  in  the  way  of  that  theory.  They 
found  the  barn-owl  {Strix  flammed)  in  countries  the  most  remote 
from  each  other;  the  osprey,  or  fishing-hawk,  at  once  in  Brazil, 
South  Africa,  the  Malay  Islands,  and  Tasmania;  and  the  raven 
extending  from  the  Arctic  regions  to  Texas  and  New  Mexico,  as 
well  as  to  India  and  Lake  Baikal  in  Asia.  We  and  they  were 
naturally  driven  to  infer  that  the  same  specific  form  had,  on  the 
theory  of  development,  been  produced  in  different  parts  of  the 
world.  Yet  more  perplexing  is  it  to  find  two  species  of  the  ser- 
pentine amphibia,  CcBcilia  oxyura  and  CascUia  rostrate^  in  the 
Seychelles  Islands,  and,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  these  species  on 
the  Malabar  coast,  and  the  other  in  West  Africa  and  South 
America.  We  find  the  same  fact  illustrated  in  connection  with 
the  dispersion  of  plants.  Identical  plants  appear  in  Scandinavia, 
in  India,  in  New  South  Wales,  in  New  Zealand,  and  in  Iceland. 
Thirty-nine  species  of  the  plants  of  New  Zealand  are  identical 
with  species  found  in  Europe,  and  there  are  eleven  species  com- 
mon to  New  Zealand  and  South  America. 

Lyell  and  recent  English  geologists  got  over  these  difficulties 
by  boldly  affirming  that  during  the  vast  periods  of  geological 
time  the  existing  continents  and  ocean-basins  of  the  globe  have, 
more  than  once,  changed  places,  and  that  continental  areas  have 
stretched  across  the  widest  seas.  But  Mr.  Wallace  joins  issue 
with  the  school  of  Lyell  on  this  point,  and  undertakes  to  prove, 
by  incontestable  facts,  that  the  existing  continents  were  out- 
lined from  the  beginning,  as  long  ago  taught  by  Professor  Dana, 
and  that  the  waters  have  rolled  over  the  "  deep  unf athomed  caves 
of  ocean"  from  the  most  remote  period.  It  becomes  necessary, 
therefore,  for  Mr.  Wallace  to  explain  the  wide  distribution  of 
genera  and  species  on  other  grounds;  and  this  he  undertakes  to 
accomplish,  in  part,  by  showing  that,  while  there  was  no  conti- 
nental extension  between  two  such  remote  areas,  for  example,  as 
Madagascar  and  the  Malay  Archipelago,  there  has  existed  in 
times,  more  or  less  remote,  a  chain  of  considerable  islands  con- 
necting Southern  Africa  and  Southern  Asia.  Even  this  would 
involve  upheavals  of  the  ocean  bottom  to  the  extent  of  a  thousand 
fathoms. 

We  have  in  this  connection  an  incidental  discussion  of  the 
existence  in  tertiary  times  of  the  supposed  Zemurian  continent 


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1881.]  Quarts  Book-TabU.  573 

between  Madagascar  and  the  Indian  peninBnla.  By  many  argu- 
ments, and  especially  appealing  to  the  results  obtained  by  the 
recent  deep-sea  soundings,  it  is  shown,  that  no  such  continental 
area  existed  in  tertiary  times ;  and  the  significance  of  this  be- 
comes apparent  when  we  remember  that  it  is  on  the  existence  of 
this  continent  that  many  evolutionists  rely  in  order  to  connect 
man  with  the  lower  animals.  It  is  in  the  rocks  of  this  sunken 
continent,  they  allege,  that  we  should  find  the  missing  links  be- 
tween man  and  the  apes,  if  we  could  have  access  to  its  paleon- 
tological  treasures ;  for  here,  they  tell  us,  was  the  special  habitat 
of  the  anthropomorphous  apes.  With  the  annihilation  of  this 
fancy,  and  in  view  of  the  entire  absence  of  all  such  links  in  the 
tertiary  beds  of  the  existing  continents,  the  advocates  of  the  deri- 
vation of  man  from  lower  animal  forms  are  left  entirely  without 
any  evidence  of  the  fact ;  and  there  the  matter  rests.  Mr.  Wal- 
lace, it  is  well  known,  has  never  pushed  the  theory  of  develop- 
ment so  as  to  include  our  homo  sapiens. 

The  first  part  of  the  present  work  applies  itself  to  the  estab- 
lishment and  mapping  out  of  the  different  '^zoological  regions;" 
the  "Palearctic,"  the  "Ethiopian,"  the  "Oriental,"  etc.  The 
author  then  proceeds  to  show  that  the  existence  of  these  zoolog- 
ical provinces  is  the  necessary  result  of  the  "law  of  evolution" — 
tracing  the  origin,  growth,  and  decay  of  species  and  genera.  The 
next  subject  considered  is  the  means  by  which  the  various  groups 
of  animals  are  enabled  to  overcome  the  natural^  barriers  which 
often  seem  to  limit  them  to  very  restricted  areas,  and  what  are 
the  exact  nature  and  amount  of  the  changes  of  sea  and  land  ex- 
perienced by  the  earth  in  past  ages.  The  author  then  takes  up 
the  consideration  of  the  set  of  changes — ^those  of  climate — which 
have  probably  been  agents  of  the  first  importance  in  modifying 
specific  forms  and  in  the  dispersion  of  animals.  Three  chapters, 
in  this  connection,  are  devoted  to  the  Causes  of  Glacial  Epochs. 
Here  the  author  finds  only  two  explanations  suggested,  which 
seem  tenable ;  and  while  adopting  generally  Mr.  CroU's  views  as 
to  the  causes  of  the  "  glacial  epoch,"  he  introduces  certain  limita- 
tions and  modifications  of  that  theory.  From  this  examination 
the  important  conclusion  is  reached  that  the  alternate  phases  of 
precession — causing  the  winter  in  each  hemisphere  to  be  in 
aphelion  and  perihelion  each  10,500  years — would  produce  a 
complete  change  of  climate  only  where  (t  country  was  partially 
snow-clad;  while,  whenever  a  large  area  became  almost  toholfy 
buried  in  snow  and  ice,  as  was  certainly  the  case  with  Northern 


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574  Methodist  QaaHerhy  Remew.  [July, 

Europe  during  the  glacial  epoch,  then  the  glacial  conditions 
would  be  continued,  and  perhaps  even  intensified,  when  the  sun 
approached  nearest  the  earth  in  winter,  instead  of  there  being  at 
that  time,  as  Mr.  Croll  maintains,  an  almost  perpetual  spring. 
With  regard  to  the  existence  of  glacial  epochs  in  earlier  times  it  is 
shown  that  Mr.  Croll's  views  are  opposed  by  a  vast  body  of  facts. 

The  general  conclusion  is  reached  that  geographical  conditions 
are  the  primary  cause  of  great  changes  of  climate,  and  that  the 
radically  different  distribution  of  land  and  sea  in  the  northern 
and  southern  hemispheres  has  generally  led  to  great  diversity  of 
climate  in  the  arctic  and  antarctic  regions.  It  is  only  in  recent 
times  that  the  great  northern  continents  have  become  so  com- 
pletely consolidated  as  they  at  present  are,  so  as  to  shut  out  the 
warm  water  from  their  interiors,  and  render  possible  a  wide-spread 
and  intense  glacial  epoch.  But  this  great  climatic  change  was 
actually  brought  about  by  the  high  eccentricity  which  occurred 
about  200,000  years  ago.  It  is,  thus,  the  concurrence  of  the  astro- 
nomical causes  with  the  geographical  revolutions  which  has  re- 
sulted in  bringing  about  glacial  conditions.  The  glacial  age 
lasted,  we  are  told,  about  120,000  years,  and  closed  about  80,000 
years  ago. 

Mr.  Wallace  proceeds  then  to  one  of  the  most  interesting  dis- 
cussions in  the  volume — ^geological  time  as  bearing  on  the  devel- 
opment of  the  organic  world.  Geologists  in  the  past  have  gen- 
erally represented  that  geological  time  had  to  be  measured  by 
hundreds  of  millions  rather  than  by  millions  of  years.  We  be- 
lieve that  Mr.  Darwin  estimated  that  the  denudation  of  the 
weald  alone  demanded  more  than  300,000,000  of  years.  Geol- 
ogists have  dwelt  continually  on  the  slowness  of  the  processes  of 
upheaval  and  subsidence,  of  denudation,  and  of  the  deposition  of 
strata;  while,  on  the  theory  of  development,  as  expounded  by 
Mr.  Darwin,  the  variation  and  modification  of  organic  forces  is 
also  exceedingly  slow.  Most  geologists  regarded  the  estimate  of 
Sir  Charles  Lyell,  of  240,000,000  of  years  since  the  Cambrian 
period,  as  very  moderate;  and  Mr.  Darwin,  in  his  "Origin  of 
Species,"  remarks,  that  before  the  Cambrian  period  commenced 
long  periods  had  elapsed — probably  far  longer  than  the  whole  in- 
terval from  the  Cambrian  age  to  the  present  day.  Professor 
Huxley  has  expressed  himself  in  terms  equally  strong  as  to  the 
enormous  periods  which  are  required  for  the  development  of  the 
higher  forms  of  life;  and  Mr.  Wallace  remarks,  that,  according  to 
these  views,  "the  date  of  the  commencement  of  life  on  the  earth 


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1881.1  Qu4jiHerh/ Book'TiMe.  675 

cannot  be  less  than  600,000,000  of  years."  On  the  other  hand, 
physicists  pointed  out  that  the  earth  must  once  have  been  too  hot 
to  support  life;  while  the  friction  of  the  tides  is  checking  the 
earth's  rotation,  and  this  cannot  have  gone  on  indefinitely  without 
making  our  day  much  longer  than  it  is.  A  limit  is  therefore  placed 
to  the  age  of  the  habitable  earth;  and  it  was  argued  that  the  time 
so  allowed  was  much  too  short  for  the  long  processes  of  the  geol- 
ogists and  biologists.  Mr.  Wallace  undertakes  to  demonstrate, 
that  no  such  enormous  periods  are  required.  The  rate  of  denuda- 
tion, he  says,  has  been  recently  approximately  measured;  and  if, 
then,  we  take  the  maximum  thickness  of  the  known  sedimentary 
rocks  to  represent  the  average  thickness  of  aU  the  sedimentary 
rocks,  and  we  know  also  the  amount  of  sediment  carried  to  the 
sea,  and  the  area  on  which  that  sediment  is  spread,  we  have  a 
means  of  calculating  the  time  required  for  the  building  up  of  all 
the  sedimentary  rocks  of  the  geological  system.  The  mean  rate 
of  denudation  over  the  whole  earth  is  about  one  foot  in  three 
thousand  years ;  therefore  the  rate  of  m^aacimum,  deposition  (de- 
position going  on  as  compared  with  denudation  in  the  ratio  of 
19  to  1,)  will  be  at  least  nineteen  feet  in  the  same  time  ;  and  as 
the  total  maximum  thickness  of  all  the  stratified  rocks  of  the 
globe,  according  to  Professor  Haughton,  is  177,200  feet,  the  time 
required  to  produce  this  thickness  of  rock,  at  the  present  rate  of 
denudation  and  deposition,  is  only  28,000,000  years — a  consider- 
able reduction  on  Lyell,  Darwin,  and  Huxley. 

The  author  then  proceeds  to  the  discussion  of  a  series  of  typical 
insular  faunas  and  floras,  with  a  view  to  explain  the  phenomena 
they  present,  and  in  a  number  of  chapters  passes  in  review  the 
faunas  and  floras  of  the  Azores  and  Bermuda,  St.  Helena  and  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  the  British  Isles,  Borneo  and  Java,  Japan  and 
Formosa,  Madagascar,  Seychelles,  Mauritius,  New  Zealand,  etc. 

We  have  rather  undertaken  to  present  to  the  reader  an  outline 
of  Mr.  Wallace's  views  than  to  criticise  them.  We  will  only  re- 
mark that  a  great  deal  of  the  book  is  mere  speculation. 

We  need  only  add  that  the  Messrs.  Harper,  in  bringing  out 
this  very  valuable  work,  have  gotten  it  up  in  their  most  attract- 
ive style.  s. 

» 

JUUgum  and  Chemitify.    A  Restatement  of  an  Old  Argament.    By  Josulh  Pab- 
BONS  GooKB.     12mo.,  pp.  881.    New  York :  Gharlea  Scribner^s  Sons.    1880. 

The  first  edition  of  Professor  Cooke's  volume  we  welcomed  from 
the  Scribner  press  twenty  years  ago,  and  we  rejoice  to  see  this 


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576  Methodist  QawrterVy  Heview.  Uuly, 

re-issne,  revised  in  subordinate  points,  brought  down  to  the 
latest  data  of  science,  yet  identical  in  spirit,  purpose,  and  form 
of  the  original  argument.  Most  persons  are  prone  to  hold  chem- 
istry to  be  as  destitute  of  religious  interpretation  as  arithmetic ; 
but  under  Professor  Cooke's  treatment  the  acids  and  the  alkalis, 
the  oxygens  and  the  nitrogens,  all  primordial  nature,  speak  artic- 
ulately for  God. 

The  Atheism  of  the  present  day,  assuming  the  eternity  of  the 
properties  and  laws  of  matter,  claims  that  all  the  phenomena  of 
our  cosmos  are  explained  without  the  need  of  an  antecedent 
Mind.  Professor  Cooke  shows  that  it  is  in  the  very  sum  total  of 
these  properties  and  laws  that  we  must  recognize  Plan;  the  exist- 
ence of  which  can  be  solved  by  nothing  but  antecedent  Mind. 
And  this  touches  upon  the  peculiar  skeptical  effect  of  the  ex- 
clusive pursuit  of  natural  science  upon  the  scientific  intellect. 
The  scientist's  task  is  to  make  his  deductions  solely  from 
premises  within  the  bounds  of  physical  nature.  All  thought  of 
superd^tural  interposition  is  to  be  excluded.  Nay,  the  assump- 
tion of  supernatural  causation  has  so  often  led  astray  from  true 
natural  causation  that  he  has  often  grown  impatient  of  the 
thought  of  a  supernatural,  and  even  of  a  God.  Now  Professor 
Cooke's  view  well  works  a  remedy  for  this  impatience.  It  finds 
Plan,  Design,  Mind,  in  the  primordial  endowing  of  maUer 
with  its  laws  and  properties,  and  thus  secures  the  existence  of 
primordial  Mind  and  yet  leaves  the  scientist  full  range  for  his 
unobstructed  deduction  of  natural  phenomena  from  natural 
causations.  This  by  no  means  excludes  the  recognition  of  a  De- 
sign in  the  infinitely  varied  special  adaptations  in  every  part 
of  nature,  but  rather  elucidates  and  confirms  them.  When  we 
recognize  Design  in  the  primordial  we  will  readily  see  that  all 
the  specialties  are  provided  for,  and  we  have  a  grand  view  of 
the  whole  as  a  sublime  Unit.  So  that  when  we  are  sarcastically 
asked.  Is  india  rubber  made  for  us  to  rub  out  pencil  marks  ?  Is 
the  quill  put  into  the  wing  of  a  goose  for  us  to  write  with  ?  Are 
lamp-black  and  oil  purposely  endowed  in  order  to  make  printer's 
ink  ?  we  reply  very  promptly.  Yes,  Divine  prescience  foreknows 
the  minutest  needs  of  free  agents,  and  divine  predestination  ad- 
justs the  properties  of  nature  by  a  Plan  which  (as  Pope  says) 

Binding  nature  fast  in  fate 
Lets  froe  the  human  will. 

In  tracing  the  divine  Plan  which  reigns  throughout  the  pri- 
mordial system,  showing  how  oxygen  and  water  and  carbon  and 


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1881.1  QuaHerhf  Book-Table.  577 

nitrogen,  play  their  respectiye  parts  in  the  drama  of  nature, 
oar  professor  displays  great  freshness  and  lucidity  of  style. 
Seldom  have  the  fascinating  mysteries  of  nature  been  laid  open 
more  clearly  to  the  popular  eye.  Albeit  you  know  little  or  noth- 
ing of  chemistry,  open  the  pages  of  his  book  with  an  eager  mind 
and  you  will  wonder,  when  you  are  done,  how  much  you  do  know 
of  the  various  windings  by  which  nature  adapts  herself  to  an 
infinite  variety  of  apparently  casual  needs.  You  are  delighted 
to  find  the  slightest  minutiae  of  life  fastened  by  threads  of  in- 
finite length  back  to  the  Primordial  Origin. 

One  spurious  reconciliation  of  science  with  Scripture  by  the 
professor  we  must,  however,  reject.  He  makes  science  accord 
with  tKe  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  by  really  ex- 
punging that  resurrection  from  the  Scripture,  and  substituting  a 
something  else  which  is  not  a  resurrection.  Surely  the  creating 
and  interpolating  a  new  body  in  place  of  our  mortal  and  dying  body 
is  not  a  resurrection  of  the  dying  body.  And  really  so  far  from 
his  successfully  refuting  the  doctrine  of  a  true  resurrection,  we  can 
find  in  the  professor's  own  beautiful  words  the  most  striking  sci- 
entific illustration  of  our  doctrine.  Says  he,  "Are  you  aware  that 
the  brilliant  gem  you  prize  so  highly  [the  diamond]  is  the  same 
element  as  these  black  coals  ?  The  diamond  is  simply  crystal- 
lized carbon."  Now  our  mortal  bodies  are  as  the  charcoal,  and 
our  resurrection  bodies  are  as  the  diamonds.  A  charcoal  could 
be  transformed  particle  for  particle  by  mere  rearrangement  into 
a  diamond.  So  a  dead  human  body  could  be  divinely  trans- 
formed, particle  for  particle,  by  mere  rearrangement  into  a  glo- 
rified body.  In  the  transformation  of  the  charcoal  to  the  dia- 
mond, the  diamond  is  the  same  with  the  charcoal  in  substance, 
it  is  different  in  properties  and  powers.  So  in  the  resurrection 
the  glorified  body  is  the  same  in  substance  as  the  dead  body;  it 
is  different  in  properties  and  powers.    It  is  aUer  et  idem. 

Our  professor  then  goes  on  to  unfold  that  wonderful  "  allot- 
rbpism "  so-called;  wonderful  to  even  scientific  men;  by  which 
the  same  substance  or  aggregate  of  particles,  undergoes  by  a 
change  of  arrangement  a  new  set  of  properties.  His  unf  oldings 
are  all  to  our  point.  Carbon  may  be  either  charcoal,  graphite  or 
diamond.  Our  bodily  resurrection  similarly  is  simply  an  "  allot- 
ropism."  At  his  transfiguration  the  body  of  Jesus  underwent 
an  allotropic  glorifying  change.  It  was  the  same  in  substance  in 
that  glorification  as  it  was  in  its  normal  state.  It  was  alter  et  idem. 
The  dead  body  of  our  Lord  underwent  a  similar  allotropic  change. 


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578  Methodist  Qua/rterhf  Review.  [July, 

The  material  frame  put  on  immortality  and  ascended,  a  glorified 
body,  to  the  right  hand  of  God.  Nor  should  a  writer  who  so 
splendidly  portrays  the  glorious  possibilities  of  matter  as  our 
author  stumble  at  even  this  apotheosis  of  the  God-man's  body. 

The  professor  holds  the  resurrection  to  be  contradiction  to  the 
scientific  fact  that  our  bodies  are  changed  in  substance  at  least 
once  a  year.  This  year's  body  is  entirely  new;  similar  in  form 
but  different  in  substance  from  last  year's  body.  But  the  suc- 
cessional  changes  in  the  body  do  not  affect  the  question  so  long 
as  we  admit  the  great  principle  of  the  indestructibility  of  mat- 
ter, and  understand  that  it  is  the  frame  which  dies  that  rises 
again.  And  here  again  we  find  not  contradiction  but  illustration. 
Just  as  this  year's  body  takes  the  last  year's  body  and  carries  it 
into  a  formal  continuance,  so  the  resurrection  goes  to  the  body 
that  has  died,  takes  up  its  particles,  and  carries  it  into  a  glorified 
continuance.  There  is  corporeal  continuance  in  both  cases;  con- 
tinuance by  identity  of  form  and  variation  of  substance  in  one 
case;  ^continuance  by  identity  of  substance  and  variance  of  prop- 
erties in  the  other  case.  In  both  cases  we  have  a  continuance 
with  a  variation;  an  idem  and  an  aUer.  There  is,  indeed,  in  the 
allotropism  of  the  resurrection  a  long  break;  an  interval  in  which 
the  charcoal  is  scattered  to  the  four  winds  and  has  to  be  re-col- 
lected when  the  diamond  change  is  ready.  That  interval  is  a 
violent,  and,  as  we  may  say,  an  unnatural  one.  It  was  introduced 
by  sin.  In  his  higher  unfallen  nature  man  would  have  passed, 
unchanged  in  substance,  into  his  transcendent  ^tate.  He  might 
have  grovyti  into  the  now  resurrection  state  by  a  gradual  "allot- 
ropism," and  that  allotropism,  like  the  allotropism  so  well  de- 
scribed in  nature  by  our  author,  would  have  been  a  change  not 
of  corporeal  particles,  but  of  corporeal  properties.  And  so  at 
the  coming  of  Christ  the  living  undergo  a  change;  not  merely 
by  a  substitution  of  new  bodies,  but  by  putting  upon  their  "  mor- 
tal "  the  properties  of  "  immortality."  It  will  be  what  our  pro- 
fessor well  understands  as  an  "  allotropic  "  change. 

We  have  elsewhere  (in  our  note  to  1  Cor.  xv)  put  a  question 
which  we  here  repeat ;  repeat  with  emphasis,  because  it  has 
never  been  answered ;  and  we  believe  has  no  answer.  When  the 
undressed  spirit  is  to  appear  before  the  judgment- seat  of  Christ, 
all,  even  our  professor,  admit  that  it  is  to  be  invested  with  a 
body.  From  the  surrounding  universe  the  elements  must  collect 
in  corporeal  accretion  around  that  spirit.  TPXy,  then^  under  the 
povoer  of  Gody  may  it  not  be  the  elements  of  that  frame  which  toas 


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1881.]  QuaHetly  Booh'TaUe.  579 

dissolved  at  death,  which  shaU  again  form  around  that  same  spirit. 
Just  as  easily  as  any  other  elements  f  Our  professor  has  not  in  his 
Lectures  unfolded  the  wonders  of  Magnetism.  Had  he  done  so 
we  should  have  thenoe  drawn  another  illustration  of  the  molecu- 
lar identity  of  the  body  at  death  and  the  body  of  the  resurrection. 
Between  the  soul  and  its  forsaken  molecules  there  may  exist  a 
quasi-magnetic  attraction.  At  the  sublime  instant,  every  individ- 
ual particle,  whether  at  the  farthest  pole,  or  at  the  antipodes, 
feels  the  irresistible  draw  and  in  an  eye-twinkle  assumes  its  proper 
place  in  the  new  incorporation.  And,  in  obedience  to  this  final 
attraction  every  particle  of  one  body  at  death  may  be  secured  or 
withdrawn  from  incorporation  with  another  dying  body ;  so  that 
all  resurrection  bodies  shall  be  separate  and  individual.  This 
spiritual  magnetic  attraction  is  not  more  wonderful  than  gravita- 
tion. It  is  not  more  wonderful  than  the  various  specific  cohe- 
sions that  hold  each  body  if  organic  unity;  not  half  so  wonderful 
as  those  powerful,  infinitely  varied,  elective  affinities  so  vividly 
described  in  these  Lectures.  • 

Our  professor  excels  in  quotation  of  beautifying  texts,  but  not 
in  his  application  of  proof -texts.  Thus  he  says,  "  the  apostle  de- 
clares that  this  body  is  not  the  body  that  shall  be."  Certainly 
not,  we  reply,  for  it  now  "  is  "  charcoal,  and  it  "  shall  be  diamond." 
"  Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God ; "  no  more 
than  charcoal  can  adorn  the  queen's  coronet.  "This  mortal 
must  put  on  immortality;"  but,  according  to  the  professor,  "this 
mortal"  is  to  be  scattered. through  the  universe  and  abandoned 
to  eternal  dissolution.  It  is  never  to  have  resurrection.  The 
"  immortality "  is  to  be  worn  by  a  newly  created  body  that 
never  was  "mortal."  But  he  omits  one  text  often  quoted  by 
deniers  of  the  resurrection :  "  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  hath 
pleased  him;"  namely,  it  "hath  pleased"  God  to  "give  it"  a 
diamond  "  body,"  instead  of  a  charcoal  one. 


Sist&rieal  Studies  in  Church  Bwlding  in  the  Middle  Ages,    Bj  Cha&lbb  Eliot 
Norton.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers. 

In  this  work  Prof.  Norton,  one  of  the  few  accomplished  art  critics 
in  America,  presents  a  most  interesting  historical  account  of  three 
of  the  chief  Italian  cathedrals,  those  of  Venice,  Siena,  and  Florence. 
In  the  first  chapter  he  traces  the  outlines  of  social  and  artistic 
changes  which  marked  the  so-called  dark  ages,  the  transition 
period,  between  classical  and  Christian  civilization.  He  then 
gives  an  account  of  the  civic,  social,  industrial,  and  artistic  life 


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680  MetJiodist  Quo/rterh/  Beview.  [July, 

of  the  three  republics  of  Yenioe,  Siena,  and  Florence,  showing 
how  all  the  elements  of  civilization  in  these  great  medisBval  cities 
found  their  concrete  crystallization  in  the  cathedrals  of  those 
cities.  The  principle  of  the  union  of  Church  and  State  which 
Constantine  imposed  upon  the  Roman  Empire  was  continued  in 
all  the  kingdoms,  republics,  and  free  cities  which  arose  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  empire  in  the  Occident.  The  Christian  Church  was 
one  in  faith  and  organization.  National  life  was  intense,  amid 
the  turbulence  of  the  Middle  Ages,  to  a  degree  and  with  a  sub- 
division which  seems  strange  to  us  in  modem  times.  Italian 
cities,  the  spires  of  whose  cathedrals  were  in  sight  of  each  other, 
and  whose  bells  re-echoed  the  call  to  divine  service  on  holy  days, 
cherished  as  bitter  mutual  hatred  as  do  the  Russians  and  tiie 
Turks  at  the  present  time. 

Before  the  HenaissanoCy  even  more  universally  then  during 
that  period,  a  native  and  natural  love  for  art  pervaded  all 
medisBval  society.  Art  thus  assumed  new  and  original  forms. 
It  was  a  genuine  growth,  not  a  forced  exotic  production.  The 
love  of  the  beautiful,  the  intense  devotion  to  the  Church,  which 
was  not  entirely  free  from  worldly  ambition  and  passions,  and 
the  pride  ii^  the  individual  life  of  the  cities,  all  found  a  common 
meeting  ground  in  the  cathedral  churches.  Here  also  the 
distinguished  patriotic  dead  were  buried,  and  thus  family  ties 
and  affections  were  bound  to  the  central  religious  edifices  of  the 
cities;  and  the  history  of  a  cathedral  in  an  Italian  city  is  thus 
almost  a  history  of  the  city  itself,  or  of  the  republic  of  which  it 
is  the  capital.  The  historian,  the  artist,  and  the  cultured  trav- 
eler in  general,  all  find  in  these  venerable  edifices  most  thrilling 
records  of  human  achievement  in  art,  religion,  and  arms,  and  de- 
light in  unending  retumings  to  these  monumental  shrines. 

Professor  Norton  has  selected  three  cathedral  churches  which 
represent  fully  as  well  as  any  others  in  Italy  the  mode  of  erec- 
tion and  growth  of  these  edifices.  For  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  few  if  any  of  the  great  churches  of  Italy  or  Europe  have 
been  completed  upon  the  plans  of  the  original  designs.  The 
centuries  that  passed  from  the  laying  of  their  foundation  stones 
to  their  completion  witnessed  many  variations  in  the  fortunes 
and  weal  of  the  cities,  and  great  changes  in  the  artistic  spirit  and 
manner.  The  mode  of  variation  in  architectural  style  of  these 
three  great  cathedrals  is  traced  with  delicacy  and  force.  The 
change  of  design  for  the  covering  of  the  Cathedral  of  Florence, 
the  bold  work  of  Brunelleschi  in  building  the  Renaissance  dome 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-TcMe.  581 

over  the  Qothic  vaults,  the  friendly  rivalry  among  artists  for 
the  commission  for  the  gate  of  the  Baptistry,  and  described  with 
skill  and  power,  giving  firm  insight  into  the  ctpirit  of  the  stirring 
ages  when  the  arts  achieved  so  great  and  memorable  triumphs. 
The  noble  pulpit  of  the  Cathedral  of  Siena,  the  tower  of  Giotto 
in  Florence,  the  mosaics  of  St.  Mark's,  also  are  portrayed  with  a 
masterly  hand. 

Professor  Norton  does  not  venture  a  decisive  opinion  as  to  the 
cause  or  motive  of  the  irregularities  of  construction  in  the  dome 
of  the  Cathedral  of  Siena,  but  inclines,  rather  too  strongly,  we 
think,  to  the  view  that  they  were  intended  to  produce  refined  aes- 
thetic effect  The  irregularities  in  the  Italian  churches  differ  so 
greatly  from  the  refined  variations  of  time  in  the  Parthenon,  that 
we  think  they  can  only  be  attributed  to  the  imperfect  construc- 
tion, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  results  are,  in  some  in- 
stances, exceedingly  picturesque.  The  errors  in  inorganic,  uncon- 
structive  decoration  in  the  Italian  Gothic  churches  are  pointed  out 
with  clearness.  This  and  other  errors  in  many  of  the  great  struct- 
ures of  mediseval  times  should  receive  careful  attention  from 
American  architects,  who  are  so  often  inclined  to  copy  or  imitate 
whatever  has  been  done  in  other  ages  in  art,  as  if  all  is  alike  good, 
because  done  in  a  former  age. 

As  a  whole  this  work  by  Professor  Norton  is  one  of  the  most 
valuable  original  American  contributions  to  critical,  artistic  liter- 
ature, the  department  in  literature  which  is  the  most  meagerly 
represented  in  this  country.  The  author  would  confer  a  favor 
upon  the  public  by  continuing  his  investigations  and  writings  in 
this  direction,  and  giving  a  similar  treatment  to  the  Cathedrals 
of  Milan,  Pisa,  and  Orvieto,  and  to  the  churches  of  Assisi,  Padua, 
Verona,  and  other  Italian  cities*  o. 


The  Relational  Science  and  Reliffum.  The  Horse  Lecture,  1880,  connected  with 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  Tork.  By  Hkmbt  Caldkrwood,  LL.D., 
Professor  of  MonS  Philosophy,  University  of  Edinburgh,  author  of  "  Relations 
of  Mind  and  Brain,'*  etc.  12mo,  pp.  828.  New  York :  Robert  Carter  &  Broth- 
ers.    1881. 

In  his  dissertatory  parts,  on  general  principles.  Dr.  Calderwood 

is  prolix  and  prosy;  but  when  he  comes  to  facts  he  discusses 

them  acutely  and  effectively.     He  is  especially  excellent  on  the 

subjects  of  spontaneous  generation  and  the  relations  of  brain  to 

mind.    Striking  is  the  fact  that  the  brain  of  the  highest  apes 

approach  nearest  to  man,  while  their  intelligence  is  inferior  to 

that  of  bees  and  ants,  which  have  no  brain  at  all. 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 38 


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882  Methodist  Qita/rterhf  Hevieuo.  [July, 


History^  Biography ^  cmd  Topography. 

The  ArUUlavery  StruggU  and  THumph  in  the  Methoditt  Epiaoopal  Church,  Bj 
Rev.  L.  0.  Matlack,  D.D.  With  an  Introduction  by  Rev.  D.  D.  Whkdon,  D.D. 
12mo,  pp.  879.  New  York:  PhiUipa  &  Hunt.  Cincinnati:  Walden  k  Stowe. 
1881. 

Doubtless  the  Philadelphia  Conference,  many  years  ago,  when 
the  mild-spoken  and  courteous  young  Matlack  presented  himself 
for  admission,  took  him  to  be  a  malleable  sort  of  a  gentleman. 
It  was  such  a  purprise  to  find  this  supposed  man  of  wax  to  be  a 
man  of  steel,  that  in  disgust  at  his  metal  it  gave  him  a  walking- 
paper.  He  walked,  but  in  due  time  he  returned.  And  now,  in 
the  same  spirit  of  gentle  firmness,  he  presents  us  the  history  of 
the  great  cause  which  steeled  him  to  temporizing  proposals.  A 
new  generation  has  arisen  which  needs  the  rehearsal  of  that  great 
conflict  and  the  part  which  our  Methodism  acted  in  its  drama. 
Elliott's  monumental  work,  "  The  Great  Secession,"  is  a  store- 
house of  facts  and  documents  well  worth  preservation  ;  but  its 
magnitude,  as  well  as  its  termination  before  the  death  of  slavery, 
leaves  ample  demand  for  a  brief,  clear,  and  impartial  history  of 
the  entire  revolution.  This  Dr.  Matlack  has  well  done.  There 
are  many  who  should  master  thi§  history,  and  there  are  few  who 
take  up  the  work  who  will  not  feel  drawn  by  its  fascination  to 
its^nt^. 

A  first  chapter  gives  the  origin  and  nature  of  slavery,  and  nar- 
rates the  period  of  war  by  Methodism  against  it  in  America, 
which  terminates  in  1800.  Next  the  period  of  the  Methodistic 
toleration  of  slavery,  not  without  agitation,  down  to  1836.  Then 
follow  chapters  of  struggle  and  awakening,  closing  with  the 
Southern  secession  in  1844.  Then  chapters  of  antagonism,  vic- 
tory, and  final  extirpation.  In  a  "glance  at  other  Churches" 
the  verdict  over  the  whole  is,  "  The  comparison  of  records  is 
largely  in  favor  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Forty  years 
of  unqualified  condemnation  of  slavery,  alternated  by  twenty 
years  of  indifference  or  toleration,  is  succeeded  by  twenty  other 
years  of  antislavery  conflict,  which  ultimate  in  extirpation."  That 
memorably  adopted  word  extirpation,  almost  prophetically 
placed  upon  our  record  by  the  fathers  at  the  beginning,  un- 
changeably maintained  through  the  darkest  hours  of  the  invading 
foe,  and  beaming  out  in  the  day  of  victory,  suggests  that  our  tes- 
timony, though  through  a  long  interval  asleep,  was  never  dead. 

Though  rejected  and  proscribed  by  the  Church  of  his  choice, 


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1881.]  QuaHerly  Book -Table.  583 

Dr.  Matlack  did  not,  like  Garrison  and  his  immediate  sympathiz- 
ers, think  it  necessary  to  renounce  his  religion.  Among  the 
original  Methodist  abolition  leaders,  so  far  as  we  can  recollect, 
the  only  such  apostatizer  was  Leroy  Sunderland.  Probably  the 
Methodist  leaders  had  such  internal  consciousness  of  the  reality 
of  their  own  religion  that  they  were  not  overthrown  by  the 
shortcomings  of  others.  In  our  reminiscences  of  the  contests  in 
our  New  York  East  Conference  the  names  of  the  leaders  on 
both  sides  are  still  mentioned  with  unchanged  veneration.  The 
"Conservatives"  were  the  elder  class,  and  have  all  departed; 
such  as  Nathan  Bangs,  Heman  Bangs,  James  H.  Perry,  and 
John  Eennaday,  pure  and  noble  men.  The  antislavery  leaders, 
Floy,  Curry,  Hatfield,  Inskip,  Woodruff,  are  all,  save  the  first, 
still  with  us,  and  the  honors  of  the  Church  bestowed  upon  them 
are  proof  of  her  estimate  of  the  victory. 

Dr.  Matlack  has  been  mistakenly  accused  of  historical  mistakes. 
He  does  not  fail  "  to  note  the  unwritten  law,  that  the  episcopacy 
must  be  kept  free  "  from  slavery.  He  states  that  "  law  "  fully 
and  explicitly,  page  155,  as  source  of  the  great  crisis  which  di- 
vided the  Church. 

The  nature  of  the  action  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844  in 
regard  to  the  secession  seems  to  us  to  be  correctly  stated  by  Dr. 
Matlack,  namely,  as  a  plan  to  take  effect  only  in  case  the  South 
seceded.  He  does,  indeed,  state  that  the  motion  for  appointing 
the  committee  proposed  that  it  "  devise  a  constitutional  plan  for 
division."  But,  when  he  states  the  "  plan  "  actually  devised,  ho 
repeatedly  states  its  conditional  character.  Thus  he  says:  "  A 
plan  was  presented  by  them  to  be  adhered  to  *  in  the  everU  of  a 
separation.^ "  "  All  these  things  were  conditioned  upon  the  oc- 
currence of  a  state  of  things  indicated  thus:  'Should  the  Annual 
Conferences  in  the  slave-holding  States  find  it  necessary  to  unite 
in  a  distinct  ecclesiastical  organization.' "  His  whole  narrative 
shows  that  the  separation  was  understood  to  be,  and  really  waSy  the 
voluntary  act  of  the  South  alone;  though  he  might  have  pointed 
out  more  explicitly  the  care  then  taken  to  throw  the  whole  re- 
sponsibility upon  the  South.  It  was  not  "  a  plan  of  separation," 
but  a  plan  for  our  action  after  the  South  had  made  the  separation. 

Our  historian  shows  his  fairness  in  the  calm  and  clear  manner 
in  which  he  states  the  grounds  taken  by  both  sides.  Our  own 
views  as  varying  from  his,  in  some  degree,  are  stated  in  an  In- 
troduction. But  we  unhesitatingly  recommend  the  work  as  reli- 
ably accurate  in  all  its  statements  of  facts. 


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584  Methodist  QuoTterVy  Review.  tJnly, 

The  book  has  an  epic  unity.  It  begins  with  an  original  on  and 
miBery,  passes  throngh  an  era  of  darkness  and  straggle,  and 
closes  with  the  victory  of  Right.  It  abounds  in  pictures  of  mar- 
tyr-like heroism,  and  even  those  who  do  not  always  see  the  wis- 
dom of  certain  parts  will  indolge  a  sympathy  for  men  who  suf- 
fered for  conscience'  sake  and  in  the  cause  of  everlasting  right- 
eousness. The  time  has  surrived,  too,  when  hurge-minded  South- 
emersy  like  Wightman,  M'Tyeire,  and  Summers,  will  recognise 
the  nobleness  of  this  their  struggle  for  freedom.  They  will  see 
something  besides  ^'Pharisaism"  in  their  stand  against  wrong, 
and  clearly  understand  that  what  is  called  their  '^  hatred  of  the 
South "  was  simply  a  moral  abhorrence  of  an  institution  in  the 
South  which  was  the  common  enemy  of  both  North  and  South. 
The  night  and  the  nightmare  have  passed;  let  us  together  rejoice 
in  the  morning  joy. 

Reminiaeenemy  hy  Thomas  CarlyU.    Edited  by  Jaios  Amthovt  Froudi.    12iiio, 
pp.  887.    New  York :  Harper  k  Brothers.     1881. 

The  many  faithful  readers  of  our  Quarterly  will,  perhaps,  on 
casting  a  retrospective  glance,  recognize  that  if  Carlyle  has  been 
an  idol  of  ours  our  worship  has  been,  as  Mr.  Huxley  says, 
'^  mostly  of  the  silent  sort."  Without  denying  him  talent,  or 
even  a  flicker  of  genius,  and  an  extended  reading,  we  have  never 
dipped  into  the  pages  of  his  successive  publications  without  a 
feeling  that  the  dip  was  quite  sufficient  We  ever  received  the 
immediate  impression  that  we  were  contemplating  the  elaborate 
performances  of  a  most  determined  sensationalist.  Life  with  us 
seems  too  brief  and  too  serious  to  spend  its  responsible  hours  in 
waiting  upon  the  harlequinades  of  a  performer  with  whom  truth 
or  falsehood  was  indifferent  so  that  his  '^  high  and  lofty  tumbling  " 
should  produce  an  effect. 

Carlyle  began  his  literary  career  with  his  "  Life  of  Schiller," 
written  in  a  comparatively  pure  English  style.  It  was  a  style 
which,  within  the  bounds  of  truth  and  sense,  would  have  in  time 
won  him  a  reputation.  But  it  brought  no  racketty  notoriety, 
and  he  concluded  to  try  his  powers  as  a  charlatan.  His  "  Sartor 
Besartus  "  was  the  successful  result  of  that  effort.  **  England," 
he  tells  us,  has  a  great  population,  "  mostly  fools."  Few  men  had 
a  better  right  to  say  that,  for  very  few  had  more  successfully  dem- 
onstrated it.  And  so  we  may  say  Carlyle  has  a  million  of  ad- 
mirers, all,  that  much,  fools;  and  we  are  not,  like  Judge  Tourgee, 
"  one  of  the  fools."     Finding  that  charlatanry  won  a  sky-full  of 


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1881J  Quarterly  JBook-TdUe.  585. 

public  applause  he  extended  his  business  in  that  line.  From  a 
riotous  defiance  of  all  the  laws  of  propriety,  good  taste,  and  good 
sense,  he  proceeded  to  a  reckless  renunciation  of  Christianity  and 
contemptuous  outrages  on  Christian  thought  and  feeling.  Strange 
to  say,  these  outrages  receiyed  responsive  applause  from  Christian 
quarters.  At  last,  however,  we  seem  to  have  come  to  something 
like  a  burst  of  this  stupendous  bubble.  Carlyle  has  in  these 
**  Reminiscences"  pictured  himself  with  such  repulsive  truth  that 
his  worshipers  finally  revolt  from  the  sight  of  their  actual  fetich. 
Not  liking  the  outspoken  truth  of  the  book,  they  fall  foul  of  hon- 
est Mr.  Froude  because  he  did  not  cover  up  the  reality. 

Our  impression  during  long  past  years  that  Carlyle's  charla- 
tanry of  style  and  thought  was  a  deliberately  adopted  affectation 
we  have  found  confirmed  by  the  following  curious  confession : 

He  [Edward  Irving]  affected  the  Hiltonic  or  old  English  Puritan  style,  and 
strove  visiblj  to  imitate  it  more  and  more  till  almost  the  end  of  his  career,  when 
indeed  it  had  become  his  own,  and  was  the  language  he  used  in  utmost  heat  of 
business  for  expressing  his  meaning.  At  this  time,  and  for  years  afterward,  there 
was  something  of  preconceived  intention  visible  in  it,  in  fact  of  real  affectation, 
as  there  could  not  weU  help  being.  To  his  example  also,  I  suppose,  J, owe  9ome- 
Ihing  of  my  own  poor  afoetationa  in  that  matter,  which  are  now  more  or  less  visible 
to  me,  much  repented  of  or  not. — ^P.  61. 

Carlyle's  utter  abandonment  of  Christianity  is  thus  recorded. 
And  note  that  in  this  rejection  not  only  the  doctrines,  but  the 
philanthropies  of  Christianity,  and  the  humanities  of  the  age,  are 
alike  repudiated: 

This  year  I  found  that  I  had  conquered  all  my  skepticisms,  agonizing  doubtings, 
fearful  wrestlings  with  the  foul  and  vile  and  soul-murdering  Kud-gods  of  my 
epoch ;  had  escaped  as  from  a  worse  than  Tartarus,  with  all  its  Phlegethons  and 
Stygian  quagmires,  and  was  emerging  free  in  spirit  into  the  eternal  blue  of  ether, 
where,  blessed  be  heaven  t  I  have  for  the  spiritual  part  ever  since  lived,  looking 
down  upon  the  welterings  of  my  poor  fellow-creatures,  in  such  multitudes  and  mill- 
ions  still  stuck  in  that  fatal  element,  and  have  had  no  concern  whatever  in  their 
Puseyisms,  ritualisms,  metaphysical  controversies  and  cobwebberies,  and  no  feel- 
ing of  my  own  except  honest  silent  pity  for  the  serious  dfe*  religious  part  of  them, 
and  occasional  indignation,  for  the  poor  world*s  sake,  at  the  frivolous  secular  and 
impious  part,  with  their  universal  suffrages,  their  Nigger  emancipations,  sluggard 
and  scoundrel  Protection  societies,  and  ^  unexampled  prosperities  "  for  the  time 
being !  What  my  pious  joy  and  gratitude  then  was,  let  the  pious  soul  figure.  In  a 
fine  and  veritable  scfnse,  I,  poor,  obscure,  without  outlook,  almost  withoat  worldly 
hope,  had  become  independent  of  the  world.  What  was  death  itself,  from  the 
world,  to  what  I  had  come  through  ?  I  understood  well  what  the  old  Christian 
people  meant  by  **  eotwenum^"  by  God*s  infinite  mercy  to  them.  I  had,  in  effect, 
gained  an  inmiense  victory,  and  for  a  number  of  years  had,  in  spite  of  nerves  and 
chagrins,  a  constant  inward  happiness  that  was  quite  royal  and  supreme,  in  which 
all  temporal  evil  was  transient  and  insignificant,  and  which  essentially  remains 
with  me  still,  though  far  oftener  eclipsed  and  lying  deeper  down  than  then.  Once 
more,  thank  heaven  for  its  highest  gift !  I  then  felt,  and  still  feel,  endlessly  in- 
debted to  Goethe  in  the  business. — ^F^.  142,  148. 


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.586  Methodmt  Qv^oHerh/  Review.  [July, 

Edward  Irving's  opinion  of  Methodism,  echoed  with  doable 
force  from  his  own  lips,  is  thus  given: 

I  remember  an  excellent  little  portraiture  of  MethodUm  from  him  on  a  green 
kn9ll  where  he  had  loosely  sat  down.  **  Not  a  good  religion,  sir,"  said  he,  confi- 
dentiallj  shaking  his  h6ad  in  answer  to  my  question ;  "  far  too  little  of  spiritual 
conscience,  far  too  much  of  temporal  appetite ;  goes  hunting  and  watching  after 
its  own  emotions,  that  is,  mainly  its  own  nervous  tytUm ;  an  essentially  sensuous 
religion,  depending  on  the  body,  not  on  the  soul ! "  ^'  Fit  only  for  a  gross  and 
Tulgar-minded  people,*'  I  perhaps  added ;  **  a  religion  so-called,  and  the  essence 
of  it  principally  cowardice  and  hunger^  terror  of  pain  and  appetite  for  pleasure  both 
carried  to  the  infinite*;  *'  to  which  he  would  sorrowfully  assent  in  a  considerable 
degree.  My  brother  John,  lately  come  home  from  Germany,  said  to  me  next  day, 
"  That  was  a  pretty  little  SchUderung  (portraiture)  he  threw  off  for  us,  thai  of  the 
Methodists,  wasn't  it  ?  "—-Pp.  147,  148. 

Chalmers  pronounced  Methodism  to  be  ^'  Christianity  in  ear- 
nest." What  the  opinions  of  Irving  and  Carlyle  were,  was  of 
more  consequence  to  themselves  than  to  Methodism.  But  in  re- 
gard to  Irving's  views  we  suspect  that  Carlyle  has  mistaken 
imagination  for  memory. 

» 

Casar:  a  Sketch.     By  Jamxs  Anthony  Froude,  M.A.     12mo,  pp.  486.    New 
Tork :  Harper  A^  Brothers.     1881. 

In  Mr.  Fronde's  eloquent "  sketch  "  the  man  on  horseback  prances 
into  view  as  a  hero,  a  patriot,  a  benefactor,  and  a  martyr.  Even 
though  a  usurper  technically,  he  was  the  best  thing  as  ruler  of 
which  the  age  was  capable.  Society  was  standing  on  the  brink 
of  ruin,  and  Caesar's  sway  established  that  imperial  unity,  which, 
resumed  under  Augustus,  was  perpetuated  in  a  long  imperial 
line  through  that  protracted  death  of  society  which  awakened  to 
a  resurrection  in  the  modem  system  of  Christian  Europe. 

Mr.  Froude  makes  out  a  strong  case;  based  on  the  universal 
unparalleled  corruption  and  ferocity  of  the  age.  When,  passing 
the  boundary  lines  of  Italy,  Roman  arms  had  reduced  to  subjec- 
tion that  wonderful  cluster  of  ancient  civilized  races  that  bordered 
the  Mediterranean,  her  generals  and  deputed  governors  of  the 
conquered  provinces  made  themselves  millionaires  by  the  most 
stupendous  robberies,  and  brought  to  Rome  the  rule  of  venality. 
Statesmen,  courts,  even  the  Senate  itself  was  purchasable.  The 
prisoners  of  war  were  transformed  to  slaves,  and,  planted  in  Italy, 
drove  out  the  yeomanry  and  covered  the  soil  with  a  servile  pop- 
ulation. The  populace  of  Rome  itself,  the  democratic  voting 
power,  was  a  lazy  and  profligate  mass,  supported  by  largesses 
pillaged  from  the  provinces,  and  ready  to  enlist  for  pay  as  the 
retainers  of  the  leading  demagogues.  The  demagogues  them- 
selves were  generally  ready  to  carry  their  ends  either  by  bribery 


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1881.J  Qua/rterly  Book -Table.  58t 

or  bloodshed  as  the  exigency  demanded.  Of  coarse  there  was  a 
residue  of  honest  and  honorable  honseholders,  the  honi  to  whom 
Cicero  refers  as  his  reliance  for  the  safety  and  prosperity  of 
Rome;  but,  from  their  very  position  and  temper,  this  residu^ 
was  timid  and  unable  to  cope  with  the  unscrupulous  and  violent 
political  gamblers.  Even  Mr.  TroUope,  in  his  "  Cicero,"  soon  *) 
be  noticed,  admits  that  Caesar  and  not  Cicero  clearly  saw  the 
inability  of  the  existing  system  to  continue. 

Caesar,  through  the  earlier  half  of  his  life,  was  an  accomplished 
civilian,  and  the  becoming  a  soldier  seems  to  have  been  a  clear 
afterthought.  He  attained  the  consulship,  the  chief  magistracy, 
and,  with  a  practical  and  patriotic  statesmanship,  he  passed  a 
number  of  laws,  celebrated  as  the  JiUicB  JLegeSy  that  struck  effect- 
ively at  the  evils  of  the  times.  The  year  after  his  consulship  he 
took  to  the  camp,  and  occupied  ten  heroic  years  in  bringing  to 
subjection  and  order  the  northern  tribal  nations  who  had  repeat- 
edly menaced  Rome  with  ruin.  On  his  return  he  did  his  best 
to  compromise  with  the  Senate  and  Pompey.  His  persistent 
offers  of  peace,  sustained  by  the  efforts  of  Cicero,  were  persist- 
ently rejected  by  Pompey.  Both  Froude  and  TroUope  agree  that 
Pompey  was  an  incompetent  man,  raised  by  a  series  of  accidents 
to  a  position  above  his  leveL  When  Caesar  came  across  the  Ru- 
bicon Pompey  seemed  paralyzed,  and  yet  would  accept  no  terms. 
He  neither  allowed  peace  nor  efficiently  prepared  for  war.  The 
agonized  Cicero  looked  on  in  dismay,  seeing  that  Pompey  had  the 
right  side  but  was  securing  its  overthrow.  The  battle  of  Pharsa- 
lia  was  memorable,  not  as  the  greatest  contest  of  the  war,  but  as 
the  field  where  a  large  number  of  the  senatorial  oligarchy  were 
slain.  That  battle  swept  off  the  aristocracy  of  Rome  very  much  as 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses  swept  the  old  Norman  nobility  of  England, 
and  as  the  French  Revolution  abolished  the  feudalism  of  France. 

Caesar  then  assumed  authority  with  the  exercise  of  the  most 
enlightened  statesmanship.  Unlike  the  Mariuses  and  Syllas  of 
former  unforgotten  days,  he  prosecuted  no  massacres  or  pro- 
scriptions. He  walked  the  streets  without  arms  or  guards.  So 
great  had  been  his  clemency,  especially  to  Marcus  Marcellus,  that 
Cicero,  in  open  Senate,  declared  to  Caesar  that  if  any  assault  was 
made  upon  him  the  whole  Senate  would  rush  to  his  defense. 
Caesar  was  preparing  to  start  in  a  few  days  for  the  field  to  fight 
for  the  unity  of  the  empire,  when  the  converging  dagger-points  of 
thirty  senatorial  conspirators  closed  a  life  which,  no  doubt,  would 
have  been  spent  for  the  good  of  Rome. 


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688  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  fJuly, 

Bad  as  "  the  man  on  horseback  "  intrinsically  is,  he  maybe  the 
only,  and  therefore  the  justifiable,  remedy  for  an  anarchical  age. 
Had  Alexander  the  Great  lived  to  accomplish  his  great  plans  for 
general  improvement,  despotic  as  he  was,  he  would  have  been  a 
benefactor  of  the  race,  advancing  the  progress  of  human  civili- 
zation by  several  rapid  degrees.  Charlemagne's  sword,  reducing 
the  barbarians  of  central  Europe  to  peace,  laid  the  foundations 
for  the  unity  of  Christendom.  For  us,  of  these  United  States, 
the  only  way  of  escaping  the  imperial  rider  is  not  by  school-boy 
declamations  against  his  character,  but  by  cultivating  a  general 
intelligence,  a  pure  political  morality,  and  a  universal  unsectional 
peace,  brotherhood,  and  unity.  Sectional  strife,  especially  over  our 
Presidential  elections,  will  infallibly  call  out  the  American  Csdsar. 


The  lAfe  of  Oieero.    By  Anthont  TboLlopi.    In  two  Tolumea.    Small  12mo.,  pp. 
847,  846.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Mr.  Trollope's  biography  of  the  great  orator  is  a  labor  of  love. 
He  is  fully  impressed  with  the  wonderful  blend  of  majesty  and 
beauty  in  the  character  of  his  hero,  and  defends  him  in  detail, 
and  some  will  say  even  with  some  special  pleading,  against  de- 
tractions. 

In  judging  of  Cicero  in  comparison  with  the  other  Romans  of 
his  day  very  much  the  same  error  occurs  as  is  often  committed 
in  judging  the  Christian  in  comparison  with  the  worldling;  the 
standard  is  imperceptibly  changed,  and  the  worse  is  surrep- 
titiously made  the  better  man.  The  worldling  fs  judged  by  the 
average  worldly  standard  and  the  Christian  by  the  ideal  of 
Christianity.  Hence  in  one  positive  immoralities  are  held  as  be- 
coming, and  the  slightest  foibles  and  short-comings  are  crimi- 
nalities in  the  other.  Cicero  was  historically  the  purest  public 
man  of  his  day;  and  hence  he  is  tried  by  a  standard  of  purity 
which  would  be  absurd  as  a  test  of  Csesar  or  even  Cato  or 
Bi^tus.  He  wrote  on  morals,  and  hence  he  b  required  to  be 
his  own  moral  philosophy  jumped  incarnate  out  of  its  cover. 
His  writings  have  been  read  by  even  modem  thinkers  with  a 
malign  hypercriticism ;  and,  as  Mr.  TroUope  well  shows,  have 
been  subjected  to  flagrant  misconstructions — specially  so  by  Mr. 
Froude — to  convict  him  of  crime.  As  a  whole,  Mr.  TroUope 
successfully  shows  that  after  correcting  all  calumnious  charges 
and  deducting  for  all  short-comings  and  foibles,  we  have  a  most 
magnificent  remainder,  one  of  the  noblest  characters  of  antiquity, 
one  of  the  truest  pre-Christian  Christians  of  the  classic  ages. 


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1881.]  QmrterVy  BooJc-Tahle.  589 

In  estimating  the  character  of  Cicero  what  we  have  said  in  our 
notice  of  Fronde's  Csssar  comes  to  the  front.  The  boni  were 
the  remnant  of  substantial  citizens,  uncormpted  by  the  incoming 
flood  of  depravity  after  Rome's  conquest  of  Asia.  For  public 
safety  and  prosperity  they  looked  to  the  restoration  of  private 
honesty  and  public  patriotism.  To  them  the  old  historic  Senate 
was  the  very  image  of  eternity,  their  sole  safety  amid  vicissitudes. 
They  dreaded  all  revolution,  whether  from  incendiaries,  like 
Catiline,  or  humane  statesmanly  despots,  like  C«esar.  As  ad- 
herents of  the  Senate  they  have  been  called  the  aristocracy,  but 
they  might  as  well  be  called  the  democracy,  for  that  name  would 
be  dishonored  by  applying  it  to  the  salable  voting  rabble  of 
Rome,  even  more  than  when  labeled  upon  the  voting  slums  of 
New  York.  Of  this  class,  and  relying  on  it  for  support,  the  type 
and  usually  the  head  was  Cicero. 

The  difficulty  was  that  in  these  unscrupulous  times  the  h<»ii 
were  necessarily  timid  and  unpractical.  The  very  problem  be- 
fore them  was  to  '*  bell  the  cat,"  nay,  to  tame  the  tiger.  Their 
very  quietude  of  character  victimized  theuL  And  it  was 
impossible,  amid  the  turbulent  leaders  of  the  day,  to  hold  a 
supreme  position  as  Cicero  aspired,  without  an  expert  readiness 
to  handle  an  army.  He  was  an  elegant  porcelain  vase  rolling 
amid  a  variety  of  tumbling  iron  kettles,  obliged  to  deflect  his 
course  or  meet  a  collision  and  suffer  a  crash.  He  might,  like 
Atticus,  lead  a  life  of  quiet  integrity,  and  let  the  world  accom- 
plish its  own  ruin  according  to  programme;  he  might,  like 
Hortensius,  take  first  place  in  the  first  rank  of  advocates;  he 
might,  like  Horace,  turn  to  elegant  literature;  but  if  he  must  be 
a  ruling  statesman  without  being  military  commander,  he  must 
now  and  then  veer  his  course,  flatter  a  fool,  or  defend  a  knave. 
That  far  did  Cicero  temporize  and  trim.  So  far  did  he  sink 
below  the  pure  ideaL  Very  well;  make  subtraction,  and  see 
what  a  magnificent  treasure  of  character  remains.  We  sym- 
pathize with  Mr.  Trollope  entirely  in  enjoying  and  magnifying 
this  treasure;  and  we,  in  fact,  object  to  our  hero's  being  so  per- 
petually put  upon  his  defense. 

In  all  the  annals  of  forensic  history  was  there  ever  a  greater 
triumph,  measured  by  morale,  courage,  and  ability,  than  Cicero's 
prosecution  of  Verres  ?  In  boldly  calling  Yerres  to  account  he 
towered  above  the  political  level  of  his  day.  He  had  a  bribed 
Senate  for  a  court,  Hortensius  for  an  opposing  advocate,  and  a 
most  powerful  corruptionist  for  a  defendant.    Yet  so  splendid 


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590  Methodist  Quarterly  Reviev).  [July, 

and  heroic  was  his  bullyism,  that  by  the  notoriety  which  his  abil- 
ity could  give  to  the  venality  of  the  court  before  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, he  cowed  the  Senate  into  rectitude,  silenced  the  eloquent 
Hortensius,  and  drove  the  audacious  Verres  out  of  court.  The 
speeches  he  prepared  were  thence  not  delivered  but  published; 
and  they  remain  on  record  to-day,  both  as  monuments  of  mas- 
terly ability,  and  as  historic  exhibition  of  the  stupendous  in- 
iquities which  the  average  Roman  proconsul  could  commit  in 
the  province  subjected  to  his  arbitrary  rule. 

Why  is  it  that  that  wonderful  piece  of  pre-Christian  Chris- 
tianity, the  "Somnium  Scipionis,"  is  so  little  brought  out  by 
scholars  at  the  present  day  ?  Tears  ago  we  wrote  a  translation 
of  it  and  published  it  in  a  Western  periodical,  but  irrecoverably 
lost  it.  It  was,  doubtless,  no  great  loss,  since  being  done  with- 
out aids  save  from  the  mere  text,  it  was  probably  very  imperfect. 
But  why  is  it  not  edited  and  published  as  part  of  the  curricu- 
lum ?  We  would  open  the  pages  of  our  Quarterly  to  a  weU- 
prepared  and  annotated  translation. 


Flrti  Decade  of  the  WomatCt  Foreign  Miasioruiry  Society  of  the  MethodUt  EpiecopaL 
Church:  with  Sketches  of  its  Missionaries.  Bj  Mart  Spajuus  Wheklkb. 
With  an  Introduction  by  Bishop  J.  F.  Hcbst,  D.D.  ]2mo, pp.  846.  New  York: 
Phillips  &  Hunt ;  Cincmnati:  Walden  k  Stowe.     1881. 

Mrs.  Wheeler  has  presented  us  a  gem  of  a  book.  The  first 
decade  of  this  Society  is  full  of  interest  in  itself  and  full  of 
promise  of  a  rich  future.  This  Society,  first  proposed  by  a 
returned  lady  missionary,  was  started  in  1869,  amid  inauspicious 
omens,  with  feeble  beginnings  and  tremulous  faith.  It  was 
grounded  on  the  fact  that  in  the  East  women  are  only  accessible 
to  women,  and  that  consequently  there  must  be  a  corps  of  women 
missionaries,  with  the  further  inference  that  women  were  the 
most  proper  agents  to  send  thenL  Incorporation  with  the  gen- 
eral Missionary  Society  was  positively,  persistently,  and,  we 
think,  wisely  declined,  while  harmony  with  it  was  earnestly  de- 
sired. The  Society  aspired  to  and  obtained  the  authorization  of 
the  General  Conference.  Its  first  missionary  was  appoint^ 
before  the  funds  were  raised,  and,  rather  than  fail  of  means  for 
her  support,  it  was  bravely  proposed  by  the  ladies  that  they 
would  walk  the  streets  of  Boston  in  calico  to  save  the  funds. 

Mrs.  Wheeler  gives  the  roll  and  biographical  sketches  of  fe- 
male missionaries  already  sent  to  Asia  by  her  Society.  They  are 
elect  ladies.     The  deep  experiences,  alike  yet  varying,  of  each 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-Table.  591 

and  all,  wonderfully  evince  that  the  whole  is  a  divine  movement, 
a  sweet  awakening  from  the  blessed  Spirit.  That  in  each  secret 
heart  an  inspiration  should  be  moving,  calling  for  a  life  conse- 
cration to  the  mission  work,  simultaneously  with  each  other,  and 
with  the  spirit  that  organized  the  work,  seems  to  be  a  divinely 
concerted  plan.  The  young  mind  may  indeed  be  stimulated  by 
a  certain  romance  of  missionary  life  ;  but  that  glamour  soon  dis- 
appears, either  when  the  time  of  action  arrives,  or  when  the  re- 
pulsive scenes  of  heathen  life,  and  the  weary  details  of  mission 
duty,  are  really  reached.  Not  so  with  these  elect.  Their  hearts 
are  there ;  the  sight  of  dying  heathenism  deepens  their  sym- 
pathy, and  "  love  esteems  no  office  mean."  "  Don't  go  home," 
said  Miss  Thobum  to  her  visiting  friend  Mrs.  Chandler,  of  Bal- 
timore, "  to  excite  sympathy  for  me.  I  am  happy  in  my  work. 
I  am  busy  here,  and  we  all  feel  so.  Our  work  lies  here,  and 
when  sickness  comes,  and  we  turn  our  faces  homeward,  we  leave 
our  hearts  behind.^^  Nearing  the  coast  of  Asia,  Miss  Sigour- 
ney  Trask  writes :  "  The  actual  work  of  my  life  is  soon  to 
begin.  I  am  so  glad  it  is  at  hand.  I  do  believe  every  feeling, 
faculty,  and  possibility  of  my  nature  is  consecrated  a  living — I 
do  not  like  to  say  sacrifice — a  living  energy  to  accomplish  the 
mission  God  has  given  me  among  the  Chinese."  ^  Bound  in 
spirit,'  said  Paul;  under  bonds  of  the  Spirit  I  go.  This  bond- 
age is  my  liberty,  the  bonds  are  my  joy  and  strength.  I  am 
grateful,  but  a  life,  not  words,  must  show  the  gratitude  that 
makes  my  spirit  sing."  It  was  no  ordinary  spirit  that  could  so 
"sing,"  and  no  ordinary  pen  that  could  so  record  the  spirit's 
song.  And  so  says  the  well-remembered  daughter  of  David 
Dallas  Lore:  "My  heart  has  been  enlarged  since  reaching  India. 
I  have  loved  people  always,  ever  so  many,  but  now  it  seems  as 
if  I  truly  love  souls.^^  Surely  these  elect  ladies  are  priceless 
gems  which  America  gives  to  Asia.  Mrs.  Wheeler  has  nobly 
done  her  work  as  historiographer  of  the  first  decade  of  her  be- 
loved Society.  May  she  live  to  record  another  more  triumphant 
decade  I 

7!^  Story  of  the  United  States  Navy.    For  Boys.    By  Bkmson  J.  LossiMO,  LL.D. 
New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

This  work  was  prepared  at  the  suggestion  of  Captain  S.  B.  Luce, 
of  the  XJ.  S.  N.,  the  commander  of  the  training  ship  "  Minnesota." 
The  other  training  ships  in  the  service  are  the  "  Constellation," 
"  Saratoga,"  "  Portsmouth,"  and  "  St.  Louis."    Last  year  there 


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MethodUt  Quarterly  £eview.  U^Tt 

were  1,152  boys  under  instmctMND,  nuking  from  thirteoi  to 
eighteen  years  of  age.  The  instruction  ia  intended  to  prepare 
boys  for  sailors  in  the  navy,  and  elevate  the  standard  of  naval 
life.  The  closing  chapter  of  the  book  contains  a  fall  aooonnt  of 
the  system  of  training  schools  in  Great  Britain  and  thb  oonntry. 
The  book  has  been  prepared  with  special  reference  to  the  class 
of  boys  entering  the  training  ships.  It  is  admirably  adiqited  to 
persons  of  the  required  age,  and  an  excellent  book  to  place  in  the 
hands  of  boys  who  are  tempted  to  read  blood-and-thnnder  stories 
published  in  our  flash  papers  an^  dime  novelB.  Any  thing  which 
will  wean  our  youth  from  these  flesh-pots  should  be  hailed  by 
every  parent. 

The  triumphs  of  American  seamanship  during  the  Revolution- 
ary struggle  over  the  great  maritime  power  of  Europe  are  nar- 
rated with  thrilling  interest.  The  colonial  navy,  like  the  patriot 
army,  was  extemporized.  During  the  war  for  independence,  or 
between  1775  and  1783,  the  United  States  had  thirty-six  vessels 
of  war  afloat,  of  which  number  only  two  survived  the  struggle 
The  glorious  achievements  of  John  Paul  Jones  and  others  fur- 
nish a  brilliant  page  in  our  early  history.  Six  hundred  and  fifty 
prizes,  it  is  said,  were  taken  into  port  besides  those  ransomed 
and  destroyed.  The  pressure  of  the  English  commercial  class 
had  a  powerful  influence  in  bringing  about  the  acknowledgment 
of  our  independence.  The  war  of  1812,  for  the  ^*  freedom  of  the 
seas,''  was  also  signalized  by  grand  naval  achievements,  which 
are  described  most  graphically.  The  words  of  the  dying  officer, 
**  Don't  give  up  the  ship ! "  which  became  the  battle-cry  of  the 
young  navy,  cannot  fail  to  thrill  our  American  youth  with  patri- 
otic aspirations.  While  the  achievements  of  the  War  for  the 
Union  are  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  sires,  they  have  become  his- 
tory to  the  sons.  The  great  naval  engagements  are  vividly  pict- 
ured. We  could  wish  that  more  books  of  this  class  were  placed 
within  the  reach  of  our  youth,  so  as  to  wean  them  from  the  Sa- 
tanic lijberatare  that  heroizes  thieves  and  pirates. 


Th4  Life  of  George  the  Fourth:  including  his  Letters  and  Opinions,  with  a  View  of 
the  Men,  Kannera,  and  Politics  of  his  Reign.  By  Pirct  Fitzgerald,  M.A., 
F.S.A.    Illustrated.    Large  12mo,  pp.  921.    New  Tork :  Harper  A  Brothers. 

We  think  it  was  the  first  Alexander  of  Russia  who  said,  "  God 
must  be  merciful  to  kings,  for  they  have  great  temptations.'* 
And  besides,  they  are  judged  also  by  human  history,  which, 
growingly  democratic,  is  growingly  severe.     Mr.  Fitzgerald's 


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1881.]  Qttarterlt/  Book-Table.  693 

boot  is  a  sharp  admonitory  to  the  young  princes  of  England  how 
their  corpses  may  be  given  oyer  to  biographic  dissection,  and 
hence  how  important  it  is  to  preserve  a  proper  symmetry  of 
character.  But  the  Harpers'  critic,  we  think,  is  seduced  by  the 
brilliancy  of  an  antithesis  to  historic  exaggeration  when  he  tells 
ns  that  George  the  Fourth  was  not  only  "  the  first  gentleman," 
but  also  **  the  first  rascal,"  in  Europe.  He  was  simply  a  dissolute 
gentleman  about  town,  who  continued,  in  spite  of  a  ruinous  dis- 
fflpation,  running  through  the  whole  round  of  drinking,  whoring, 
gambling,  racing,  etc.,  to  still  maintain  a  social  courtesy  in  life. 
He  was  kindly  in  feeling,  honorable  except  when  pushed  by  a  hard 
exigency  into  a  lie  or  a  fraud,  constant  in  heart,  though  not  in 
conduct,  to  the  victim  of  a  morganatic  marriage.  He  varied  with 
his  father,  and  our  historian  divides  the  blame  equally  between 
the  two.  He  was  married  by  State  machinery  to  a  disgusting 
German  woman  of  dubious  chastity,  and  sought  for  a  divorce,  to 
which,  but  for  his  own  infidelities,  he  was  probably  quite  justly 
entitled.  We  think  there  are  hundreds,  and,  we  fear,  thousands, 
of  as  great  rascals  in  Kew  York  city  to-day.  As  a  sovereign, 
Gkorge  meant  to  be  just,  ruling  as  a  constitutional  king  over  his 
own  realm,  and  cultivating  justice  and  peace  toward  foreign  nations. 
His  vices  were  those  of  an  impulsive  young  man,  unchecked  by  au- 
thority, surrounded  by  seductions,  with  ample  means  of  sensual 
gratification,  with  all  his  slightest  aberrations  conspicuous  to  the 
public  gaze  and  exposed  to  the  glaring  light  of  history.  He 
had  graceful  manners,  a  prompt  wit,  a  good  share  of  talent,  a 
taste  for  art,  an  enthusiasm  for  building,  and  not  one  tendency 
to  becoming  a  tyrant  or  a  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Europe. 
WiU  historians  and  critics  allow  us  to  pity  while  we  condemn  ? 
What  might,  alas,  have  become  of  ourself  had  we  been  bom  a 
prince !  Happily  we  are  only  an  editor,  and  thereby  entitled  to 
the  quasi-royal  we. 


Kemper  County  Vtndieatedy  and  a  Peep  at  Radical  Rule  in  MimuippL  Bj  Jamis 
D.  Ltkch,  author  of  poems,  " Robert  E.  Lee;  or,  Nerves  in  the  South,"  "  The 
Ku-klux  Tribunal,'*  etc.    12mo,  pp.  416.    New  Tork :  E.  J.  Hale  k  Son.    1879. 

In  a  late  Quarterly  we  referred  to  the  Chisholm  murder  as  a 
political  crime,  and  a  Mississippi  friend  sent  us  this  book  in 
disproof  that  it  was  either  a  crime  or  a  political  act.  The  book, 
as  the  very  title  shows,  is  written  in  an  intensely  partisan  style. 
It  opens  with  statements  which  we  think  historically  untrue.  Its 
style  is  highly  rhetorical,  yet  it  is  written  with  a  graceful  ease. 


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594  Methodist  QtwHerhf  Review.  [July, 

It  appears  from  a  New  York  press  heretofore  unknown  to  us, 
neatly  and  correctly  printed  on  poor  material,  disfigured  with 
caricature  cuts,  and  we  have  never  seen  it  heretofore  noticed 
by  any  of  our  periodicals.  Our  casual  allusion  to  this  man- 
slaughter was,  of  course,  under  assumption  of  its  notorious  truth, 
without  any  preceding  critical  or  judicial  investigation.  We 
have  neither  the  xnaterials  nor  time  for  such  an  investigation. 
We,  however,  in  fairness  to  Kemper  County,  record  the  fact  that 
the  killing  of  Chisholm  is  professedly  proved  to  have  been  the 
destruction  of  a  villain  in  a  non-political  quarreL 


PoUtios^  LwvOy  cmd  General  Morah. 

OivrBroiher  in  Black:  His  Freedom  and  hia  Future.  By  Amous  Hatgood,  D.D., 
Preflident  of  Emory  College,  Oxford,  Georgia.  ISmo,  pp.  262.  New  York: 
Phillips  &  Hunt    Gincinnati :  Walden  A  Stowe.     1881. 

The  President  of  Emory  College  has  given  us  what  may  perhaps 
be  called  an  epochal  book.  At  least  it  serves  to  mark,  and  aids 
to  initiate,  the  transition  to  a  better  understanding  between  the 
two  sections  and  the  two  parties  in  a  dispute  of  a  century  in 
length.  Will  the  terrible  wound  given  to  our  free  republic  by 
the  introduction  of  slavery  at  last  be  healed?  It  will  be  accom- 
plished by  the  spirit  and  style  of  discussion,  commenced  so  far  as 
the  South  is  concerned,  by  this  book. 

Dr.  Haygood  is,  we  are  glad  to  say,  a  true  Southerner.  It  is  a 
bold,  frank,  free-spoken,  yet  candid  and  liberal  Southerner  whom 
we  wish  to  hear,  and  he  now,  almost  for  the  first  time,  speaks. 
He  can  see  that  even  his  beloved  South  can  err,  and  he  often 
gives  a  sharp  retaliatory  hit  at  the  North.  But  we  must  tell 
him  that  he  has  not  rebuked  the  North  half  as  sharply  as  our 
"  Quarterly  "  has  done  through  all  these  past  years.  More  fully 
than  he  have  we  chided  our  Northern  "  Pharisaism."  We  have 
denied  repeatedly  that  emancipation  took  place  as  a  great  moral 
victory.  We  have  shown  how  remarkably  the  warmth  of  our 
antagonism,  beginning  from  Boston  and  ending  in  Charleston, 
coincided  with  latitudes  and  the  degrees  of  the  thermometer. 
The  human  nature  of  the  North  and  the  South,  overlooking  sur- 
face differences,  is  the  same.  There  is  a  sort  of  truth  in  the 
maxim,  "  One  man  is  as  good  as  another,  and  a  little  better;"  and 
we  may  add  conversely,  one  man  is  as  bad  as  another,  and  a  little 
worse.     When,  therefore,  Dr.  H.  lays  the  flageUum  sharply  on 


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1881.1  Quarterly  Book-TaUe.  595 

the  faults  and  vices  of  the  North,  with  a  serenely  benevolent  mo- 
tive, we  say,  again  and  again,  '^  Lay  on,  Maodoff ! "  If  you  can 
whip  ns  out  of  oar  wickednesses  we  will  not  even  object  to  your 
"  Pharisaism." 

In  his  first  four  chapters  Dr.  H.  surveys  the  negro  population. 
It  is  more  than  six  millions,  is  genial,  lax,  yet  inclined  to  industry 
and  susceptible  of  elevation.  "  It  is  here  to  ptay,"  and  cannot, 
as  a  whole,  be  colonized;  nay,  there  are  signs  of  a  providence  in 
their  location  as  a  great  solution  of  the  problem.  In  a  few  chap- 
ters more  he  contemplates  the  facts  of  their  emancipation  and  en- 
franchisement. He  claims  that  there  is  a  "time  element"  fairly 
required  for  the  South  ta  come  fully  right,  reminding  us  how  re- 
cently the  North  had  her  anti-abolition  riots  and  her  demolition 
of  negro  schools.  He  passes  then  in  his  later  chapters  to  the 
happy  modes  of  solution  of  the  great  problem  in  the  grand  work 
of  schools  and  Churches  now  going  on,  and  hopes  that  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  American  African  will  overflow  to  the  regeneration 
of  African  African. 

There  are  some  points  on  which  we  take  friendly  issue  with 
our  author.  We  cheerfully  agree  with  him.  that  as  slavery  is 
dead  we  need  not  continue  to  fight  over  its  grave  or  over  its 
ghost.  Our  "Quarterly"  said  immediately  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  "  Now  let  us.  North  and  South,  shake  hands  over  the  grave 
of  buried  slavery,  and  unite  in  elevating  the  f reedman  to  man- 
hood." But  Dr.  H.  seems  to  us  to  impose  too  complete  a  silence 
upon  us.  So  great  an  event  as  the  existence  and  downfall  of 
American  slavery  must  be  historically  and  morally  discussed. 
Napoleon  is  "dead;"  but  whole  libraries  of  history  are  pouring 
forth  upon  his  life  and  character.  Especially  at  the  present  time 
a  discussion  has  arisen  as  to  the  part  taken  by  the  evangelical 
Churches  in  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Infidelity  is  reiterating  the 
taunt  that  the  Churches  were  silent  against  a  great  sin,  and  they 
are  now  rendering  answer.  These  injunctions  to  silence  we  de- 
fied when  slavery  was  powerful  with  Lynch  Law  in  her  hands ; 
we  are  not  likely  to  obey  them  now  when  that  dark  power  has 
become  one  of  the  phantasms  of  history.  Nor  can  we  be  silent 
when  we  behold  the  spirit  of  slavery  still  alive  and  acting  now. 
North  or  South.  But  so  far  as  concerns  calling  it  up  as  a  re- 
proach upon  men  who  are  like  Dr.  H.  seeking  the  time  solution 
of  the  problem  of  humanity,  we  rejoice  to  impose  silence  upon 
our  lip  and  pen.  We  give  them  our  hearty  right  hand,  and  our 
purpose  is  to  seek  the  best  present  and  future  good  for  all 


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596  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [Jnly, 

We  must  now  toaoh  a  still  more  delicate  point,  and  we  assure 
all  concerned  we  touch  it  not  to  reproach,  but  to  show  where  the 
fault  lies,  and  has  lain  in  the  past,  in  order  to  aid  in  bringing 
matters  right.  On  page  95  Dr.  H.  maintains  that  the  balance  of 
suspicions  and  bad  tempers  between  North  and  South  has  been 
about  even.  *' Neither  side  has  shown  any  great  superiority  of 
temper  or  penetration.**  Now  we  call  Dr.  Haygood's  attention, 
for  instance,  to  the  behayior  since  the  war  of  our  two  Method- 
isms.  Every  offer  of  conciliation,  fraternity,  reunion,  has  come 
from  the  North,  repeatedly  repelled  by  the  South.  Immediately 
at  the  close  of  the  war  the  two  New  York  Conferences  sent  their 
greetings  to  the  Southern  General  Conference  and  were  cavalierly 
treated.  Our  Bishops  called  a  fraternal  council  with  the  South- 
em  Bishops  and  were  cavalierly  treated.  Bishop  Janes  and  Dr. 
Harris  went  as  delegates  to  the  Southern  General  Conference  and 
were  cavalierly  treated.  And  whenever  a  luckless  Northerner 
spoke  of  ^reunion,**  he  was  rapped  over  the  knuckles  and  told 
that  talk  about  "reunion"  did  not  "tend  to  fraternity.**  Slowly 
and  reluctantly  the  Southern  General  Conference  consented  to 
fraternity.  All  the  honor  of  Christian  fraternal  advances  seems 
to  rest  with  the  North.  Again,  the  North  sent  her  teachers  and 
preachers  south  to  do  the  work  which  scarce  a  man,  before  Dr. 
Haygood,  has  ever  acknowledged  to  be  a  great  philanthropic 
work.  And  this  coldness  was  not  the  result  of  the  fanatical 
overdo  on  the  part  of  our  missionary  teachers,  as  Dr.  H.  desires 
to  believe;  it  was  antecedent.  Unanimously  did  our  brethren  of 
the  Church  South,  while  doing  nothing  themselves,  proclaim, 
through  their  press,  that  nothing  should  be  done  by  others. 
Even  the  lamented  Duncan,  we  think  it  was,  as  editor  of  the 
"Richmond  Advocate,"  ridiculed  the  northern  "school-marms," 
shamefully  charged  them  with  "  ignorance,"  and  declared  that  the 
North  did  not  "  understand  the  negro,"  and  must  have  nothing 
to  do  with  his  education. 

And  turning  to  secular  life  we  might  show  how  in  the  North, 
since  the  war,  while  a  Southerner  is  always  received  with  un- 
qualified cordiality,  the  South,  and  the  Southern  press,  assumes, 
down  to  the  latest  dates,  to  prescribe  on  what  conditions  a  North- 
erner may  immigrate  south;  and  under  all  the  circumlocutions  in 
which  these  conditions  are  phrased,  is  concealed  the  one  absolute 
condition  that  he  must  vote  the  democratic  ticket,  or  at  least  be 
not  an  active  republican,  and  so  "make  trouble." 

We  might  recall  the  fact  that  in  the  war  the  North  was  at  first 


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1881.1  QuaH&rh/  JSook-Tahle.  697 

beaten  just  because,  while  the  South  was  arming,  the  North  not 
expecting,  was  entirely  unprepared  for  war.  We  might  from 
before  the  war  rehearse  the  well-known  fact  that  the  writer  of 
these  lines,  or  any  other  antislavery  man,  even  in  time  of  peace, 
could  not  have  safely  stood  in  the  editorial  office  of  Dr.  Summers. 
Nay,  to  go  back  to  the  origin,  when  the  South  made  up  her  mind 
to  slavery  she  made  up  her  mind  to  danger,  suspicion,  secession, 
and  ultimate  convulsion.  She  was  her  own  nihilist;  she  placed 
the  bomb  and  the  volcano  beneath  her  own  feet.  That  state  of 
"suspicion"  she  is  now,  we  believe,  fast  recovering;  and  while  we 
fully  allow  for  a  "time  element,"  we  believe  that  the  briefer  the 
"time"  the  earlier  the  return  to  peace  and  prosperity. 

As  offset  to  all  these  points  Dr.  H.  will  doubtless  oppose  the 
oppressions  suffered  by  the  South  under  "the  carpet-baggers." 
**  Carpet-bag  government "  in  all  our  converse  and  correspondence 
with  Southern  friends  we  find  to  be  the  sore  spot  on  the  sensorium 
of  memory.  Now  we  have  no  difficulty  in  assuring  them  that  the 
good  people  of  the  North,  including  the  great  body  of  honorable 
republicans,  never  intended  any  oppression  by  government  agents, 
or  any  imposition  of  restrictions  not  needed  for  the  safe  recon- 
struction of  our  Republic  in  the  South.  For  any  tyranny  proper 
we  have  no  apology  to  offer.  For  any  repressive  force,  not  neces- 
sary to  secure  peace  and  insure  loyalty,  we  have  no  approval. 
And  now,  having  affirmed  thus  much,  we  must  ask  Dr.  H.  and 
others  to  put  themselves  into  a  fair  historic  position  and  spirit, 
and  answer,  conscientiously,  a  question  or  two.  Was  there  ever 
in  all  the  history  of  nations  so  great  a  rebellion — ^as  our  govern- 
ment had  a  legal  right  to  view  the  secession — put  down  with  so 
terrible  an  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure,  and  yet  finally 
closed  up  with  so  little  penal  bloodshed  or  infliction  of  any  kind  ? 
Did  ever  in  all  history  a  government  so  soon  remove  all  disabili- 
ties, and  even  put  the  rebel  leaders  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  ? 
Did  ever  a  great  rebel  section  be  put  by  the  conquerors  so  soon 
into  a  possibility  of  actually  themselves  attaining  control  of  the 
government  itsdf  ?  A  true  answer  to  these  questions  would,  we 
humbly  think,  compel  Dr.  H.  to  say  that  so  far  from  behaving 
badly,  the  magnanimity  of  the  North  is  without  a  historical 
parallel. 

In  his  bold  and  truthful  sermon,  ^*The  New  South,"  Dr.  Hay- 
good  declares,  if  we  rightly  recollect,  (we  have  not  the  copy  at 
hand,)  that  the  present  condition  of  the  South  is  in  every  mate- 
rial respect  better  than  it  was  before  the  war.    That  is,  both  the 

FouBTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 39 


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598  Methodist  QuaHerhf  JR&oiew.  [Julj, 

war  and  tiie  carpet-bag  did  not  keep  the  South  as  wretched  as  it 
was  under  the  old  oligarchy.  That  is,  the  carpet-baggers  were 
not  as  repressive  a  tyranny  as  the  slaye-holders.  But  it  was  the 
South  that  inflicted  the  slave-power,  the  North  the  carpet-bag ; 
and  so  the  North  has  not  been  as  oppressive  upon  the  South — 
war,  carpet-bag,  and  all — as  the  South  has  been  upon  herself. 

On  page  82  Dr.  Haygood  anticipates  a  union  of  the  Southern 
black  and  white  voters,  and  warns  the  North  of  aome  dread  dam- 
age from  the  combination.  It  is  a  strangely  Bourbon  paragraph. 
For,  Jirst^  such  union  would  produce  nothing  more  than  we  have 
already  had,  a  "solid  South."  Whether  that  solidity  came  from 
crushing,  cheating,  or  absorbing  the  colored  voter,  or  all  together, 
it  would  not  increase  the  Southern  electoral  vote,  and  very  little 
the  Congressional  representation.  But,  seoondy  Dr.  Haygood's 
mind  in  the  passage  seems  to  contemplate  a  permanent  hostile 
sectionalism.  It  is  a  South  against  a  North,  in  which  the  South 
will  do  some  unknown  damage  to  the  North,  at  which  the  North 
had  better  tremble.  We  do  not  turn  pale  thereat.  Yet  we  pre- 
fer a  cessation  of  that  execrable  antithesis.  We  prefer  to  repeat 
the  maxim,  which  we  have  twice  or  thrice  propounded,  and  which 
we  would  like  to  stereotype  into  a  proverb,  and  to  which  we  in- 
vite the  concurrence  of  Dr.  Haygood  and  all  other  patriotic  South- 
erners, that  there  shaU  be  no  more  antago7ii9m^  political  or  othertoisey 
between  North  and  South  than  now  exists  between  Mist  and  West. 

According  to  the  best  of  our  observation  the  good  men  of  the 
South  have  recovered  from  the  demoralizations  of  the  war,  and 
are  awake  and  bravely  active  in  the  cause  of  temperance,  educa- 
tion, law,  and  order.  We  have  noted  the  movements  in  various 
Legislatures  against  intemperance  and  the  carrying  concealed 
weapons  with  pleasure.  Statistics  seem  to  show  a  most  alarming 
amount  of  homicide  in  that  section,  which  we  anticipate  will  soon 
be  greatly  diminished.  What  is  wanted  is  an  increase  of  sym- 
pathy £md  union  between  the  good  men  of  North  and  South  in 
behalf  of  social  and  national  improvement.  Especially  is  this  co- 
operation needed  in  raising  our  politics  to  a  higher  moral  plane. 
We  need,  as  Dr.  Haygood  has  well  prodaimed,  "to  carry  our 
religion  into  our  politics,"  and  to  render  the  political  morals  of 
all  parties  purer  and  less  fiercely  partisan.  We  need  to  be 
Christian  and  conscientious  in  caucus  and  at  the  polls.  We  need, 
as  it  is  sometimes  said  here  in  the  North,  to  "  vote  as  we  pray." 
And  this  union  is  coming.  North  and  South  are  fusing  and 
blending,  in  railroad  communications,  iu  interchaoge  ei  immense 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book -Table.  599 

annual  yisitations  southward  in  winter  and  northward  in  sum- 
mer,  in  business  relations^  and  in  Christian  fraternity.  And  our 
experience  is  that  when  Southerners  and  Northerners  cordially 
meet  they  see  good  reason  to  respect  and  love  each  other.  Our 
worst  antagcHiisms  come  from  the  sectional  politiciims;  and  the 
politicians  are  sectional  because  they  expect  to  gain  success  by 
creating,  appealing  to,  and  riding,  the  local  prejudice  and  pas- 
sion. Let  our  good  men  spoil  their  game  by  scouting  such  pas- 
sions and  driving  such  prejudices  out  of  the  popular  mind. 

Dr.  Haygood  has  nobly  commenced  this  work  in  a  style  that 
smacks  of  independence  and  originality.  He  is  in  the  prime  of 
strength  and  manhood,  and  we  augur  that  a  noble  future  lies  be- 
fore hiuL  It  is  a  symbol  of  union  that  his  book  is  issued  from 
the  publishing  houses  of  both  Northern  and  Southern  Methodism. 
We  wish  we  could  order  a  million  copies  for  each  section. 


LitercUmre  amd  JFiction. 

Bdrper*8  Cydopadia  of  BriHth  and  Ameriean  Poetry,    Edited  by  Spis  Sakoimt. 

8yo,  pp.  968.    New  Tork :  Harper  ik  Brothers.     1881. 
Cydopcedia  of  Poetry,    Second  Series.     Embracing  Poems  Descriptive  of  the 

Scenes,  Incidents,  Persons,  and  PUoee  of  the  Bible.    Also  Indexes  to  Foster's 

Oyclopsedias.    By  Rev.  Elon  Fostxb,  D.D.    Syo,  pp.  748.    New  Tork :  Thomas 

T.  GroweU  k  Co.    1881. 

There  must  be  a  great  demand  for  English  Anthologies  which 
has  to  be  met  with  such  magnificent  supplies  as  these  two  tall 
and  corpulent  octayos. 

It  takes  nearly  thirty  octavo  pages  to  furnish  the  index  of  Mr. 
Sargent's  work,  embracing  authors*  names  and  titles  of  pieces. 
What  strikes  us  at  a  glance  is  the  fact  that  while  rich  selections 
are  made  from  the  greatest  masters  of  song,  many  of  the  brief 
master  strokes  here  presented  are  from  hands  that  never  fur- 
nished but  a  performance  or  two.  Mr.  Sargent  has  arrested 
the  fugitives  and  fixed  them  in  no  "  durance  vila**  Of  this  he 
is  aware,  and  he  notes  in  his  Preface  how  poets  have  multiplied 
during  the  present  century.  Poets  generate  poets,  attuning  the 
minds  of  their  readers  into  a  productive  power.  And  the  grow- 
ing mass  of  poetry  swells,  like  a  coral  continent,  without  limits. 

Dr.  Foster's  volume  complements  the  work  of  Mr.  Sargent. 
While  the  latter  ranges  through  the  varied  world  of  secular 
poetic  literature,  not  indeed  excluding  the  sacred,  the  former 
limits  himself  to  the  poetry  inspired  by  the  scenes,  events,  and 


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600  Methodist  Qtux^terh/  JSeview.  [July, 

characters  of  the  Bible.  Our  holy  book  is  one  great  poem;  for 
the  ideality  of  religion  is  at  once  truth  and  poetry.  The  volume 
consists  of  selections  from  not  only  the  "  Sacred  Melodies "  of 
Byron  and  Moore,  who  have  furnished  some  of  the  finest  strains 
in  this  department,  but  from  Milman,  Montgomery,  Browning, 
Longfellow;  and,  nearer  home,  specimens  not  unworthy  of  such 
a  place,  by  George  Lansing  Taylor,  Dwight  Williams,  and 
others.  About  one  third  of  the  volume  consists  of  indexes  to 
the  compiler's  Cyclop»dias  of  prose  and  poetic  selections,  en- 
abling the  possessor  to  quickly  put  his  finger  upon  any  desired 
topic,  passage,  or  tfuthor's  name. 


Index  to  Harper*9  New  Monthly  Magatine.  Alphabetical,  Analytical,  and  Classified. 
Vols.  1  to  60  inoluaiye,  from  June,  1860,  to  June,  1880.  Compiled  by  Charles 
A.  DuBVXK.    Sto,  pp.  721.    New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Sixty  volumes  and  thirty  years  of  existence  are  themselves  indices 
of  eminent  success  for  a  magazine.  The  pecuniary  results  are 
not  stated,  but  of  their  rich  magnitude  there  is  of  course  no 
doubt.  An  examination  of  the  contents  reveals  the  fact  that  the 
success  has  been  honorably  won  by  furnishing  a  vast  volume  of 
literature,  of  a  solid  as  well  as  &n  attractive  character,  instructive 
to  the  scholar  and  the  statesman,  while  gaining  the  attention  of 
the  million.  By  a  hasty  count  we  find  of  fiction,  sixteen  index 
pages;  of  poetry,  sixteen  pages;  of  history  of  current  events  and 
general  history,  fifty-five  pages;  of  science,  thirty-four  pages. 
While  we  have  sometimes  wished  that  the  funny  chapter  at  the 
end  were  a  little  chastened,  we  must  say  that  this  big  octavo  in- 
dices a  periodical  without  a  rival  in  its  class. 


Political  Eloquence  in  Greece,  Demosthenes :  With  Extracts  from  his  Orations, 
and  a  Critical  Discussion  of  tiie  "  Trial  on  the  Crown."  By  L.  BafoiF,  former 
Member  of  the  Superior  Normal  School  of  France,  Doctor  in  the  Faculty  of 
Letters  at  Toulouse,  Rector  of  the  Cbamberg  Academy,  Uniyersity  of  France, 
etc.  Translated  by  K.  J.  MaoMahon,  A.M.  8yo,  pp.  510.  Chicago:  S.  C. 
Origgs  h  Co.    1881.    Price  $d. 

We  have  never  read  a  monograph  on  ancient  politics  with  more 
zest  than  the  present  volume.  Whatever  high  classical  criticism 
may  decide  as  to  the  profound  accuracy  of  the  author's  views 
there  is  no  doubt  of  his  ability  to  give  a  fresh  life  to  .the  scenes 
and  men  of  the  past.  This  arises  from  his  keen  insight  into  the 
history  with  a  most  modem  pair  of  eyes,  and  a  style  of  epigram 
and  point,  and  pictorial  vividness.  The  work  is  within  the  au- 
thor's specialty  as  professor  and  devoted  student  of  Demosthenes 
and  Athenian  politics  for  more  than  twenty  years. 


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1881.]  Qua/rtetly  Book -Table.  601 


Foreign  Theological  Piiblications. 

Gebhardtf  (hear  v.,  und  Adolf  Samaekj  Evangdiorum  Chdez  Oraeeui  purpureua 
Jtotaaneutia.  Litteris  argenteis  sexto  ut  videtur  saecolo  scriptus  picturisque  or- 
natus.  Seine  Eutdeckung^  sein  wissenschaftlicher  und  kunstlerischer  Werth. 
Hit  two  facsim.  Schrifttafeln  Qn  Silberdr.)  und  (11)  lith.  Umrisszeiohnungen. 
Leipadg :   Giesecke  &  Derrient     1880. 

This  codex  was  accidentally  difloovered  last  year  by  the  above- 
named  gentlemen  while  traveling  in  Italy  for  purposes  of  study. 
They  had  learned  from  Lagarde's  edition  of  "  Hippolytus  "  that 
it  was  reported  in  the  sixteenth  century  that  manuscripts  of  Hip- 
polytus, Cyrillus  of  Jerusalem,  and  Dionysius  Alexandrinus  were 
preserved  in  S.  Maria  de  lo  Patire,  an  old  cloister  in  or  near 
Rossano,  in  Calabria. 

They  accordingly  visited  Bossano,  eager  to  find  and  examine 
the  said  manuscripts  for  themselves,  but  only  to  be  disappointed, 
neither  cloister  nor  any  trace  thereof  any  longer  remaining. 
They  were  then  conducted  to  the  residence  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Rossano,  where,  upon  further  inquiry,  they  were  shown  an  old 
work,  which,  it  is  said,  neither  the  archbishop  nor  any  one  of  his 
forty-eight  learned  subordinates  could  read,  not  even  determine 
so  much  as  the  language  in  which  it  was  written.  Messrs.  6eb- 
hardt  and  Hamack  soon  deciphered  it  to  be  an  old  codex  con- 
taining the  Gospel  of  Matthew  complete,  and  all  of  Mark,  ex- 
cepting the  last  verses  of  the  last  chapter,  (xvi,  14,  seq.)  It  is 
supposed  to  have  contained  originally  all  four  Gospels.  It  is 
written  in  beautiful  silvered  uncial  characters,  on  fine  purple-col- 
ored parchment,  and  is  the  only  Greek  codex  of  the  Gospels 
hitherto  known  on  such  parchment,  excepting  the  very  fragment- 
ary Codex  N,  to  which  it  is  closely  related.  In  point  of  text  it  is 
preceded  by  Codex  Vaticanus  and  Codex  Sinaiticus,  and  ranks 
with  AAI,  but  is  more  like  Cod.  D  and  Jtala. 

It  consists  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  leaves,  26  by  30.7 
centimeters.  The  text  is  in  double  columns  of  twenty  lines  each. 
The  words  are  written  without  accents,  and  are  not  separated. 
On  the  margin  are  distinctly  marked  the  Canons  of  Eusebius. 
On  eight  of  the  leaves  are 'finely  painted  representations  of 
scenes,  mostly  taken  from  the  history  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ, 
in  style  resembling  those  of  the  Vienna  Genesis  Codex,  and  rep- 
resenting the  transition  period  from  ancient  classical  painting  to 
that  of  Byzantine  painting. 

The  present  publication  is  simply  a  preliminary  report  upon 
this  interesting  discovery.     The  editors  hope  to  give  later  a 


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603  Mdhodiit  Qucurterhf  Beview.  [July, 

complete  description  of  the  nature  and  condition  of  the  manu- 
script and  of  the  painting.  Two  plates,  in  silver  type,  on  pur- 
ple ground,  accompany  the  work  and  present  to  the  eye  exact 
specimens  of  the  text.  It  is  also  furnished  with  seyenteen  litho- 
graphed sketches  of  the  miniatures.  Through  these,  and  the 
plates,  one  get9  a  very  good  impression  of  the  appearance  and 
age  of  the  manuscript,  and  also  of  the  character  and  style  of 
the  painting. 

Paleographically  considered,  this  codex  may  almost  certainly 
be  assigned  to  the  sixth  century,  and  although  it  may  not  be,  for 
purposes  of  text  criticism,  of  pre-eminent  value,  it  is  certainly  a 
very  important  contribution  to  the  history  of  Christian  painting. 


MisceUanecms. 

Sermom  to  StudenU  and  Thoughtful  Penont,  By  Llbwsltn  D.  Bbyan,  LL.B^ 
D.D.    12mo,  pp.  209.    New  York :  Charles  Soribner^s  Sons.     1881. 

Matter  Miasumariett,  Chapters  in  I^oneer  Effort  throughout  the  World.  By 
Alixandeb  Hat  Japp,  LL.D.  12mo,  pp.  898.  New  York :  Robert  Garter  k 
Brothers.     1881. 

Mimonary  C(mcertsfor  the  Sunday-school.  A  Collection  of  Dedamations,  Select 
Readinsrs,  and  Dialogues.  Compiled  by  Rev.  W.  T.  Smith.  16mo,  pp.  267. 
Cincinnati:  Walden  &  Stowe.    New  York  :  Phillips  A;  Hunt     1881. 

The  Palace  Beautiful;  or,  Sermons  to  Children.  By  William  WiLBsaroBci 
Nbwton.    16mo,  pp.  848.    New  York :  Robert  Carter  &  Brothers.    1881. 

A  Key  to  the  Apocalypee;  or,  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  to  St  John  in  the  Isle 
of  ratmos.  By  Rev.  Alfrkd  Bbunson,  A.M.,  D.D.  16mo,  pp.  216.  Cincinnati : 
Walden  &  Stowe.    New  York :  Phillips  &  Hunt     1881. 

Zeadert  of  Men,  A  Book  of  Biographies  specially  written  for  Youth.  By  H.  A. 
Page.     12mo,  pp.  898.    New  York :  Robert  Carter  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Wise  Words  and  Loving  Deede,  A  Book  of  Biographies  for  Girls.  By  E.  Condie 
Orat.     Idmo,  pp.  416.    New  York:  Robert  Carter  Ac  Brothers.    1881. 

Sir  William  Herechd;  His  Life  and  Works.  By  Eowabd  S.  Holdin.  12mo,  pp.  288. 
New  York :  Charles  Scribner*s  Sons.     1881. 

English  Men  of  Letters.  Edited  by  John  Morlkt  :  Wordtworth,  By  F.  W.  H. 
Mtkrs.     12mo,  pp.  182.    New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Anecdotes  of  Public  Men,  By  John  W.  FoRmiT.  Vol.  H  12mo,  pp.  487.  New 
York:  Harper  &  Brothers.    1881. 

Memoirs  of  Prince  Mettemi^  1778-1816.  Edited  by  Prihcb  Riohabo  Mrtirnich. 
The  Papers  classified  and  arranged  by  M.  A.  de  Klinkomstrom.  Translated  by 
Mrs.  Alexander  Napier.  12mo.  Vol.  I,  pp.  728.  Vol.  II,  1816-1829,  pp.  942. 
NewYoriL:  Harper  &  Brothers.    1881. 

Chautauqua  Library  of  EngUsk  History  and  UUratwre.  Vol  H  The  Period  of 
the  Early  PlarUagenets.  12mo,  pp.  124.  NewTork:  Phillips  ft  Hunt.  Cin- 
cinnati :  Walden  &  Stowe.     1881. 

The  Story  of  Helen  Troy.  By  the  Author  of  "  Golden  Rod,"  "  An  Idyl  of  Mt. 
Desert*'    Idmo,  pp.  202.    New  York :  Harper  ft  Brothers.    1881. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-TcMd.  603 

Bow  and  OirU  PUiywg,  mnd  Other  AMrmm  to  CkUdrm,  By  the  Bight  Bev. 
John  Gharlxs  Btlb,  D.]>.  16mo,  pp.  198.  New  York:  Bobert  Oarter  k 
Brothers.     1881. 

Who  wo*  Ptnd  Orajfton  f  By  John  Habbirton.  BlnsiratecL  Square  16mo,  pp. 
169.    New  Tork :  Harper  k  Brothers.    1881. 

The  Lyceum  Library^  No.   1.    The  Two  Kings ;   The  White  Bose  of  England ; 

Five  Stages  in  the  Life  of  a  Great  Man ;  A  Queen  Who  was  Not  a  Queen. 

Paper  cover.    8yo,  pp.  44.    New  Tork:  PhiUips ^  Hunt.    Cincinnati:  Walden 

&  Stowe.    188L 
Proceedinge  of  the  New  England  Methodist  Sietorioal  Society  at  the  First  Annual 

Meeting^  January  17,  1881.    Paper.    8yo.,  pp.  24.    Boston:  Society's  Booms, 

86  Bromfield-street     1881. 

Sixty-Fourth  Annual  Retort  of  (^  American  CoUmuaJtion  Society.  With  the 
Minutes  of  the  Annual  Meeting  and  of  the  Board  of  IHreetors.  January  18,  19, 
1881.  Paper.  8to,  pp.  28.  Washington :  Ck>loniBation  Building,  460  Penn- 
sylvania Avenue. 

The  Hour  for  Africa,  An  Address  BeHvered  before  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  By  John  L.  Withbow,  D.D.  Paper.  Pp.  12.  Washington:  Coloni- 
zation Building.    1881. 

IngersoUism  Brought  Face  to  Face  with  Christianity,  Two  Serm<m8  Preached  by 
J.  H.  Caldwell,  D.D.  Paper.  Pp.  47.  Wilmington,  Del:  The  James  & 
Webb  Printmg  and  Stationery  Co.    1881. 

The  Opening  of  a  World  Paper.  Pp.  16.  Washington :  Thomas  M'Gill  k  Co. 
1881. 

T?ie  Mountain  Movers;  Or,  A  Criticism  of  So-called  Modem  Miracles  in  Answer  to 
the  Prayer  of  Faith.  By  Stephen  H.  Ttno,  Jun.,  D.D.  Paper.  16mo,  pp.  82.  New 
Tork :  The  People's  Pulpit  Publishing  Co.    1880. 

Baptism.  By  J.  Ditzlbb,  DJ).  12mo,  pp.  864.  IiouisviUe,  Ey. :  John  P.  Mor- 
ton &  Co.     1880. 

Affinity  no  Bar  to  Marriage,  By  John  B.  Gale.  Paper.  8vo,  pp.  77.  Troy, 
N.  T. :  William  H.  Toung.     1881. 

Franklin  Square  Librart  :  The  Life  of  Georqe  the  Fourth;  Including  His  Let- 
ters and  Opinions,  with  a  View  of  the  Men,  Manners,  and  Politics  of  his  Reign« 
By  Perot  Fitzgerald,  M.  A.,  F.S.A.  In  Two  Parts.  Part  II,  pp.  99.— i/i?wu>t>« 
of  Prince  Metternich.  Edited  by  Prince  Bichard  Metternich.  In  Four  Parts. 
Part  n,  1778-1816,  pp.  92.  Part  III,  1816-1829.  pp.  101.  Part  IV,  1816- 
1829,  pp.  94.— J^Vom  Sale,  By  James  Patn.  Pp.  69— Be»ufo  the  River.  By 
Katharine  S.  Macquoid.  Pp.  68.-7^  Miller's  Daughter,  By  Anne  Beale. 
Pp.  M.—The  Chaplain  of  the  Fleet.  By  Walter  Besant  and  Jambs  Bice. 
Pp.  81.    Paper,  4to.    New  Tork :  Harper  A;  Brothers.     1881. 

Modem  Anglican  Theology.  Chapters  on  Coleridge,  Hare,  Maurice,  Eingsley,  and 
Jowett,  and  on  the  Doctrine  of  Sacrifice  and  Atonement  Third  Edition,  Be- 
vised.  To  which  is  Prefixed  a  Memoir  of  Canon  Eingsley,  with  Personal 
Beminiscenoes.  By  Bev.  James  H.  Bioo,  D.D.,  Author  of  '*  Essays  for  the 
Times,''  etc.  12mo,  pp.  662.  London :  Wesleyan  Conferoioe  Office,  2  Castle- 
street,  City  Boad;  and  66  Paternoster  Bow. 

Discourses  and  Addresses  on  Leading  Tmths  in  Rdigion  and  Philosophy.  By 
Ber.  Jambs  H.  Bieo,  D.D.,  Author  of  "Modem  Anglican  Theology,''  "Essays 
for  the  Times,"  "National  Education,"  "The  Living  Wesley,"  "The  Church- 
manship  of  John  Wesley,"  etc.,  etc.  8vo,  pp.  464.  London:  Published  for 
the  Author,  Wesleyan  Conference  Office,  2  Castle-street,  Gty  Boad;  sold  at 
66  Paternoster  Bow,  and  Wesleyan  Sunday-School  Union,  2  Ludgate  Circus 
Buildings.     1880. 

Notice  of  Dr.  Bigg's  yolnmes  will  appear  in  our  next  Quarterly. 

Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


604  MetJu>di8t  QaaHerly  Review.  [July. 

The  American  ConJlieL  A  Household  Story.  Ktrnited  in  three  Tolumes.  12mo, 
pp.  2T8,  279,  194.    New  Tork :  PhiUips  h  Hont 

IMerary  Style  and  Other  Eeeaye.  By  William  Matthews,  LL.D.  Author  of 
"Getting  On  in  the  World,"  "Words:  Their  Use  and  Abuse,"  "Oratory  and 
Orations,"  etc.,  etc.     12mo,  pp.  845.    Chicago :  L.  0.  Biggs  k  Qo.    1881. 

The  Chinese:  Their  Education,  Philosopny,  and  Letters.  By  W.  A.  P.  MAKTm, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Tungwen  OoUege,  Pekin.  12ino,  pp.  819.  New 
Tork :  Harper  k  Brothers.     1881. 

The  chapter  on  the  Chinese  Renaissance  is  the  best  in  this  ex- 
cellent series  of  chapters. 

PUUoniem  versus  ChrisUanOy,  The  Question  of  Immortality  Historically  Con- 
sidered, with  Special  Reference  to  the  Apostasy  of  the  Christian  Churqji.  To 
which  is  Annexed  an  Essay  on  the  Unity  of  Man.  By  J.  H.  Pkttinoell,  A.M., 
a  Congregational  Mmister,  etc.  12mo,  pp.  97.  PhiUdelphia :  The  Bible  Ban- 
ner Association ;  J.  D.  Brown,  Agent.     1881. 

Christian  InMtitutione.  Essays  on  Ecclesiastical  Subjects.  By  Arthue  PENRHnr 
Stahlkt,  D.D.,  Bean  of  Westminster.  Author  of  "  History  of  the  Jewish 
Church,"  "Life  of  Dr.  Arnold,"  "Sinai  and  Palestine,"  etc.  12mo,  pp.  822. 
New  Tork :  Harper  &  Brothers.  1881.  (Stereotyped  and  printed  by  S.  W. 
Greenes  Son.) 

Fresh  and  independent,  if  not  always  unquestionable. 

At  the  Threshold.  Familiar  Talks  with  Young  Christians  Concerning  Doctrines 
and  Duties.  By  Rev.  Ross  C.  Houorton,  D.D.  Author  of  "  Women  of  the 
Orient,"  etc  12mo,  pp.  188.  Cincinnati:  Walden  k  Stowe.  New  Tork: 
Phillips  k  Hunt    1881. 

An  admirable  book  for  the  beginner  in  Christian  and  Church  life. 

Madame  De  Stad.  A  Study  of  her  Life  and  Times.  The  First  Reyolution  and 
the  first  Empire.  By  Absl  Stxtens,  LL.D.  In  two  volumes.  12qio,  pp.  867. 
YoL  n,  pp.  878.    New  Tork :  Harper  k  Brothers.    1881. 

To  be  noticed  in  our  next  Quarterly. 

Bihle  Terminology  Relative  to  the  Future  lAfe,  An  Inquiry  into  the  Meaning 
of  the  Principal  Scriptural  Terms  Touching  the  Nature  and  Destiny  of  Man ; 
namely,  Soul,  Spirit,  Life,  Death,  Hell,  the  Second  Death,  Punishment,  Ever- 
lasting Destruction,  the  Life  Everlasting,  Eternal ;  the  Great  Salvation,  the  Un- 
speakable Gift,  Discarded  Scriptural  Terms.  By  J.  H.  Pettinokll,  A.M.,  a 
€k>ngregational  Minister,  etc.  12mo,  pp.  868.  Philadelphia:  The  Bible  Ban- 
ner As^)ciation.    J.  D.  Brown,  Agent     1881. 

Hwding  Adventures  on  Land  and  Sea,  The  Young  Nimrods  in  North  America. 
A  Book  for  Boys.  By  Thomas  W.  Knox,  Author  of  "  The  Boy  Travelers  in  the 
Far  East,  Japan  and  China."  "The  Boy  Travelers  in  the  Far  East,  Siam  and 
Java,"  etc.  Copiously  Illustrated.  8vo,  pp.  299.  New  Tork:  Harper  k 
Brothers.    1881. 

A  Short  History  of  the  Colonies  in  America,  By  Hinbt  Cabot  LoDei.  8vo> 
pp.  860.    New  York :  Harper  k  Brothers.    1881. 

7%e  History  of  a  Mountain.  By  Eustfi  RtOLUS.  Translated  from  the  French  by 
Bkrtha  Nbss  and  John  Lillde.  Dlustrated  by  U  Bennett.  12mo,  pp.  196, 
New  York :  Harper  k  Brothers.    1881. 


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At 


ETHODIST 

Quarterly  Eeview. 

OCTOBER,    1881. 


Art.  L— HINDU  ECLECTICISM. 

One  of  the  trials  incident  to  missionary  life  in  a  semi-civilized 
country  like  India  has  scarcely  had  due  prominence  given  it. 
The  Indian  missionary  lives,  like  his  brother  worker  in  less 
civilized  heathen  lands,  in  what  the  late  good  Bishop  Thomson 
very  appropriately  called  "  a  moral .  pest-house ; "  and  he  has 
difficulties  of  a  general  character,  arising  out  of  human  nature, 
current  systems  of  belief,  defective  intellectual  culture,  a  low 
type  of  morality,  and  various  other  sources,  to  grapple  with. 
But  he  has  some  peculiar  trials,  and  these  begin  as  soon  as  he 
begins  his  conscientious  preparation  for  his  work.  lie  has  to 
study  languages  which,  whatever  might  be  said  by  the  cham- 
pions of  philology  of  their  affinity  to  his,  are  to  him  a  jargon 
to  be  mastered  with  immense  trouble.  He  has,  moreover,  to 
master  a  literature  which  is  barren  and  uninstructive,  a  philos- 
ophy which  bewilders  rather  than  strengthens  the  mind,  a 
mythology  which  is  a  tissue  of  puerility  and  obscenity,  and 
systems  of  religious  belief  so  corrupt  that  their  ascendency  is 
the  best  proof  that  can  be  given  of  the  Scripture  doctrine  of 
human  depravity.  Is  it  a  wonder  that,  in  the  teeth  of  such  a 
formidable  mass  of  useless  reading,  a  few  missionaries  have 
proved  recreant,  and  taken  to  work  less  troublesome  and  appar- 
ently more  productive  ? 

The  idea  deserves  expansion.  Quiet  and  systematic  study 
is  a  pleasure  of  the  most  refined,  if  ijot  the  sublimest,  stamp,  to 

Fourth  Sekiks,  Vou  XXXIII. — iO 

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606  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

a  minister  of  the  Gospel  in  a  Christian  land.  His  mind  liter- 
ally feasts  and  fattens  on  the  graces  of  genuine  poetry,  the 
facts  of  reliable  history,  the  verities  of  true  science,  and  the 
truths  of  sound  philosophy  ;  and  even  when  he  has,  in  the  due 
discharge  of  his  duty,  to  master  current  systems  of  errors,  he 
finds  them  embodied,  as  a  rule,  in  readable  books,  or  pro- 
pounded with  some  regard  to  approved  rules  of  taste  in  com- 
position and  logic  in  reasoning.  His  reading  is  not  only  pleas- 
ant but  profitable,  and  the  more  thoroughly  he  gives  himself 
to  it  the  more  thoroughly  he  expands  his  mind  and  broadens 
his  sympathies.  His  brother-worker  in  the  vineyard  of  the 
Lord  in  Hindustan  is  very  differently  circumstanced  in  this,  as 
in  many  other  respects.  Study  is  to  him  a  painful  rather  than 
a  pleasurable  duty,  and  the  result  is  often  a  burdened  rather 
than  an  invigorated  mind,  a  bewildered  rather  than  an  ex- 
panded intellect.  The  trouble  he  has  to  take  in  mastering 
foreign  languages  and  making  them  his  own  is  not  without 
profit,  is  amply  repaid  by  accessions  of  intellectual  vigor,  such 
as  linguistic  study  is  invariably  accompanied  with  and  followed 
by.  But  whatever  study  he  applies  himself  to  after  having 
done  this  preliminary  work  is  a  wearisome  task.  If  he  wishes 
to  study  poetry,  and  through  it  to  obtain  an  insight  into  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  people  he  has  to  deal  with,  he  has 
to  fight  his  way  not  only  through  extravagances  of  an  exceed- 
ingly vicious  style  of  composition,  but  through  a  heap  of  epi- 
grams, anagrams,  chronograms,  and  stuff  such  as  his  soul 
abhorreth.  If  history  attracts  him,  he  has,  in  order  to  glean  a 
few  sporadic  facts  of  at  best  doubtful  historical  value,  to  wade 
neck-deep  through  the  rubbish  of  mythology  and  fable.  If 
philosophy  is  his  forte,  a  tremendous  mass  of  verbosity  and 
logomachy,  of  sophisms  and  quibbles,  before  which  those  em- 
bodied in  the  wildest  speculations  of  the  Middle  Ages  are  as 
specimens  of  correct  reasonings,  is  before  him ;  while  he  can 
scarcely  get  a  correct  idea  of  the  many-sided  and  hoary  religion 
ho  has  to  understand,  face,  and  overcome,  except  after  being 
literally  lost  in  the  dreary  wastes  of  an  unnaturally  developed 
and  corrupt  literature. 

But  what,  it  may  be  asked,  has  the  missionary  to  do  with 
such  literature  and  such  philosophy  ?  He  has  to  preach  Jesus 
Clirist  and  him  crucified,  and  his  business  is  to  fit  himself  by 


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1881.]  Hindu  Eclecticism.  607 

rapidly  picking  np  a  foreign  tongue  for  this  work  of  paramount 
importance.  Snch  assertions  have  been  more  than  once  vent- 
ured by  men  who,  while  earnestly  engaged  in  doing  good 
among  a  nominally  Christian  people,  find  time  to  elaborate 
beautiful  theories  on  the  best  method  of  carrying  on  evangel- 
istic work  among  the  heathen.  That  the  simple  story  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  him  crucified  is,  after  all,  the  truth  on  which  the 
regeneration  of  Christian  and  non-Christian  lands,  as  well  as 
that  of  individual  souls,  must  ultimately  hang,  no  sane  Chris- 
tian will  venture  to  deny.  This  story,  ever  fresh,  is  inherently 
fitted  to  touch  the  dead  heart  into  life  and  infuse  vigor  and 
vitality  into  effete  nationalities  and  paralyzed  civilizations.  But 
a  great  deal  of  rubbish  has  to  be  removed,  especially  in  heathen 
lands  like  our  own,  ere  its  legitimate  consequences  can  be  re- 
alized ;  and  a  patient  and  persistent  study  of  false  religions,  and 
the  complicated  systems  of  false  philosophy  indissolubly  as- 
sociated with  them,  enables  the  missionary  to  throw  out  of  the 
way  those  heaps  of  prejudices  and  errors  which  make  it  im- 
possible for  the  simple  story  of  the  cross  to  reach  and  influence 
the  heart.  The  theorists  who  think  that  modes  of  operation 
which  have  been  successful  among  nominal  Christians  must 
needs  be  successful  among  the  heathen,  brought  up  amid  time- 
hallowed  systems  of  theology  and  philosophy,  falsely  so-called, 
have  only  to  migrate  from  the  one  department  of  work  to  the 
other  to  be  convinced  of  their  error,  and  forced  to  exclaim,  with 
redoubled  vehemence,  "  Old  Adam  is  too  strong  for  young 
Melanchthon  1 " 

One  of  the  many  ancient  books  fitted  to  illustrate  the  pecul- 
iar trial  to  which  attention  has  been  called  is  the  Bhaga/oad 
OitU,  the  precious  book  which  may  justly  be  represented  as 
the  fountain-head  of  Hindu  eclecticism.  The  missionary  can 
scarcely  maintain  any  intercourse  with  the  reading  classes  in 
India  without  hearing  the  work  eulogized  and  extolled  in  the 
most  extravagant  terms  possible.  It  embodies  the  loftiest  flight 
of  the  sublime  philosophy  of  Asia,  and  presents  the  cream,  so 
to  speak,  of  Hindu  morality  and  Hindu  religion.  It  is  replete 
with  doctrines  which  stand  unrivaled  in  sublimity  and  grand- 
eur, truths  of  a  transcendental  order  set  off  by  sentiments  of 
an  elevated  type,  and  precepts  which,  if  generally  reduced  to 
practice,  would  convert  this  sin-stricken  world  into  a  veritable 

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608  Methodist  Qiia/rierly  Beoiew.  [October, 

paradise.  As  regards  its  style,  human  tongue  can  scarcely  de- 
scribe its  beauty  and  loftiness,  while  the  man  must  be  a  con- 
summate dullard  who  fails  to  see  that  it  is  a  master-piece  of 
correct  reasoning  as  well  as  a  model  of  composition.  The 
missionary,  moreover,  finds  these  testimonials  indorsed  by 
learned  orientalists,  who,  as  a  class,  have  the  knack  of  perceiv- 
ing beauty  where  ordinary  mortals  see  nothing  but  deformity, 
excellency  of  arrangement  and  cogency  of  reasoning  where  oth- 
ers see  nothing  but  confusion  worse  confounded.  With  bright 
anticipations,  anticipations  generated  by  recommendations  both 
indigenous  and  foreign,  he  opens  the  book  and  enthusiastically 
begins  its  perusal,  and,  lo !  his  disappointment  commences. 
Instead  of  an  elegant  style,  he  finds  extravagances  of  diction 
from  which  even  the  worshipers  of  Dr.  Johnson  in  his  own 
country  would  recoil  in  horror.  He  sees  incoherence  rather 
than  logical  consistency,  confusion  rather  than  lucidness  of 
thought,  naked  sophisms  instead  of  convincing  arguments,  and 
crude  notions  and  jarring  sentiments  agglomerated  into  a  phi- 
losophy of  the  most  heterogeneous  and  the  wildest  character, 
while  the  harsh  transitions,  incongruous  metaphors,  and  tire- 
some repetitions  he  has  to  wade  through  would  justify  even  a 
prostrating  fit  of  homesickness  on  his  part 

One  must  one's  own  self  read  this  book  in  the  original,  or  a 
literal,  verbatim  translation  of  it,  such  as  Thompson's,  which 
will  be  our  itinerary  or  guide-book  in  our  research  into  its  con- 
tents, to  be  convinced  of  the  soundness  of  these  remarks.  We 
do  not  expect  the  general  reader — we  mean  the  reader  who  has 
not  made  oriental  literature  his  specialty — ^to  indorse  our  criti- 
cism or  to  extend  to  the  toil-worn  foreign  missionary  tlie  sym- 
pathy we  have  always  felt  for  him ;  and  we  are  afraid  that*  our 
self-imposed  task  of  setting  forth  the  contents  of  this  time- 
hallowed  book  may,  after  all,  be  thankless.  But  we  must 
correct  an  error  carefully  tended  and  nourished  by  a  class  of 
philosophers  in  America,  who  are  striving  to  naturalize  the 
belief  that  the  fundamental  ideas  of  all  religions  are  alike, 
and  that  an  attempt  to  set  up  one  religion  on  the  niins  of 
others  is  unjust  as  well  as  uncalled-for.  And  we,  therefore, 
raise  the  question,  What  is  Hindu  eclecticism  ?  The  proper 
answer  to  this  question  is  furnished  by  the  Theology^  An- 
ikropology^  Soteriology^  and  JEschatology  of  the  Bhagavad 


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1881.]  Hmd/u  EdecUciem.  609 

Gita.  Let  tis  call  attention  to  three  departments  of  the  book, 
or  rather  to  the  contents  of 'the  book,  which,  though  presented 
in  promiscuous  heaps,  without  much  r^ard  to  the  advantages 
of  a  luminous,  concatenated  arrangement,  may,  by  a  not  un- 
natural application  of  the  laws  of  analysis,  be  classed  under 
these  heads. 

To  a  correct  appreciation  of  its  teaching  under  these  heads 
some  account  of  the  work  itself,  its  origin,  its  relative  position 
in  Hindu  literature,  and  its  influence  in  the  development  of 
religious  life  in  our  country,  is  a  sine  qua  non. 

Some  preliminary  remarks  of  a  somewhat  historical  charac- 
ter will,  therefore,  be  first  made.  The  JBhaga/oad  GUa^  or  the 
Song  of  Bhagavad,  or  Krishna,  one  of  the  nine  incarnations  of 
Vishnu,  appears  in  the  Mahahha/rat  as  one  of  its  multitudin- 
ous and  grotesque  episodes,  one  of  those  almost  innumerable 
legendary  tales  to  which,  along  with  those  enshrined  in  the 
Ramayuna^  the  peculiar  excellences  and  defects  of  our  national 
character  are  to  be  traced.  It  presents,  in  poetical  language, 
a  philosophical  dialogue  between  Arjun,  the  most  estimable  of 
the  characters  depicted  in  that  epic,  and  the  above-named  god, 
Krishna,  who,  in  the  form  of  man,  acts  in  the  humble  capacity 
of  his  charioteer.  The  origin  of  this  dialogue,  or  rather  mon- 
ologue, as  Arjun  appears  more  as  a  hearer  than  as  a  speaker, 
is  set  forth  with  poetic  coloring  and  exaggeration.  Arjun  sees 
before  him  the  two  hostile  branches  of  the  tribe  to  which  he 
himself  belongs :  that  is,  his  own  relatives  and  kinsmen,  in 
battle  array  facing  each  other,  and  ready  to  plimge  in  dire 
conflict,  and  the  sight  sends  a  chill  of  horror  into  a  heart  dis- 
tinguished alike  by  courage  and  tenderness.  He  is  unnerved, 
his  limbs  become  palsied,  the  hairs  on  his  body  stand  on  end, 
the  blood  of  his  heart  is  curdled,  his  head  becomes  dizzy,  and 
the  great  consecrated  bow  in  his  right  hand  drops  down  as  if 
from  an  arm  suddenly  struck  with  paralysis.  He  is  unwilling 
to  fight,  to  further  schemes  of  self-aggrandizement  by  slaugh- 
tering his  own  kinsmen  in  cruel,  fratricidal  war,  or  to  wade 
through  the  blood  of  his  own  relations  to  the  unsubstantial  and 
ephemeral  glory  of  an  earthly  throne.  He  recognizes  divine 
nature  beneath  the  humble  exterior  of  his  charioteer,  and  anx- 
iously inquires  if,  under  the  circumstances,  he  is  not  justified 
in  retiring  from  the  field  before  the  clang  of  trumpets  and  the 


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610  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

clash  of  arms  make  retreat  on  his  part  dishonorable  and  cow- 
ardly. This  question  and  others,  which  as  his  mind  grasps  one 
new  truth  after  another  he  puts  one  by  one,  draw  out  of  his 
divine  interlocutor  a  series  of  discourses  which,  besides  nerving 
him  for  the  approaching  conflict,  open  the  eyes  of  his  mind 
to  a  variety  of  mystic  truths  regarding  his  own  personality, 
that  of  the  being  he  is  privileged  to  question,  and  the  real, 
occult  nature  of  the  inanimate  world  aroimd  him.  The  im- 
mediate result  of  the  conversation  is  a  great  change  in  his 
convictions.  He  sees  truth  both  absolute  and  relative,  shakes 
oflf  his  temporary  weakness,  rushes  into  close  encounters,  sweeps 
every  thing  before  him,  and  maintains,  amid  scenes  of  courage 
and  desolation,  the  character  of  a  brave,  all-conquering,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  noble-minded  and  generous  warrior. 

But  though  mixed  up  in  popular  belief  with  the  Mahabha- 
rat^  and  presented  ordinarily  as  an  incident  of  its  great  plot,  it 
bears  unmistakable  marks  of  a  much  later  origin.  It  is,  in  the 
first  place,  replete  with  references,  both  direct  and  incidental,  to 
the  varied  schools  of  philosophy  which  flourished  in  India  long 
after  the  stirring  scenes  of  its  Heroic  Age  had  been  enacted. 
The  Sankhya  philosophy  is  frequently  referred  to  by  name, 
and  the  author's  predilection  for  or  adherence  to  its  fanciful 
cosmogony  is  discovered  in  unmistakable  terms.  The  Yoga 
philosophy  is  the  subject  of  a  nimiber  of  direct  as  well  as 
oblique  allusions,  and  its  doctrine  of  emancipation  consequent 
on  hermit  solitude,  meditation,  and  penance,  stands  out  in  bold 
relief  from  its  pages.  And,  lastly,  the  uncompromising  panthe- 
ism of  the  Vedant,  which  is  also  named,  is  the  underlying 
basis  of  all  its  characteristic  thoughts  and  ideas.  Again,  the 
Bhagavad  Gita  sets  forth  the  caste  system,  not  in  the  crude, 
embryonic  state  in  which  it  appears  in  the  MahahJiarat^  but  in 
the  matured,  fully  developed  state  in  which  it  appears  in  the 
Institutes  of  Menu,  our  national  legislator,  whose  caste  regula- 
tions have  ruled  India  for  ages  untold.  The  essential  differ- 
ence between  the  four  primal  castes  is  herein  dwelt  upon  with 
marked  emphasis,  and  the  duties  devolved  upon  each,  and  car- 
ried down  by  the  law  of  heredity  from  father  to  son,  are  par- 
ticularized in  such  a  manner  that  its  composition  posterior  to 
the  age  of  the  compilation  of  the  Institutes,  and  consequently 
to  that  of  the  Mahdbha/raty  appears  to  be  a  certainty.    And, 


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1881.]  Hindni  Eclecticism.  611 

lastly,  the  Krislma  cultus,  with  its  mystic  notions  of  Bhaktij 
or  faith,  is  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  this  philosophico- 
religious  treatise ;  and  no  one  with  even  a  superficial  knowl- 
edge of  the  history  of  Hinduism  will  venture  to  call  in  question 
the  comparatively  recent  origin  of  this  worship.  When  these 
chronological  data  are  put  together,  the  conclusion  at  which 
orientalists  like  Monier  "Williams  have  arrived,  namely,  that 
the  book  was  written  about  the  second  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  or  about  the  time  when  Greek  eclecticism  flourished 
at  Alexandria,  will  appear  irresistible. 

The  state  of  things  which  led  to  its  composition  by  an  un- 
known author,  its  ascription  to  the  learned,  versatile  author  of 
the  Maliahharat^  and  its  incorporation  with  that  long  epic, 
may  be  guessed  rather  than  ascei'tained  by  proper  investigation. 
The  philosophical  systems  which  had  been  elaborated  and  ma- 
tured in  the  schools  had  popularized  an  ideal  of  piety  which, 
though  incompatible  apparently  with  the  business  of  life,  has 
always  proved  peculiarly  attractive  to  the  Hindu  mind,  if  not 
to  the  human  mind  in  general.  Intense  contemplation  in 
solitude,  resulting  in  complete  mastery  over  self,  stoic  indiffer- 
ence to  the  occurrences  of  life,  painful  or  pleasurable,  extinc- 
tion of  desire,  holy  calm,  and  imperturbable  quiescence — such 
had  been  the  standard  of  piety  set  up  by  the  philosophical 
speculations  of  the  varied  schools  of  thought,  of  which  the 
eclecticism  of  the  Gita  may  justly  be  represented  as  an  off- 
shoot. And  the  more  its  excellence  had  been  appreciated  the 
more  had  a  distate  for  the  avocations  of  life  been  created  and 
a  rush  toward  hermit  solitude  realized.  Nor  had  the  mor- 
bid hankering  after  the  enjoyment  of  undisturbed  meditation 
in  sequestered  places  been  confined  to  the  higher  order  of 
society,  to  the  sacerdotal  and  military  castes ;  it  had  come  down 
from  the  apex  to  the  very  base  of  the  social  pyramid,  and  the 
industrious  trader  and  even  the  vile  ^erf  had  separated  them- 
selves from  useful  and  indispensable  toil,  and  swelled  the  ranks 
of  devotees  drawn  away  from  the  turmoil  of  busy  life  to  the 
repose  of  severe  contemplation.  The  social  machinery,  worked 
by  the  forces  emanating  from  the  caste  system,  had  been  un- 
hinged, and  a  reaction  against  the  results  of  philosophical 
speculation  was  needed  to  secure  its  or  their  harmonious  oper- 
ation.    That  reaction  was  initiated  by  the  eclecticism  of  the 


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612  Methodist  Qtunierly  JReview.  [October, 

Gita,  which  not  merely  restated  with  emphasis  the  divine  origin 
of  the  caste  system,  but  made  the  duties  enjoined  by  it  essen- 
tial to  salvation.  But  the  author  of  this  ancient  treatise,  who- 
ever he  was,  could  not  emancipate  himself  from  the  influence 
either  of  the  philosophical  speculations  which  he  tried  to  work 
up  into  a  composite  system,  or  of  the  ideal  of  piety  popularized 
thereby.  And  so  he  vibrates  between  conflicting  sentiments, 
and  ultimately  upholds  what  at  first  he  seems  determined  to 
oppose  and  counteract.  The  eclecticism  of  the  Gitay  like 
every  other  syncretistic  movement,  either  in  the  history  of 
philosophy  or  that  of  religion,  proved  a  failure ;  but  some  of 
the  ideas  it  popularized  have  continued  to  influence  Hindu 
society  ever  since  the  period  of  its  composition.  Its  attempt 
to  work  heterogeneous  systems  of  philosophic  thought  into  a 
homogeneous  whole  is  scarcely  appreciated  even  among  people 
who  would  exhaust  the  vocabulary  of  praise  in  speaking  of  its 
literary  merit  and  ethical  purity  and  excellence.  But  its  at- 
tempt to  uphold  the  caste  system  and  make  the  duties  enjoined 
by  it  stepping-stones  to  the  higher  degrees  of  perfection  attained 
only  by  quiet  meditation  in  sequestered  places,  has  proved  a 
grand  success,  as  we  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  showing.  But 
the  real  excellence  of  some  of  the  principles  to  which  it  has 
given  currency  cannot  screen  it  from  the  charge  of  a  lack  of 
earnestness  or  laxity  of  principle  which  makes  its  speculations 
incoherent  and  its  conclusions  unsatisfactory.  The  lax  accom- 
modating spirit  of  compromise,  the  evil  star,  so  to  speak,  of 
all  systems  of  eclecticism,  from  the  oldest  of  those  which  flour- 
ished in  times  of  yore  down  to  that  which  was  recently  trans- 
ferred wholesale  from  Boston  to  Calcutta,  is  at  once  the  most 
characteristic  and  culpable  feature  of  this  philosophico-relig- 
ious  treatise. 

Having  brought  our  notice  of  the  state  of  things  to  which 
the  composition  of  the  Bha^a/oad  Gita  is  to  be  traced  to  a 
dose,  we  are  at  liberty  to  call  the  attention  to 

I.  Its  Theology.  The  theology  of  the  Gita  is  not  merely 
tinctured  with,  but  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  the  absolute 
pantheism  of  the  Vedant.  The  difference  is  not  to  be  traced 
in  the  creed  of  the  systems,  which,  in  its  important  features,  is 
one  and  the  same,  but  in  the  manner  in  which  this  creed  seems 
to  have  been  arrived  at.    The  Vedant  arrived  at  its  unmiti- 


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1881.1  Hindu  Eclecticism,  613 

gated  pantheism  tlirough  the  pathway  of  jndicions  rejection, 
while  the  Gita  arrived  at  the  same  goal  through  the  pathway 
of  a  somewhat  unnatural  though  dexterously  effected  amalga- 
mation. The  Vedant  came  to  its  grand  idea  of  unity  of  sub- 
stance by  rejecting  two  of  the  three  entities  held  by  three  of 
the  foregoing  schools  of  philosophic  thought,  while  the  Crita 
came  to  its  grand  idea  of  unity  by  merging  these  three  entities 
into  one  substance.  To  explain  this  a  little  reference  to  the 
foregoing  schools  of  philosophy,  or  rather  to  the  principles  in- 
culcated in  these  schools,  is  necessary.  Let  us  begin  with  the 
SamJchya  system  of  Kapilu,  which  is  chronologically,  perhaps, 
the  first  of  the  six  systems  into  which  philosophical  speculation 
developed  in  India  about  five  or  six  centuries  before  the  birth 
of  Christ.  This  system  is  dualistic,  and  it  admits  the  eternal 
co-existence  of  two  entities,  the  primordial,  self -evolving  form, 
called  Prakretiy  and  the  human  soul,  Purush.  The  primor- 
dial form,  or  nature  in  its  original  essence,  passes  through 
varied  processes  of  evolution,  gives  birth  to  intelligence, 
egoism,  the  elements,  both  subtle  and  gross,  the  senses,  and  the 
powers  of  action,  and  finally  the  mind,  called  the  eleventh  or- 
gan, through  which  it  entraps  the  soul,  eternal  and  pure,  and 
piakes  it  miserable  by  begetting  in  it  desire  and  aversion,  such 
as  necessarily  lead  to  action.  This  system  explains  the  phe- 
nomena of  creation  on  thoroughly  atheistic  principles ;  and  its 
rampant  atheism  led  to  its  condemnation  among  a  people  more 
thoroughly  religious  than  even  the  Athenians,  whose  fervor  in 
religious  matters  was  eulogized  by  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 
It  was,  therefore,  supplanted  by  the  theistic  Sankhya  of  Pa- 
taujali,  who  to  the  two  admitted  entities  of  his  atheistic  pre- 
decessor added  another  entity,  namely,  God.  This  triadism 
was  upheld  by  the  two  logical  schools  which  evidently  followed 
the  Sankhya  schools  in  the  pathway  of  philosophical  investiga- 
tion ;  but,  though  fitted  to  satisfy  the  religious  longings  and 
aspirations  of  the  Hindu  heart,  it  was  too  complex  to  satisfy  the 
generalizing  tendency  of  the  Hindu  mind.  And  so  it  was 
made  to  shrink  into  monism  under  the  auspices  of  the  Vedantic 
school,  which  retained  God  and  cast  overboard  the  other  two 
entities  associated  with  him.  But  the  pantheism  of  the  Gita 
is  not  elaborated  in  this  way.  The  Crita  admits  the  existence 
of  the  three  entities  of  the  Saukhya  philosophy  of  the  theistic 


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614  Methodist  Qaarterly  Beview.  [October, 

type,  and  of  the  logical  schools.  The  divine  interlocutor, 
Krishna,  dilates  in  the  fifteenth  chapter,  as  in  many  other 
places,  on  his  identity  with  the  world  at  large,  but  at  the  same 
time  calls  attention  to  the  existeilce  of  two  entities  beside  or 
rather  in  himself.     Here  are  the  words  : 

And  I  alone  am  known  to  be  by  all  the  Vedas,  and  I  am  the 
composer  of  the  Vedant,  and  also  the  interpreter  of  the  Vedas. 
These  two  spirits  exist  in  the  world,  the  divisible  and  also  the 
indivisible.  The  divisible  is  every  living  being.  The  indivisible 
is  said  to  be  that  which  pervades  all.  But  there  is  another,  the 
highest  spirit,  designated  by  the  name  of  the  Supreme  Soul, 
which,  as  the  imperishable  master,  penetrates  and  sustains  the 
triple  world.  Since  I  surpass  the  divisible,  and  am  higher  than 
the  indivisible,  I  am,  therefore,  celebrated  in  the  world  and  in 
the  Vedas  as  the  highest  Person. 

This  extract  shows  how  the  triadism  of  the  theistic  Sankhya 
is  made  to  consist  with  the  monism  of  the  Vedant.  The  divis- 
ible spirit  is  the  essence  of  the  soul,  dwelling  in  the  Supreme 
Spirit  as  his  better  or  superior  portion,  and  individualized  in 
man — ^the  undividuated  soul  being  but  a  portion  of  this  ele- 
ment of  the  divinity.  The  indivisible  spirit  is  the  Prakriti 
of  former  schools,  or  essence  of  mfttter,  which  forms  the  infe- 
rior part  of  the  divine  nature,  and  which  appears  in  varied 
forms  in  the  objects  of  nature  around  us.  These  two  entities 
which  Vedantism  casts  overboard  are  merged  in  the  all-embrao- 
ing  divine  nature  by  the  author  of  the  Gita,  according  to  whom 
the  Supreme  Soul  is  a  compound  of  the  essence  of  all  individ- 
uated souls  and  the  essence  of  all  material  phenomena.  The 
Supreme  Spirit  is  represented  as  evolving  the  world  out  of  his 
superior  element,  and  the  souls  of  men  out  of  his  supreme 
element.  The  union,  therefore,  effected  in  the  CHta  is  exactly 
similar  to  the  union  between  the  tiger  and  the  lamb  when  the 
latter  was  in  the  former ! 

Pantheism  thus  elaborated  is  the  theology  of  this  phUosoph- 
ico-religious  dialogue  or  monologue  ;  and  innumerable  are  the 
passages  in  which  the  divine  interlocutor,  Krishna,  represents 
himself  as  the  original,  essential,  all-embracing,  all-pervading 
Deity.  The  sublimest  type  of  egoism  with  which  even  pan- 
theism familiarizes  us  are  tame  in  comparison  with  that  which 
characterizes  his  discourses  concerning  his  own  mystic  person- 
ality.   All  the  figures  and  images  by  which  the  essential  iden- 


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1881.1  Hindu  Eclecticimh.  615 

tity  of  the  Creator  with  the  creation  is  set  forth  in  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Hindus,  and  which,  moreover,  give  a  peculiarly 
imposing  aspect  to  their  voluminous  literature,  are  heaped  upon 
him  in  these  discourses.  He  represents  himself  as  the  lumi- 
nous element  of  the  sun  and  moon,  the  heat  of  the  fire,  the 
brilliance  of  the  flame,  the  light  of  lights,  and  the  radiance  of 
all  radiant  objects.  He  represents  himself  as  the  sound  of 
ether,  the  fragrance  of  the  earth,  the  everlasting  seed  of  exist- 
ing things,  the  life  of  all  living  things,  the  father,  mother, 
husband,  forefather,  sustainer,  friend,  and  lord  of  the  world. 
According  to  Monier  Williams'  somewhat  free  version  he  con- 
cludes his  description  of  his  own  all-pervading  personality,  or 
rather  essence,  with  these  words  : 

.  .  .  *'  I  ani  its  (world's)  way  and  refuge, 

Its  habitation  and  receptacle. 

I  am  its  witness.     I  am  victory 

And  energy ;  I  watch  the  nniyerse 

With  eyes  and  face  in  all  directions  turned. 

I  dwell  as  wisdom  in  the  heart  of  all ; 

I  am  the  goodness  of  the  good ;  I  am 

Beginning,  middle,  end,  eternal  time, 

The  birth  and  death  of  all.    I  am  the  sjrmbol  A 

Among  the  characters.    I  have  created  all 

Out  of  one  portion  of  myself." 

This  passage,  so  decidedly  instinct  with  lofty  egoism^  gives 
prominence  to  the  second  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the 
system  of  theology  propounded  in  this  book.  It  ought  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Bhaga/odd  Gita  embodies  an  attempt 
not  merely  to  reconcile  jarring  schools  of  philosophic  thought, 
but  to  effect  a  union  between  philosophy  and  popular  mythol- 
ogy. And  so  on  the  system  of  absolute  pantheism  Evolved  out 
of  the  dissertations  of  the  schools  we  see  grafted  the  theory  of 
incarnation,  expounded  and  illustrated  in  popular  mythology. 
The  speaker  is  not  an  ordinary  emanation  from  the  Deity,  but 
the  Deity  himself  in  the  form  of  man,  and  he  calls  himself, 
not  only  AdhyaVraa^  the  Supreme  Soul ;  Adhibhuta^  the  Su- 
preme Existence ;  Adhidaivatay  the  Supreme  God ;  but  Adhi- 
yajna^  the  Supreme  Sacrifice.  The  Hindu  doctrine  of  tlie 
cyclic  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  the  second  i)erson  of  the  Hindu 
triad,  is  clearly  set  forth,  and  the  object  of  these  periodic  man- 
ifestations of  the  Deity  is  mentioned^  namely,  "to  establish 


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616  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [October, 

righteousness."  The  divine  interlocutor  not  merely  represents 
himself  as  an  incarnation  of  Qod,  not  merely  refers  to  his  past 
incarnation,  not  merely  dwells  on  the  great  object  to  accom- 
plish which  he  comes  down  periodically  in  various  forms  from 
on  high,  but,  at  Arjun's  special  request,  appears  in  his  "celes- 
tial form."     (Monier  Williams'  translation  :) 

"  Endowed  with  countless  mouths  and  countless  eyes, 
With  countless  faces  turned  to  every  quarter, 
With  ornaments  and  wreaths  and  robes  divine, 
With  heavenly  fragrance  and  celestial  weapons, 
It  was  as  if  the  firmament  were  filled, 
All  in  an  instant,  with  a  thousand  suns 
Blazing  with  dazxling  luster ;  so  beheld  he 
The  glories  of  the  universe  collected 
In  the  one  person  of  the  God  of  gods.**  • 

The  last  two  lines  are  eminently  fitted  to  correct  the  mistakes 
into  which  Mr.  Thompson  has  fallen,  of  assuming  that  the  per- 
sonality of  the  Godhead  is  clearly  set  forth  in  the  Gita.  God 
is  ceitainly  spoken  of  in  many  places  as  a  person  endowed  with 
attributes  generally  ascribed  to  the  Deity,  and  even  moved  by 
infinite  compassion  to  come  down,  in  various  forms,  to  establish 
righteousness ;  but  the  personality  ascribed  to  God  is  merely 
a  collection  of  the  "  glories  of  the  universe."  A  consistent, 
coherent  system  of  theology  cannot  possibly  be  evolved  out  of 
the  jarring  sentiments  brought  into  one  focus  in  the  Gita^  any 
more  than  a  homogeneous  body  of  speculative  divinity  or  prac- 
tical religion  can  be  evolved  out  of  the  vaunted  eclecticism  of 
the  nineteenth  century — the  eclecticism,  we  mean,  which  has 
been  distilled  from  the  writings  of  Theodore  Parker  at  Cal- 
cutta, if  nof  ti^ansf  erred  wholesale.  But  the  theology  embodied 
therein  settles  down,  after  appearing  in  varied  forms,  into  that 
pantheism  which  assumes  the  existence  of  an  all-pervading 
substance  rather  than  of  an  intelligent,  voluntary  Agent,  as 
the  foundation  of  existence  in  all  its  diversified  aspects  or 
modes. 

II.  The  Anthropology  of  the  G%ta  is  in  keeping  with  its  the- 
ology, and,  like  it,  vibrates  between  the  transcendental  notions 
of  the  schools  and  the  coarse  ideas  embedded  in  popular  mythol- 
ogy and  religion.  Man  is  represented  as  a  union  of  body  and 
soul,  the  former  a  portion  of  the  indivisible  material  essence 


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1881.1  Sindu  JSdectwism.  617 

in  the  Deity,  and  the  latter  a  portion  of  his  higher  nature,  the 
spiritual  essence.  The  dnalistic  nature  of  man  is  set  forth  in 
the  following  extract,  (Chapter  XIII :) 

This  hody,  O  son  of  Kunti,  is  called  Kshetra,  Those  who 
know  the  truth  of  things  call  that  which  knows  this  (Kshetra) 
KshetrajnOy  (knower  of  the  hody.)  And  know,  also,  that  I  am 
the  Kshetrajna  in  all  Kshetras,  Bharat.  That  which  is  the 
knowledge  of  the  Kshetra  and  Elshetrajna  is  considered  by  me 
spiritual  knowledge.  The  great  elements,  the  egoism,  the  mtel- 
lect,  and  also  the  principle  of  life  and  the  eleven  organs  and  the 
^\Q  objects  of  sense— desire,  aversion,  happiness,  and  unhappi- 
ness,  multiplicity  of  condition,  reflection,  resolution,  (aU)  this  is 
briefly  denominated  Kshetra  with  its  passions. 

Place  this  in  juxtaposition  with  the  following  quotation  from 
Chapter  XV : 

An  eternal  portion  of  me  only,  having  assumed  life  in  this 
world  of  life,  attracts  the  mind  and  the  five  senses,  which  belong 
to  nature.  Whatever  body  the  Sovereign  Spirit  enters  or  quits, 
it  is  connected  with  it  by  snatching  those  senses  from  nature, 
even  as  the  breeze  snatches  perfumes  from  their  very  bed.  This 
spirit  approaches  the  objects  of  sense  by  presiding  over  the  ear, 
the  eye,  the  touch,  the  taste,  and  the  smell,  and  also  over  the 
mind.  The  foolish  do  not  perceive  it  when  it  quits  the  body, 
nor  when  it  remains,  (in  it,)  nor  when  actuated  by  the  qualities 
it  enjoys,  (the  world.)  But  those  who  have  the  eyes  of  knowl- 
edge do  perceive  it. 

These  two  extracts  set  forth  the  author's  predilection  for  and 
belief  in  the  cosmogony  of  the  Sankhya  school,  and  his  anxiety 
to  infuse  thereinto  the  pantheism  of  the  Vedant.  Indeed, 
the  author  does  nothing  more  or  less  than  transfer  wholesale 
the  cosmogony  of  the  former  school  and  substitute  for  its  self- 
evolving  material  principle,  Prahnti^  the  self-evolving  spirit- 
ual substance  of  the  latter  school.  The  process  of  evolution 
remains  the  same,  intelligence  giving  birth  to  egoism  or  con- 
sciousness, and  through  it  to  the  subtle  elements,  namely, 
sound,  feel,  color,  rapidity,  and  odor ;  and  the  five  organs  of 
action,  namely,  the  larynx,  hands,  feet,  and  the  excretory  and 
generative  organs.  And,  lastly,  the  mind  or  the  eleventh  organ 
is  created,  and  all  the  evils  of  life  are  realized  through  its 
ceaseless  and  malignant  activity.  The  ultimate  power  of  this 
series  is,  however,  not  the  primordial  form  of  materialism,  but 
the  spiritual  substance  of  pantheism,  with  its  consciousness  and 

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618  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

varied  mental  powers  potentially,  if  not  actually,  present  in  it. 
This  spiritual  substance,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  appears  in 
the  Gita  embodied  as  a  rule  in  an  all-embracing  infinite  per- 
sonality with  a  twofold  nature,  the  inferior  element  manifested 
in  the  various  modes  of  material  existence  and  the  superior  in 
those  of  spiritual  life. 

But  how  does  the  theory  of  cyclic  incarnation,  or  of  a  series 
of  incarnations  culminating  in  Krishna,  the  divine  interlocutor, 
consist  with  this  view  of  pantheistic  thought?    Are  we  to 
suppose  that  the  modem  theory  of  incarnation,  that  we  mean 
which  makes  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  the  crowning  point  of  a 
graduated  scale  of  incarnations,  was  anticipated  in  India  up- 
ward of  two  millenniums  ago  ?    We  have  no  doubt  but  that  it 
was,  though  the  theory  does  not  appear  stated  with  logical 
precision  either  in  this  book  or  any  other  work  on  Hindu  phi- 
losophy and  Hindu  religion.     How  little  has  modem  rational- 
ism added  to  the  results  philosophical  speculation  displayed  in 
ancient  times  !     The  theology  of  the  Gita  renders  the  essential 
unity  of  the  human  race  a  logical  necessity,  or  an  inevitable 
logical  sequence.     If  all  men  are  portions  of  the  Deity,  both  as 
regards  their  bodies  and  as  regards  their  souls,  whatever  differ- 
ence we  may  notice  among  them  must  be  a  difference  of  de- 
gree, not  a  difference  of  kind.     This  irresistible  conclusion  is, 
however,  evaded  by  the  author.     He  is  a  Brahmin  as  well  as  a 
philosopher,  and  one  of  his  main  objects  in  the  composition 
and  circulation  of  this  philosophico-religipus  treatise  is  to  up- 
hold the  caste  system  in  its  fully  developed  form  at  all  hazards. 
And  so  he  cheerfully  sacrifices  logical  consistency  at  the  altar 
of  the  social  god  whose  ascendency  must  be  re-established  after 
the  temporary  confusion  created  by  philosophical  speculation. 
And  he  unhesitatingly  maintains  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween the  recognized  castes.     The  following  passage  shows  that 
the  division  of  labor  introduced  by  that  system  is  dependent, 
according  to  our  author,  on  original  propensities  rather  than 
on  the  mere  accident  of  education : 

The  offices  of  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Vaishyas,  and  Sudras,  O 
harasser  of  thy  foes !  are  distributed  according  to  the  qualities 
which  predominate  in  the  dispositions  of  each.  Tranquility, 
continence,  mortification,  purity,  patience,  and  also  rectitude, 
spiritual  knowledge,  and  spiritual  discernment,  belief  in  the  ex- 


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1881.1  Hindu  Eclecticism.  619 

istence  of  another  world,  comprise  the  office  of  a  Brahmin, 
sprung  from  his  disposition.  Valor,  glory,  strength,  firmness, 
aoility  in  warfare,  and  also  keeping  one's  ground,  liberality,  and 
a  lordly  character,  are  the  office  of  Kshatriya,  sprung  from  his 
disposition.  Agriculture,  herding  of  kine,  and  commerce  are  the 
office  of  a  Vaishya,  sprung  from  his  disposition.  Servitude  is 
the  peculiar  office  of  a  Sudra,  sprung  from  his  disposition.  Each 
man  who  is  satisfied  with  his  office  attains  perfection. — Chap- 
ter XVIL 

III.  The  last  line  brings  ns  tor  the  Soteriology  of  the  Gita^  a 
subject  of  paramount  importance,  inasmuch  as  we  see  reflected 
in  it  the  notions  of  salvation  now  current  among  our  country- 
men.  The  soteriology  of  the  Crita  appears  at  first  sight  to  have 
been  a  re-action  against  that  of  the  schools,  the  jarring  theories 
of  which  it  endeavored  to  weld  into  a  homogeneous  whole. 
The  watch-word  of  the  schools  was  quiescence^  but  that  of  the 
6ita  seems  to  have  been  action.  The  schools  systematically 
opposed  action,  and  represented  it  as  the  source  of  all  our 
trouble.  According  to  their  teaching  attachment  to  the  world 
breeds  desire,  and  desire  breeds  action,  and  action  breeds  merit 
or  demerit,  and  merit  or  demerit  brings  in  its  train  reward  or 
punishment  and  a  fresh  transmigration,  and  all  the  evils  asso- 
ciated with  it.  Action,  therefore,  with  its  antecedents  and 
consequents,  should  be  annihilated  or  superseded  by  meditative 
stillness  and  quiescence,  ere  the  vexed  spirit  can  be  liberated 
from  the  thralldom  of  transmigration  and  merged  into  the  ma- 
terial or  divine  essence  as  a  drop  in  the  ocean.  The  schools 
were  certainly  at  loggerheads  with  one  another  on  many  of  the 
fundamental  questions  of  theology  and  science,  but  they  were 
unanimous  in  denouncing  action  and  upholding  passive  con- 
templation as  essential  to  salvation,  in  the  Hindu  sense  of  the 
term ;  that  is,  absorption  in  the  Deity.  Moreover,  this  doc- 
trine of  the  schools  was  by  no  means  received  by  the  people  at 
large  as  a  beautiful  theory  to  be  revolved  in  the  mind  for  a 
few  minutes  and  then  quietly  shelved.  On  the  contrary, 
earnest  souls  from  all  ranks  of  society  succumbed  to  its  fasci- 
nating influence,  separated  themselves  from  needed  work,  be- 
took themselves  to  hermit  solitude,  and  wasted  their  energies 
in  indolent  meditation.  To  remedy  this  growing  evil  the  Gita 
appeared,  with  its  watch-word  action^  opposed  to  the  passiveness 
and  quiescence  of  the  schools ;  and  the  ai'guments  by  which  it 

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BHstains  its  position  are  eminently  fitted  to  influence  for  good 
even  the  contemplative  Hindu,  who  looks  forward  to  assimila- 
tion in  the  Deity  as  the  summv/nh  honum.  Action,  the  Gita 
maintains,  is  inevitable.  The  devotee  must  breathe,  his  blood 
must  circulate,  the  varied  portions  of  his  body  must  discharge 
their  functions  to  enable  him  to  give  himself  to  that  quiet  and 
contemplative  life  which  has  such  an  irresistible  chami  for  him. 
Moreover,  he  must  eat  and  drink  a  little  in  order  to  sustain 
life,  and  this  means  action.  Action,  then,  being  inevitable,  to 
denounce  it  as  the  cause  of  all  our  sorrows  and  discomforts, 
and  attempt  its  extinction,  is  not  true  philosophy. 

But  action,  the  schools  maintain,  is  fructcscent,  and  must 
bear  its  fruit  either  in  reward  or  in  punishment,  and  thereby 
prolong  the  chain  of  transmigrations.  The  author  of  the  Gita 
admits  that  action  is  fructcscent,  but  he  maintains  that  it  is  not 
invariably  so.  "When  action  is  performed  witli  a  view  to  re- 
wards or  punishments,  that  is,  when  action  is  performed  with 
interested  motives,  it  bears  fruit,  prolongs  the  chain  of  trans- 
migrations, and  perpetuates  the  misery  of  existence.  But 
when  action  is  performed  without  any  regard  to  consequences 
its  effect  is  salvation,  not  prolonged  enthrallment.  Not  action 
in  general,  but  action  with  interested  motives,  action  from  self- 
ish desires  and  selfish  aims,  ought  to  be  denounced.  The 
necessity  of  action  being  admitted,  the  question  rises,  What 
course  is  action  to  take  ?  Or,  in  other  words,  What  are  men 
to  do  to  be  saved  from  the  misery  of  prolonged  existence? 
The  Gita^  in  reply  to  this  important  question,  does  not  give  an 
uncertain  sound.  Men  are  to  perform  the  duties  of  their  castes, 
nothing  more  and  nothing  less.  The  track  chalked  out  for  a 
man  by  the  rules  and  regulations  of  his  caste  is  to  him  the 
path  of  righteousness  and  salvation ;  and  on  it  he  is  safe,  it 
being  absolutely  impossible  for  him  to  go  wrong  while  treading 
it  patiently  and  perseveringly.  "  It  is  better  to  perform  one's 
own  duty,  even  though  it  be  devoid  of  excellence,  than  anoth- 
er's duty  well.  He  who  fulfills  the  office  obligated  by  his  own 
nature  does  not  incur  sin.  One  should  not  reject  the  duty 
to  which  one  is  bom,  even  if  it  be  associated  with  error,  for 
all  (human)  undertakings  are  involved  in  error,  as  fire  is  by 
smoke." 

But  the  soteriology  of  the  book,  like  its  theology  and  itB 

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1881.]  Hindu  JSdectioism.  621 

anthropology,  is  involved  inextricably  in  confusion,  becanse  the 
author,  while  determined  to  give  prominence  to  some  principles 
of  a  practic^  stamp,  seems  to  have  been  unable  to  free  him- 
seli  from  the  fascinating  influence  of  the  ideal  of  piety  held  up 
by  the  schools  —  the  devotee  seated  cross-legged  or  standing 
still  and  immovable  beneath  the  outstretched  branches  of  a 
shady  tree,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  tip  of  his  nose,  his  breath 
regulated  according  to  fixed  rules,  his  mind  concentrated  on 
*one  theme  or  object  of  contemplation,  his  passions  and  appe- 
tites not  merely  controlled  but  extinguished,  his  desires  and 
aspirations  subsiding  into  a  holy  calm,  the  serenity  of  his  soul 
making  him  impassable  or  indifferent  to  hunger  and  thirst,  heat 
and  cold,  pleasure  and  pain,  and  his  entire  self,  separated  from 
its  accidental  surroundings,  merged  into  the  Deity.  No  Hindu 
tliinker,  in  the  'days  of  our  author,  however  broad  might  be 
his  thoughts,  could  contemplate  this  picture  of  tranquil  medi- 
tation without  being  instinctively  led  to  recognize  its  immense 
superiority  to  the  bustle  and  turmoil  of  an  active  life.  And  so 
the  author  of  the  Gita^  like  the  great  Buddha  himself,  after 
flying  from  it  for  a  moment,  swung  back  to  it  with  redoubled 
momentum.  And  its  theory  of  salvation  is  the  theory  to  which 
universal  homage  is  paid  in  Hindustan  to-day ;  the  theory,  we 
mean,  which  makes  an  inferior  degree  of  salvation  hang  on 
kanuayoga,  or  the  devotion  of  works,  while  salvation,  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  term,  is  only  attainable  through  the  path- 
way of  pryanyogay  or  the  devotion  of  knowledge  or  hermit 
solitude  and  concentrated  meditation. 

IV.  The  Eachatology  of  the  book  need  not  detain  us  long. 
The  Hindu  doctrine  of  transmigration,  with  its  ascending  and 
descending  series  of  animated  bodies,  innumerable  births  and 
deaths,  terminating,  after  the  slow  cycle  of  ages  innumerable, 
in  absorption  in  the  Deity,  is  the  basis  of  all  its  speculations 
on  this  subject.  It,  however,  recognizes  one  principle  which 
should  not  be  passed  over  unnoticed,  namely,  that  a  man's  con- 
dition in  the  world  to  come  is  determined  by  his  meditations 
rather  than  action  in  this  life. 

He  who,  remembering  me  at  the  moment  of  death,  quits  the 
body  and  comes  forth,  enters  my  nature,  there  is  no  doubt  about 
that.  Or  again,  whatever  nature  he  thinks  on  when  he  abandons 
the  body  at  the  last,  to  that  only  does  he  go,  O  son  of  Kunti  I 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIH.— 41 


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having  been  always  conformed  to  Aat  nature.     Therefore  think 
of  me  at  all  times  and  fights. 

It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  superstitions  to  which  this 
and  other  passages  of  the  sort  have  given  birth,  or  the  various 
expedients  adopted  to  direct  the  thoughts  of  the  dying  Hindu 
to  the  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  who  is  the  principal  interlocutor 
in  this  dialogue.  The  Hindu  father  of  the  Vaishnah  sect,  or 
the  sect  which  upholds  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  in  preference 
to  that  of  any  other  god,  to  that  either  of  Brahma^  the  first,  or 
MaJteshwa/Tj  the  third  person  in  the  Hindu  triad,  gives  names 
to  his  male  children,  such  as  may  in  the  hour  of  death  recall  the 
Deity  to  his  mind ;  or  he  writes  some  of  his  hundred  and  eight 
names  on  his  sacred  garments  and  on  his  arms  and  on  the  palms 
of  his  hands,  that  his  eyes  may  fall  on  them  and  bring  up  as- 
sociations fitted  to  pave  his  way  to  heaven  before  they  are  closed 
forever.  The  immoral  principle  that  man,  however  bad  his 
life  has  been,  will  enter  heaven  if  at  the  moment  of  death  he 
repeats  the  name  of  Vishnu,  is  a  legitimate  deduction  from 
such  a  passage,  though  perhaps  the  author  and  its  compeers  did 
not  foresee  the  wrong  use  which  has  been  made  in  subsequent 
ages  of  their  unguarded  statements  I 

We  confess  we  don't  rise  from  the  perusal  of  this  time-hal- 
lowed and  extravagantly  venerated  book  with  a  very  high 
opinion  of  its  contents.  The  devotee  who,  amid  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  nineteenth  century,  represents  God  as  the  life 
of  every  living  thing,  from  man  down  to  the  meanest  worm, 
and  the  aggregate  of  all  forces,  mechanical,  chemical,  electric, 
and  magnetic,  as  the  sum  total,  in  short,  of  all  forms  of  life 
and  all  material  agencies,  may  be  in  raptures  when  speaking  of 
its  teachings.  The  self-styled  anthropologist,  who  throws 
overboard  the  supernatural  element  in  Christianity,  and  repre- 
sents it  as  a  development  of,  or  an  outgrowth  from,  pre-existing 
religious  ideas,  may  see  in  it  a  grand  stepping-stone  to  the 
rapid  progress  made  in  subsequent  ages  in  religion  and  morals. 
But  we  are  ordinary  mortals,  with  no  pompous  titles,  and  we 
cannot  help  representing  its  general  teaching,  theological  and 
moral,  as  on  the  whole  pernicious,  even  while  we  are  not  back- 
ward in  recognizing  the  excellence  of  a  few  truths  and  princi- 
ples scattered  up  and  down  among  its  miscellaneous  contents. 
We  have  no  hesitation  whatever  in  aflirming  that  this  and  other 


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1881.]  JSindu  Eclecticism.  623 

books  of  the  sort  have,  on  the  whole,  been  so  many  drags  on, 
rather  than  incentives  to,  the  progress  of  the  world  in  religion 
and  morals,  and  we  fearlessly  oppose  this  bold  assertion  to  the 
sentimental  talk  which  is  unhappily  gaining  ground  even  in  the 
Churches  of  Christendom. 


Abt.  IL— SHAKESPEARE :  HIS  GENIUS  AND  TIMES. 

To  those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  frequenting  our  great  libr^ 
ries  there  is  nothing  so  utterly  astounding  as  the  immensity  of 
those  accumulations  that  cluster  around  two  books — ^the  Bible 
and  the  plays  of  Shakespeare.  In  1879  H.  H.  Morgan,  of  St. 
Louis,  published  a  Topical  Shakespeariana,  in  which  he  gives  a 
list  of  two  thousand  English  books  devoted  entirely  to  varied 
discussions  of  the  works  of  the  Bard  of  Avon.  This  catalogue 
is  exclusive  of  various  editions,  and  is  confessedly  in  no  sense 
exhaustive. 

A  great  poet  has  drawn  a  parallel  between  Shakespeare  and 
the  sea,  and  after  reminding  us  of  it,  Swinburne  says :  "  For 
two  hundred  years  students  have  gone  forth  in  every  kind  of 
boat  to  more  fully  explore  this  sea — majestic  galleys  steered 
by  such  geniuses  as  Coleridge  and  Goethe,  and  also  the  paltriest 
fishing  craft."  Every  modest  man  will  agree  with  him,  when, 
dwelling  on  the  figure,  he  continues  to  say :  "  The  limits  of 
this  ocean,  the  law  of  its  tides,  the  motive  of  its  forces,  the 
mystery  of  its  unity,  and  the  secret  of  its  changes,  no  seafarer 
of  us  all  may  ever  think  thoroughly  to  know."  *  The  writer 
of  this  critique  ventures  to  launch  on  this  ocean  his  little 
paper  catamaran,  not  pretending  that  his  frail  craft,  though 
boldly  launched  on  the  boundless  sea,  will  be  able,  in  any  de- 
gree, to  solve  the  enigmas  which  other  and  wiser  voyagers 
have  failed  to  unravel,  but  for  the  purpose  of  running  through 
a  portion  of  the  fleet  that  has  preceded  him,  making  himself 
familiar  with  the  log-books  they  have  so  reliably  kept,  and  then 
laying  his  gathered  treasures  where  they  can  be  seen  by  eyes 
less  favored  than  his  own  have  been. 

The  literature  of  this  subject,  turning  for  a  moment  away 
from  the  sea,  is  an  open  vast  prairie,  with  all  its  vast  wealth  of 
•  "A  Study  of  Shakespeare,"  pp.  1,  2. 


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624  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

xjolor.  We  go  to  every  open  or  opening  flower  of  comment,  or 
of  criticism,  on  which  we  can  lay  our  discriminating  fingers ; 
we  pluck  whatever  we  can  find  of  rare  or  unusual  sweetness, 
and  take  away  its  richest  perfmne  by  an  involuntary  absorp- 
tion that  well-nigli  intoxicates  us. 

There  is  something  specially  exciting,  enriching,  exalting,  in 
the  honey  and  arouia  \vith  which  such  erudites  as  Schlegel, Drake, 
and  Taine  have  filled  their  beauteous  nectar-bearing  cups.  It 
may  be  that  some  of  the  most  startUng  sentences  of  these  brill- 
iant commentators  may  cling  to  us,  as  the  silken  fibers  of  the 
cotton  plant  might  adhere  to  the  homely  burr  dragged  through 
a  field  of  Southern  beauty.  If  it  be  so,  who  has  the  right  to 
accuse  or  censure  ?  Who  will  presume  to  require  us  to  tie  a 
tag  to  each  separate  fiber,  that  it  may  be  traced  to  the  actual 
plant  on  which  it  grew.  To  give,  in  an  article  of  this  kind,  to 
every  thread  its  owner's  name,  would  be  literally 

**  To  guard  a  title  that  was  rich  before,** 

and  that  would  surely  be  "  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess."  * 

It  is  a  singular  and  somewhat  startling  fact  that  there  is  no 
great  English  writer  against  whom  a  certain  class  of  so-called 
religionists  have  cherished  so  much  ill-grounded  prejudice  as 
against  the  author  of  the  most  charming  and  elegant  dramas 
that  ever  dropped  from  a  mortal's  pen.  Some  thirty  years  ago  a 
Methodist  preacher  was  importuned  to  arrest  the  character  of 
his  immediate  predecessor  before  his  Conference.  The  distin- 
guished man  against  whom  the  assault  was  directed  had  been 
educated  at  West  Point,  became  a  doctor  of  divinity,  and  when 
he  died  was  a  colonel  in  the  Union  Army.  A  string  of  charges 
had  been  drawn  up,  including  various  ofEenses,  but  all  paling, 
as  tlie  accuser  thought,  before  the  enormity  of  the  final  cul- 
minating one,  which  was  that  he,  a  minister  of  the  Church, 
persisted  in  privately  reading  "  Shakespeare's  theater  plays  I " 
The  prejudice  of  which  this  charge  was  a  faint  indication 

*  For  the  writer  of  this  article  to  disclaim  a  scholarship,  of  which  it  were  van- 
ity in  him  to  suppose  himself  even  suspected,  would  be  to  invite  from  the  reaUj 
learned  deserved  contempt.  He  disclaims  any  attempt  to  ascend  a  tribune  to 
which  Ulrici,  Schlegel,  Coleridge,  Hudson,  and  Rolfe  have  been  exalted  with  mer- 
ited honors.  He  does  not  assume  to  be  a  Shakespearian  in  any  high  sense.  He 
only  echoes  the  conclusions  of  acknowledged  critics,  yet  at  the  same  time  he  claims 
the  right  of  uttering  an  opinion  or  two  distinctively  his  own. 


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1881.]  Shakespeare:  His  Genius  amd  Times.  625 

was  much  stronger  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago.  John  New- 
ton, sometimes  called  "  the  pious  " — ^the  companion  of  Cowper, 
and  the  author  of  several  favorite  hymns — was  a  great  letter- 
writer.  In  one  of  his  epistles  to  a  friend  by  the  name  of  Bull 
he  makes  this  humiliating  confession:  "If  my  good  folks 
were  to  catch  me  reading  Shakespeare,  I  would  rather  liide 
the  book  than  offend  them.  For  they,  being  no  judges  of 
Shakespeare,  or  of  my  motive  for  reading  him,  would  be 
hurt  if  they  saw  a  play-book  in  my  hand.  I  would  not  wish 
them  to  look  more  favorably  upon  play-books  than  they  do, 
or  to  think  unfavorably  of  me  on  Shakespeare's  account.'' 
There  seems  to  be  a  great  want  of  manliness  in  this  will- 
ingness to  hide  the  book ;  but  allowance  must  be  made  for 
the  narrowness  and  prudery  of  the  circle  in  which  he  moved. 
What  shall  we  say  of  the  —  (we  dare  not  characterize  them) 
who,  on  the  death  of  Wesley,  finding  among  his  papers  an  an- 
notated copy  of  our  great  poet,  at  once  destroyed  it,  lest  it 
should  injure  Mr.  Wesley's  influence  among  religious  people  t 
It  was  an  act  of  ruthless  literary  vandalism,  no  matter  how 
saintly  the  man  that  committed  it.  All  healthy  and  true  ro^ 
ligion  has  suffered  an  injury  thereby.  Mr.  Wesley's  annota^ 
tions  were  doubtless  appreciative.  They  may  have  been,  they 
doubtless  were,  remai'kably  laudatory.  If  they  had  not  been, 
if  they  had  been  in  any  sense  disparaging,  they  would  never 
have  been  destroyed  by  his  mistaken  literary  censors. 

The  prejudice  of  which  the  above  narration  is  an  illustration 
has  not  as  yet  utterly  died  out.  There  are  those  whose  piety 
and  good  intentions  no  man  can  impeach  who  still  think  that 
it  is  an  unwise,  not  to  say  a  wicked,  thing  to  spend  time  in 
reading  this  great  master  of  the  human  heart.  Such  purists, 
no  doubt,  class  him  with  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Tom  Moore. 
They  regard  him  as  entitled  to  a  place  on  the  same  shelf  as 
Rabelais,  Smollett,  and  Sterne,  and  to  make  him  a  study  as  dan* 
gerous  as  would  be  the  study  of  Tom  Paine,  Voltaire,  or  our 
modem  Ingersoll.  Of  course  this  is  all  a  mistake,  and  the  best 
minds  in  the  Church  no  longer  hesitate  to  say  so. 

Theories. 

Many  and  strange  have  been  the  opinions  held  regarding  the 
great  intellectual  prodigy  of  the  sixteenth  century — nay,  we 

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Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [October, 

may  say  the  greatest  prodigy  of  all  times  and  all  lands.  The 
most  absurd  of  all  is  that  which  pretends  to  regard  him  as 
a  myth.  The  actual  existence  of  Shakespeare,  and  the  incidents 
related  concerning  his  life,  are  as  demonstrably  true  as  are  any 
historical  facts.  The  lives  of  Charlemagne,  Napoleon,  Lin- 
coln, are  not  more  true.  We  may  have  our  doubts  concerning 
Homer  and  Ossian ;  but  it  were  idiocy  to  indulge  in  any  so 
far  as  William  Shakespeare  is  concerned.  He  is  as  real  as  are 
Macaulay,  or  Carlyle,  or  Eliot  to  the  readers  of  to-day,  and  is 
far  more  so  than  will  be  Hartmann,  or  Emerson,  or  Mill  when 
three  hundred  years  shall  have  rolled  into  the  great  unknown. 

A  few  half-demented  aspirants  to  literary  fame  have  labored 
hard  to  prove  that  Shakespeare's  name  was  but  a  nom  deplume^ 
and  that  the  actual  name  of  the  writer  of  the  plays  to  which  it 
was  attached  was  Bacon ;  that,  while  his  brain  conceived  and  his 
pen  wrote  "  Hamlet "  and  '*  Macbeth  "  and  "  Lear,"  and  all  the 
other  wonderful  tragedies  and  comedies  that  cluster  round  them, 
he  was  too  modest  or  too  cowardly  to  have  his  real  relationship 
to  such  marvels  known  to  his  contemporaries  or  to  the  men  of 
any  age.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  ingenuity  and  some  sincerity 
apparent  in  the  various  lines  of  argument  employed  to  sustain 
this — to  say  the  least  of  it — extraordinary  view.  The  style  of 
Bacon  is  compared  with  that  of  Shakespeare.  Parallel  pas- 
sages are  quoted.  Especial  prominence  is  given  to  the  fact 
that  when  Aristotle  is  quoted  the  same  mistranslations  occur. 
It  is  contended  that  Bacon  was  the  only  one  man,  fitted  by 
culture  and  position,  to  write  the  dramas  bearing  Shakespeare's 
name.  All  these  arguments,  and  with  them  every  other,  melt 
into  dissipated  mist  before  candid  criticism.  The  Baconian, 
delusion  is  a  species  of  insanity,  which,  in  its  first  and  most 
distinguished  victim — who,  by  a  singular  coincidence,  bore  the 
name  she  would  so  unjustly  exalt — developed  into  a  violent 
madness,  justifying  personal  restraint. 

James  Freeman  Clarke  has  dealt  this  delusion  some  masterly 
though  semi-satirical  blows.  He  reaches  the  conclusion  that  it 
would  be  easier  to  believe  that  Shakespeare  wrote  the  works  of 
Bacon  than  that  Bacon  wrote  the  plays  to  which  the  name  of 
Shakespeare  is  attached.  The  argument  on  the  other  side  has 
been  put  most  admirably  by  Hudson.  We  have  only  space  for 
the  briefest  outline  possible.      He  elaborates  the  following 

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1881.]  Shakespea/re :  Ei%  Genvua  a/nd  Times.  627 

points :  1.  Bacon's  ingratitude  to  Essex  was  such  as  the  author 
oi  Lear  could  never  have  been  guilty  of.  2.  Whoever  wrote 
the  plays  of  Shakespeare  was  not  a  scholar.  He  had  something 
vastly  better  than  learning — but  he  had  not  that.  3.  Shake- 
speare never  philosophizes,  Bacon  never  does  any  thing  else. 
4.  Bacon's  mind,  great  as  it  was,  might  have  been  cut  out  of 
Shakespeare's  and  never  have  been  missed. 

Mr.  Swinburne  says  of  the  supposition  that  there  was 
a  double  authorship,  Shakespeare  and  some  one  else — which 
is  assumed  by  some  —  that  it  is  a  position  naturally  impos- 
sible to  refute.  "  It  is  the  last  resource  of  an  empiric,  the 
last  refuge  of  a  sciolist;  a  refuge  which  the  soundest  of 
scholars  will  be  the  slowest  to  seek,  a  resource  which  the  most 
competent  of  critics  will  be  least  ready  to  adopt."  Of  a  man 
clinging  to  such  a  theory  he  says,  adopting  the  language  of 
Touchstone, 

'^  God  help  thee,  shallow  man  I 
God  make  indBions  in  thee  1    Thou  art  raw  I  *' 

In  a  line  precedent,  but  which  in  its  connection  is  not  to  be 
quoted  on  this  page,  he  explains, 

**  Like  an  ill-roasted  egg  all  on  one  side,**  « 

and  then  goes  on  to  say,  "  And  raw  such  a  man  must  remain 
for  all  his  learning,  and  for  all  the  incisions  that  may  be  made 
in  the  homy  hide  of  self-conceit,  to  be  pierced  by  the  punc- 
ture of  no  man's  pen ; "  which,  notwithstanding  its  Carlylean 
obscurity,  is  a  sentiment  worthy  of  adoption  by  all. 

Dr.  J.  Snider  of  Missouri,  at  a  gathering  of  the  Concord 
School  of  Philosophy  last  summer,  assumed,  with  a  mysticism 
that  no  man  can  be  expected  to  penetrate,  that  he  had  dis- 
covered Shakespeare's  secret.  Up  to  this  time  but  few  were 
aware  that  Shakespeare  had  any  secret  other  than  that  which 
attaches  to  all  works  of  undoubted  genius.  The  doctor  says: 
"  Shakespeare's  dramas  move  in  an  ethical  world.  They  por- 
tray a  world  of  conflict,  they  mediate  these  conflicts  and  bring 
all  colliding  elements  into  harmony,  returning  the  deed  upon 
the  doer."  That  Shakespeare's  dramas  do  this  is,  indeed, 
unquestionably  true.  But  this  has  never  been  "a  secreV^ 
This  is  no  discovery !     After  such  a  prelude  the  world — not 


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628  Methodist  QuaHerVy  Meview.  [October, 

the  Concordian,  but  the  outside,  world — was  looking  for  Bome 
astounding  revelation.     But  we  say  with  Pistol : 

"  Hope  is  a  curtail  day  in  some  affairs ; " 

and  still  more  appropriately  with  Macbeth : 

'*  Be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  believ«i, 
That  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense ; 
And  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear. 
And  break  it  to  our  hope.'' 

After  all  that  was  reported  as  having  been  said  at  Concord, 
the  world  knows  no  more  of  Shakespeare  than  Coleridge  did  a 
generation  or  more  ago. 

His  Style. 

Critics  of  the  seventeenth  century  say  of  Shakespeare's  style 
that  it  is  "  the  most  obscure,  pretentious,  painfully  laborious, 
and  absurd  that  could  be  imagined."  This  opinion  later  gen- 
erations have  not  indorsed.  Modem  criticism  has  come  to  a 
conclusion  the  very  opposite. 

Heine  tells  us  that  "The  scene  of  his  plays  is  the  globe, 
eternity  the  period  of  the  action  of  his  pieces,  and  humanity 
his  hero."  Goethe  declares  that  "  In  Shakespeare  nature  is 
uttering  her  own  oracles.  My  men,"  says  he,  "  are  soap  bub- 
bles inflated  by  romantic  caprice."  K  I  consult  Carlyle  this 
is  what  he  tells  me :  "  Shakespeare  penetrates  into  immaterial 
things — far  into  nature,  with  his  divine  splendors  and  infernal 
terrors,  his  Ariel  melodies  and  mystical  Mandragora  moans ; 
far  into  art  and  artifice.  Shakespeare  knew  innumerable  things 
— ^what  men  are,  and  what  the  world  is,  and  how  and  what 
men  aim  at  there."  "  Some  one,"  says  he,  "  calls  it  [Shake- 
speare] The  Grand  Sacred  Epos,  or  Bible  of  world  history,  in- 
finite in  meaning  as  the  divine  mind  it  emblems." 

The  great  historian  Hallam  has  put  these  remarkable  words 
on  record  :  "  The  name  of  Shakespeai-e  is  the  greatest  in  all  lit- 
erature. No  man  ever  came  near  him  in  the  creative  power 
of  the  mind.  No  man  ever  had  at  once  such  strength  and  such 
variety  of  imagination.  Comparing  him  with  Homer,  the 
tragedians  of  Greece,  the  poets  of  Italy,  .  .  .  one  man  has  far 
more  than  surpassed  them  all.  Others  may  have  been  as  sub- 
lime ;  others  may  have  been  more  pathetic ;  others  may  have 


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1881.]         Shakespeare:  Hie  GerdiMS  amd  Times. 

excelled  him  in  grace  and  purity  of  language  and  have  shunned 
some  of  his  faults ;  but  the  philosophy  of  Shakespeare,  his  inti- 
mate searching  out  of  the  human  heart,  whether  in  the  gnomic 
form  of  sentence  or  in  the  dramatic  exhibition  of  character,  is 
a  gift  peculiarly  his  own." 

So  our  own  Hudson.  He  says,  with  an  authority  from  which 
no  man  desires  to  appeal :  "  His  rank  in  the  school  of  morals 
is  no  less  high  than  in  the  school  of  art.  He  is  every-where 
worthy  to  be  our  teacher  and  guide  in  what  is  morally  just  and 
noble  and  right,  as  in  what  is  artisticiilly  beautiful  and  true." 

Eichard  Grant  White,  with  a  rare  insight,  declares :  "  If  the 
plague  had  not  spared  him,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  would  have 
lacked  a  certain  degree  of  that  elevation  of  mental  and  moral 
tone,  and  that  practical  wisdom,  which  distinguishes  it  among 
tlie  peoples."  He  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he  regards 
him  as  "a  source  of  instruction  more  nearly  priceless  than  any, 
except  that  which  falls  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth." 

"  The  highest  glory  of  Shakespeare's  poetry,"  says  Prof.  H. 
Heed, "  is  its  spirituality.  It  is  full  of  ike  life  of  faiths  These 
words  are  so  remarkable  that  we  presume  to  italicise  them. 

The  most  brilliant  and  incisive  of  all  the  critiques  on  Shake- 
speare has,  however,  been  written  by  a  Frenchman.  With 
rare  analytical  power  he  tells  his  countrymen,  infatuated  as  he 
knows  them  to  be  with  Comeille  and  Racine,  that  Shakespeare 
is  "  an  extraordinary  species  of  mind,  perplexing  to  all  modes 
of  analysis  and  reasoning.  All-powerful — excessive — equally 
master  of  the  sublime  and  the  base.  The  most  creative  that 
ever  engaged  in  an  exact  copying  of  the  details  of  actual  exist- 
ence ;  in  dazzling  caprice  of  fancy,  in  the  profound  compli- 
cations of  human  passion.  A  nature  poetical,  immortal,  in- 
spired, superior  to  reason — so  extreme  in  joy  and  pain — so 
abrupt  of  gait — so  stormy  and  impetuous  in  his  tramp,  that  a 
great  age  only  could  have  cradled  such  a  man." 

"  I  have  made,"  says  Swinburne,  the  last  witness  we  shall 
call,  "  the  study  of  Shakespeare  the  chief  intellectual  business, 
and  have  found  it  the  chief  spiritual  delight,  of  my  life.  He 
is  a  strong  and  subtle  searcher  of  hearts,  the  just  and  merciful 
judge  and  painter  of  human  passion.  It  is  proverbially  impos- 
sible to  determine  by  selection  the  greatest  works  of  Shake- 
speare.   There  is,  unquestionably,  however,  no  creation  of  his 

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630  Methodist  QuaHerly  Remew.  [October, 

that  will  bear  comparison  with  *  Much  Ado  About  Nothing/ 
Who  [he  asks]  can  speak  of  all  things,  or  of  half  that  is  in 
Shakespeare — who  can  speak  worthily  of  any  ?  Shakespeare, 
to  whom  all  things  were  better  known  by  instinct  than  ever 
they  can  be  by  experience  to  other  men." 

As  with  every  other  great  poet,  and  as  with  every  other  writ- 
er of  mark  in  any  of  the  walks  of  literature,  Shakespeare  has 
been  charged  with  plagiarism.  That  he  did  take  from  other 
men,  that  he  took  from  all  men,  in  a  sense  to  be  explained  by 
and  by,  is  willingly,  exultingly  confessed.  He  from  whom 
was  taken  was  greatly  enriched  by  the  taking ;  for  when  re- 
turned, as  returned  they  were,  it  was  seen  that  the  theft,  unlike 
any  other  stealing,  was  a  benefaction,  not  only  to  the  man  hon- 
ored by  the  abstraction,  but  to  mankind  at  large. 

Shakespeare  was  bom  in  1564  and  died  in  1616.  His  life, 
therefore,  embraces  a  period  of  fifty-two  years.  This  covers 
the  entire  reign  of  Elizabeth  and  portions  of  the  reigns  of 
Mary  and  James  I.,  Mary  preceding  and  James  following  the 
Maiden  Queen.  Though  this  period  was  inclusive  of  what  is 
called,  so  far  as  learning  is  coucerned,  "  the  Eenaissance,"  it 
was,  in  fact,  an  age  of  great  grossness  and  vulgarity.  There 
had  been  civil  wars.  How  natural,  therefore,  that  Shakspeare 
should  have  to  chronicle  atrocious  deeds !  Thei^e  is  not  in  En- 
glish literature  a  more  appalling  picture  than  one  given  us  in 
"  King  Lear."  The  scene  is  in  Gloster's  castle.  The  actora 
Gloster,  Cornwall,  and  Regan,  Lear's  daughter. 

Com,  See  it  shalt  thou, — ^never  I 

Fellows,  hold  the  chair: 
[6lo.  is  kdd  down  in  his  chair,  while  Cork.  plucJn  out  one  of  his  eyes,  <md  sets  his 
foot  o»i  it.] 

Olo,  He  that  will  think  to  live  till  he  be  old, 

Give  me  some  help :— 0  cruel  I  0  ye  gods  I 
Reg,  One  side  will  mock  another ;  the  other  too. 

[Cornwall  then  tears  out  Glostkr's  other  eye,  and,  throwiny  it  upon  the  ground, 
exclaims ;] 

Out  vile  jelly  I    Where's  thy  luster  now  ? 
Reg.  Oo  thrust  him  out  at  gates,  and  let  him  smell 
His  way  to  Dover. 

Eugene  Sue,  in  his  "  Mysteries  of  Paris,"  has  attempted  to 
imitate  this  scene,  but  how  poor  the  imitation  1 

It  is  true  that  at  this  time  the  ladies  of  the  court  studied 


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1881.]  ShakesjpeoMre :  His  Oemus  a/nd  Times.  631 

Greek,  but  the  social  condition  of  the  people  was  low,  almost 
beyond  our  conception  to-day.  Clergymen  dressed  in  green 
and  red  and  yellow,  wore  crisped  hair,  and  walked  in  peaked 
and  buckled  shoes.  "  To  meet  a  priest  in  those  days  was  to 
behold  a  peacock  that  spreadeth  his  tail  when  he  danceth  be- 
fore the  hen.''  *  They^  were  immoral,  and  held  in  very  low 
esteem.  The  people  believed  in  witches,  fairies,  goblins. 
Every  village  had  its  ghost.  Church-yards  were  haunted,  as 
was  the  scene  of  every  fatal  accident,  and,  therefore,  impass- 
able. /Nothing  had  such  a  charm  for  the  common  people  as 
prodigies.  They  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  blue  lights,  corpse- 
candles,  tomb-fires.  They  heard  demoniacal  voices.  They 
attached  great  importance  to  charms  and  spells,  and  the  telling 
of  fortunes.  Palmistry  and  the  making  of  periapts  was  a  pro- 
fession ;  by  the  one,  individual  history  was  read  in  the  lines 
of  the  hand,  and  by  the  writing  and  wearing  of  the  other  dis- 
ease and  calamity  were  warded  off.  Tumors  were  removed  by 
nine  strokes  of  a  dead  man's  hand.  Scrofula  was  cured  by  the 
touch  of  a  king  or  queen.  Ruptures  were  reduced  by  the  suf- 
ferers passing  tlirough  a  young  tree  split  for  the  purpose.  Bodies 
were  supposed  to  bleed  at  the  approach  of  their  murderers. 
Men  were  said  to  shudder  when  walking  unconsciously  over 
the  ground  destined  to  be  their  final  resting-place.  It  was  the 
Age  of  Superstition. 

It  has  been  objected  that  there  are  passages  in  Shakespeare 
too  indecent  to  be  read  in  mixed  or  refined  society  ;  that  "his 
characters  call  things  by  their  dirty  names ; "  that  "  the  talk 
of  his  gentlemen  and  ladies  is  full  of  coarse  allusions;" 
that  "  they  have  a  vocabulary  as  coarse  as  Eabelais,  and  that 
they  drain  it  dry."  It  is  said  that  "  they  kill,  violate,  poison, 
burn,  and  fill  the  stage  with  every  abomination."  *  To  all  of 
which  it  may  be  said,  no  wise  man  advocates  the  promiscuous 
reading  of  an  unexpurgated  edition.  It  is  true,  men  were  never 
depicted  in  such  hideousness  before,  but  it  ought  to  be  remem- 
bered that  it  was  the  hideousness  of  truth !  Men  did  kill,  poi- 
son, bum,  just  as  he  says  they  did.  They  were  drunken,  un- 
clean, cruel.  Shakespeare  was  only  true  to  the  times  in  which 
he  lived. 

The  Bible  was  translated  at  about  the  same  time  that  the 

*  Holinshed. 

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632  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Heview.  [October, 

"  Tempest''  and  "MidBummer  Night's  Dream  "  were  written. 
It  contains  some  passages  which  good  taste,  no  matter  how 
deep  the  piety  of  its  possessor  may  be,  declines  to  qnote  in 
every  circle  of  society  to-day.  Coarseness  was  the  fault  of 
the  age.  Women  of  high  rank  wrote  letters  to  each  other  and 
to  men  much  worse  than  any  thing  that  Shakespeare  wrote. 
Johnson  says,  "  Shakespeare  is  more  agreeable  to  the  ears  of 
the  present  age  than  any  other  author  equally  remote."  The 
pious,  the  revered  Robertson,  says  of  Shakespeare,  "He  is 
healthy ;  I  pardon  even  his  worldly  coarseness."  Swinburne, 
after  mentioning  "  the  fetid  fun  and  rancid  ribaldry  of  Pandarus 
and  Thersites,"  speaks  of  Shakespeare's  alleged  imitation  of 
Rabelais  thus :  "  Shakespeare  has  hardly  once  or  twice  burned 
as  much  as  a  pinch  of  fugitive  incense  on  the  altar  of  Cloacina, 
the  only  Venus  acknowledged  and  admired  by  such  men  as 
Swift,  Smollett,  and  Carlyle.  .  .  .  He  paints  nature  in  its 
littlenesses,  its  weaknesses,  its  excesses,  its  irregularities,  and 
its  rages.  .  .  .  He  exhibits  man  at  his  meals,  in  bed,  at  play, 
drunk,  mad,  sick.  He  does  not  dream  of  ennobling,  but  of 
copying  human  life,  and  only  aspires  to  make  his  copy  more 
energetic  and  more  striking  than  the  original.  His  characters 
have  bad  blood  and  a  ready  hand  ;  they  abandon  themselves  to 
their  passions,  and  go  just  as  their  passions  lead  them.  He 
knows  by  experience  the  manners  of  country,  court,  and  town." 

The  introduction  of  a  new  theory  as  to  Shakespeare's  rela- 
tion to  the  literature  of  all  time  should  be  done  with  becoming 
modesty  in  an  age  bristling  with  commentators  and  critics. 
The  readers  of  these  pages  are  the  first  to  weigh  the  theory,  and 
they  must  take  the  modesty  for  granted. 

In  every  age  prior  to  the  universal  diffusion  of  knowledge, 
especially  prior  to  the  invention  of  printing,  there  was  always 
floating  ai'ound  among  the  people  a  vast  amount  of  ti-aditiomd 
wisdom.  It  was  embalmed  in  story  and  in  song.  It  was  car- 
ried from  place  to  place  by  minstrels  and  troubadours.  Mid- 
way between  the  creation  of  the  world  and  the  birth  of  Christ 
we  have  one  inspired  interpreter  of  nature,  and  we  have  two 
men  who,  without  the  divine  afllatus,  gave  expression  to  all  the 
accumulated  wisdom  of  the  times  that  preceded  them.  This 
remarkable  trio  was  Solomon,  Sophocles,  and  Socrates.  The 
divine  inspiration  of  Solomon  exalts  him  above  the  level  of 

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1881.]  ShaJceepea/re :  His  Genius  trnd  Times.  638 

this  discussion.  Sophocles  was  confessedly  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  geniuses.  He,  however,  has  no  special  place  in  the 
argument.  With  regard  to  Socrates  more  must  be  said.  It  is 
known  to  aU  scholars  that  between  four  and  five  hundred  years 
before  Christ  there  was  bom  to  a  sculptor  in  Athens  a  son  to 
whom  this  name  was  given.  He  was  not,  at  least  .in  his 
youth,  a  studious  man,  and  yet  his  name  is  likely  to  live  as  long 
as  that  of  Solomon.  He  was  a  talker,  a  conversationalist.  The 
street,  the  shop,  the  market-place  and  the  exchange,  were  in 
succession  his  school,  and  any  listener  his  pupil.  He  was  a 
compound  of  logician  and  buffoon.  He  had  a  prophet's  flaming 
heart  and  a  brain  of  ice.  In  his  physiognomy  ho  was  ugly  be- 
yond all  compare.  Starr  King,  by  a  few  striking  words,  has 
made  his  appearance  as  palpable  to  our  mind's  eye  as  we 
have  otherwise  been  made  familiar  with  the  features  of  Greorge 
Washington.  This  marvelous  word-painter  tells  us  that  "his 
head  was  as  round  as  a  pumpkin — was  goggle-eyed  in  the  sense 
that  a  lobster  is ;  that  he  squinted ;  that  his  nose  was  a  short, 
flat  snub ;  that  his  mouth  was  wide  and  his  lips  thick ;  that 
his  neck  was  chunky,  and  that  he  was  as  corpulent  as  an  ideal 
alderman ;  that  he  was,  in  short,  a  cross  between  a  Brahmin  and 
a  Satyr." 

Yet  this  pug-nosed,  chuckle-headed  saint  got  together  more 
knowledge  thsm  all  the  uninspired  men  that  had  preceded  him. 
This  "  compromise  between  Pythagoras  and  Punch "  gave  to 
the  world  a  wisdom  in  the  possession  of  which  it  exulted  for 
nearly  two  thousand  years.  At  the  end  of  this  two  thousand 
years,  however,  there  was  bom  in  England,  of  humble,  if  not 
obscure,  parents,  a  fair  child,  which  developed  into  a  man  of 
royal  mien,  as  symmetrical  as  the  Adonis  of  whom  he  afterwards 
80  sweetly  sang.  He  added  to  the  mental  wealth  of  the  world 
a  wisdom  surpassing  that  of  Solomon  and  Socrates  combined. 
The  theory  of  the  writer  of  this  paper  is  that  thescT  three  men 
were  provided  by  a  watchful  and  benevolent  Providence  to  be 
the  diligent  conservators  of  all  the  floating  and  ungamered 
wisdom  of  their  day.  They  caught  that  wisdom  as  it  dropped 
from  the  lips  of  the  troubadour  or  from  the  lips  of  the  border 
minstrel,  as  it  was  jestingly  uttered  in  the  stinging  satires 
and  biting  repartees  of  professional  humorists  and  hired  clowns ; 
they  clipped  it  out  of  novels  and  humorous  plays ;  they  culled 


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634  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

it  from  the  proverbial  sayings  of  the  common  people,  and  from 
the  well  watched  and  loudly  applauded  utterances  of  courtiers 
and  kings.  They  gleaned  it  from  soldiers  and  sailors,  from 
the  hangers-on  in  courts  of  law.  They  made  record  of  it  as  it 
was  read  by  stately  embassadors  from  foreign  lands,  or  as  it 
was  mouthed  in  martial  orders  from  castle  walls  or  fields  of 
blood.  They  gathered  it,  at  the  risk  of  morals  and  of  life, 
from  way-side  taverps,  from  gambling-hells,  irom  sponging- 
houses,  and  from  the  prisons  in  which  men  languished  away  a 
lifetime  to  atone  for  petty  debts.  They  treasured  it  as  it  fell 
in  stilted  phrase  from  ermined  judge,  or  as  it  was  mumbled  by 
the  humblest  digger  of  the  murderer's  grave.  They  condensed 
all  the  vapors  of  romance — they  crystallized  the  gold  which  men 
were  trampling  under  their  unheeding  feet.  They  caught  the 
gossamer  threads  that  floated  in  the  every-day  hfe  of  men, 
and  wove  those  threads  into  garments  of  wondrous  beauty  for 
all  coming  men  and  all  coming  ages  to  admire  and  wear.  If 
piety  was  in  the  air,  then  were  these  conservators  pious,  and 
Solomon's  thoughts  were  cast  in  a  religious  mold.  If  the  age 
was  stirred  by  great  mental  activity,  and  the  thoughtful  were 
talking  of  duty  and  morals,  then  Solomon  and  Socrates  stamped 
their  disputations  with  lofty  words,  calling  their  utterances 
philosophy,  and  giving  them,-  by  the  richness  of  their  rhetoric, 
a  currency  that  outreached  their  own  land  and  age,  and  which 
bids  fair  to  outreach  all  lands  and  all  ages. 

Shakespeare,  with  a  wiser,  higher  nature  than  had  been  be- 
stowed upon  any  that  had  preceded  him,  did  the  most  and  the 
grandest  portion  of  this  eclectic  work.  He  laid  the  Hebrew 
money-changer  Shylock,  the  Greek  cynic  Thersites,  and  the 
Koman  voluptuary  Antony,  under  tribute,  as  he  did  men  of 
every  race  and  nation.  He  listened,  to  the  folk-lore  of  Den- 
mark, to  Boccaccio's  stories  of  Italian  life,  to  the  love  songs  of 
the  strutting  Spaniard  and  the  tawny  Moor.  He  familiarized 
himself  with  translations  from  languages  long  dead,  and  read 
the  current  histories  of  the  Norman,  the  Saxon,  and  the  Celt 
He  gave  expression  to  every  thing  that  was  worthy  of  being 
expressed.  His  work  was  not  the  embalming  of  dead  bodies 
destined  never  to  live  again  ;  it  was  the  storing  of  seed  having 
life  in  itself — the  conservation  of  germinal  truths  destined,  as 
by  an  eternal  purpose,  to  make  green  and  glad,  lustrous,  all  the 


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1881.]  Shak48pea/re:  His  Genncs  and  Times.  635 

accessible  hills  and  pinnacled  mountains  of  the  future.  In  this 
light  how  utterly  contemptible  do  all  charges  of  plagiarism 
appear,  with  which  pigmy  men,  with  their  little  straws,  have 
sought  to  pierce  his  coat  of  mail !  In  this  light  they  sink  out 
of  sight,  and  they  sink  forever. 

Shakespeare  transmuted  all  that  his  acute  ears  heard,  all  that 
his  penetrating  eyes  saw,  all  that  his  tenacious  memory  could 
retain,  into  ingots  of  silver  which  no  use  can  ever  tarnish — 
into  diamonds  which  no  length  of  time  can  ever  dim, 

"  He  was  not  of  his  age,  but  for  all  time." 

It  may  be  said  of  him,  in  a  higher  sense  than  it  could  be  said 
of  Milton : 

*'  His  soul  was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart" 


Art.  m.  — popular   EDUCATION    THE   GENIUS   OP  ( 
AMERICAN  INSTITUTIONS. 

Thi  perpetuity  of  our  free  institutions,  as  well  as  the  National  prosperity  and 
happiness  of  the  people,  can  be  best  promoted  by  promoting  the  instruction  and 
knowledge  of  the  rising  generation.  Is  it  not  manifest  that  of  all  the  world  the 
United  States  can  least  afford  to  neglect  the  general  and  thorough  culture  of  its 
people  ?  Circumstances  have  made  this  question  at  the  present,  moment  of  the 
very  gravest  urgency.  If  we  are  in  large  measure  what  our  fathers  have  made 
us,  the  next  generation  will  be  sure  to  be  more  or  less  fashioned  by  those  who  to- 
day provide  and  direct  our  systems  of  education.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  have 
an  immense  territory  or  an  immense  population,  but  every  acre  and  every  man, 
where  nature  has  been  equally  bountiful,  should  be  the  equal  in  productive  power 
of  any  other  acre  or  any  other  man.  It  is  not  enough  that,  with  a  population  of 
nearly  fifty  millions,  only  about  twenty-five  thousand  students  annually  find  their 
way  through  any  and  all  of  the  old  literary  colleges.  It  seems  obvious  that  both 
colleges  and  common  schools  require  the  earnest  attention  and  the  most  precious 
resources  of  all  the  States,  as  well  as  of  the  General  Government  Without  un- 
dertaking  the  entire  control  of  the  general  subject.  Congress  may  yet  legitimately 
make  a  contribution  so  emphatic  that  no  State  will  falter  in  generous  co-operation. 
The  light  of  the  nation,  as  that  of  the  sun  among  planetary  states,  should  break 
forth  as  the  greater  morning  light  to  rule  the  day. Speech  of  Hon,  Justin  S,  Mor- 
rill,  of  Vermont,  on  Edticational  Bill  in  Senate  of  United  States,  Dee,  15, 1880. 

Ik  his  elaborate  "Essays  on  Republicanism  in  Europe,'^  Emilio 
Castelar  says :  "  One  of  the  greatest  benefits  of  liberty  is  its 
wealth  of  education,  and  one  of  the  greatest  benefits  of  educa- 
tion is  the  ability  it  gives  to  take  account  of  existing  facts  in 


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636  Methodist  QiuiHerly  Heview.  [October, 

all  our  political  solutions.'^  As  does  he,  so  do  we,  take  the 
words  ed/ucation  2J^A  politics  in  their  natural  and  broad  senses 
— the  former  meaning  to  lead  out  and  develop,  as  also  to  in- 
struct ;  the  latter  being  used  to  designate  the  relations  and  duties 
of  citizenship.  To  educated  minds  alone  are  productive  and 
useful  ideas  spontaneous.  "  It  is  much  easier,"  says  Castelar, 
"  to  persecute  gas  and  imprison  a  sunbeam  than  to  persecute 
or  imprison  an  idea."  All  science  that  throwS  any  revealing 
and  useful  light  on  the  history  of  man,  on  his  place  in  the  range 
of  being,  and  on  his  relative  position  among  his  fellows,  teaches 
that  he  is  ennobled  by  true  education.  In  an  address  made 
Jan.  14,  1881,  to  a  delegation  of  colored  citizens.  General  Gar- 
field (then  President-elect)  said : 

I  noted  as  peculiarly  significant  one  sentence  in  the  remarks  of 
General  Elliott,  to  the  effect  that  the  majority  of  citizens,  as  he 
alleges,  in  some  portions  of  the  South,  are  oppressed  by  the 
minority.  If  this  be  so,  why  is  it  so  ?  Because  a  trained  man 
is  two  or  three  men  in  one  in  comparison  with  an  untrained  man ; 
and,  outside  of  politics  and  outside  of  parties,  that  suggestion  is 
full,  brimful,  of  significance;  that  the  way  to  make  the  majority 
always  powerful  over  the  minority  is  to  make  its  members  as 
trained  and  intelligent  as  the  minority  itself.  That  brings  the 
equality  of  citizenship,  and  no  law  can  confer  and  maintain  in  the 
long  run  a  thing  that  is  not  upheld  with  a  reasonable  degree  of 
culture  and  intelligence.     Legislation  ought  to  do  all  it  can* 

This  "  culture  and  intelligence  "  are  matters  of  vast  impor- 
tance to  all  our  citizens.  And  yet  they  meet  with  organized 
opposition.  Besides  the  deeply  seated  opposition  in  the  South 
to  the  education  of  the  masses  of  the  people,  the  adroit,  earnest, 
and  persistent  eflEorts  of  a  large  class  of  un- Americanized  citi* 
zens,  who  are  under  the  dictation  of  a  foreign  spiritual  and 
semi-political  power,  tend  to  modify  and  to  subvert  our  grand 
system  of  common  schools,  because  they  are  well-suited  to  the 
enlightenment,  the  morals,  and  the  civilization  of  the  people, 
and  to  turn  the  educational  and  literature  funds  of  tlie  States 
into  sectarian  channels. 

In  no  period  of  our  colonial  and  national  history  have  the 
demands  of  representative  men  and  of  cultivated  society  been 
more  urgent  that  a  high  degree  of  intelligence  and  morals  per- 
vade all  ranks  of  our  citizens  than  in  this,  when  immigration  is 
flooding  our  centers  of  trade,  our  commerce,  and  popular  ideas 


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1881.]  American  Education.  637 

with  foreign  ignorance,  infidelity,  and  monarchical  ideas — a 
condition  of  things  that  political  demagogues  aim  to  turn  to 
partisan  and  sectional  purposes,  and  sometimes  to  personal  ag- 
grandizement, and  particidarly  since  the  enfranchisement  of 
millions  of  the  colored  race.  This  inflow  of  two  such  elements 
into  the  body  politic  calls  for  wise  and  vigorous  eflForts  to  edu- 
cate the  masses  of  the  people,  and  to  assimilate  them  to  the 
nation. 

What  we,  in  this  paper,  claim  to  be  in  accord  with  the  genius 
of  American  institutions,  has  of  late  found  expression  in  Con- 
gress, in  what  is  known  as  Bumside's  Bill,  for  the  promotion  by 
the  country  of  popular  education,  in  the  Southern  States  par- 
ticularly. The  chief  features  of  this  bill  are,  (1,)  that  the  pro- 
ceeds from  the  sale  of  public  lands  and  from  patents  shall  be 
invested  in  bonds,  the  interest  of  which  shall  be  appropriated 
to  public  schools  ;  (2,)  that  for  ten  years  the  apportionment  shall 
be  according  to  the  number  of  persons  in  each  State,  of  ten 
years  old  and  upward,  who  cannot  read  and  write ;  (3,)  that  one 
third  of  the  proceeds  of  the  fund  shall  be  given  to  endow  col- 
leges established  under  the  Act  of  1862,  until  each  State  has 
130,000  per  annum  for  their'  support.  These  provisions  are 
wisely  conditioned  on  the  maintaining  by  each  State  schools 
for  all  children  (including  the  colored)  between  six  and  sixteen 
years  of  age,  for  at  least  three  months  of  the  year,  and  after 
1885  for  four  months.  This  bill  passed  the  house  by  a  large 
majority,  all  the  Eepublicans  voting  for  it,  as  did  some  of  the 
influential  members  from  the  South.  No  more  important  step* 
for  the  prosperity,  peace,  and  eflEective  unity  of  the  nation  has- 
ever  been  taken.  It  will  grandly  supplement,  if  not  exceed,, 
the  power  of  the  Peabody  Fund. 

Though  amid  fluctuations  and  the  subsidence  of  zeal,  it  has- 
ever  been  the  policy  of  this  nation — as  clearly  indicated  in 
colonial  history,  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States^  and' 
in  those  of  the  several  States,  as  it  has  also  been  of  the  Church,, 
in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  Christianity — ^to  foster  the  cause 
of  education.  Sometimes  it  has  been  limited  to  the  compara- 
tively few,  that  is,  to  the  Christian  mipistry,  to  educators,  and 
to  the  learned  professions,  but  the  general  tendency  has  been, 
to  popular  intelligence.  Any  exceptions  have  been  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  the  common  people  and  the  servile  race  im 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 42 

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688  Methodist  QuwrterVy  Meview.  [October, 

submission  to  aristocratic  and  designing  men,  whose  aims  were 
to  rule  the  conscience  and  to  extend  the  sway  of  political 
power.  The  aims  of  those  thoroughly  tinged  with  foreign 
ideas,  who  would  unite  the  temporal  and  spiritual  powers, 
giving  to  the  latter  the  supremacy  in  education  and  in  politics, 
have  been  furthered  by  a  thorough  and  persistent  assertion  of 
authority  over  the  votaries  of  priestly  ecclesiafiticism.  In  the 
other  direction  it  was  the  study  of  masters  and  of  legislators 
to  keep  the  slaves  in  abject  ignorance.  And,  after  the  lapse 
of  years  since  their  manumission  and  enfranchisement,  the 
people  who  dominate  in  the  South  wisely  yield  to  the  popular 
demand  because  their  political  safety  requires  the  education  of 
all  the  citizens,  black  and  white. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  Church  it  was  not  so.  Besides 
the  "  extraordinary  teachers  whom  Christ  employed  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  his  everlasting  kingdom,"  as  says  Mosheim, 
there  were,  in  the  first  century,  such  men  as  Clemens,  Bishop 
of  Rome  ;  Ignatius,  Bishop  of  Antioch  ;  and  Polycarp,  Bishop 
of  Smyrna,  who,  though  not  remarkahle  for  learning,  yet  em- 
ployed their  pens  in  the  cause  of  Christianity  and  the  education 
of  the  people.  In  the  second  century  "  the  number  of  learned 
men  increased  considerably,  the  majority  of  whom  were  phi- 
losophers attached  to  the  eclectic  system."  In  the  third  cent- 
ury, and,  we  hold  as  susceptible  of  proof,  according  to  the  spirit 
and  workings  of  Christianity,  the  cause  of  letters,  philosophy, 
and  education  by  degrees  triumphed — a  success  that  was  largely 
due  to  Origen,  who,  a  Platonist  in  early  life,  unwisely  blended 
the  tenets  of  that  system  with  the  purer  and  more  sublime 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  The  result  was  not  wholly  bad. 
Though  the  faith  of  some  was  thereby  perverted  and  controver- 
sies arose  therefrom,  yet  the  increased  tendency  to  free  thought 
and  wide  erudition  promoted  not  a  little  the  cause  of  popular 
education,  so  that  in  the  fourth  century,  and  thence  on  until 
about  the  tenth,  "  Christians  applied  themselves  with  greater 
zeal  and  diligence  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  the  liberal 
arts.  The  emperors  encouraged  a  taste  for  the  sciences,  and 
left  no  means  unemployed  to  excite  and  maintain  a  spirit  of 
literary  emulation  among  the  professors  of  Christianity.  For 
this  purpose  schools  were  established  in  many  cities,  libraries 
were  erected,  and  men  of  learning  and  genius  were  nobly  rec- 


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1881.]  Americcm  Education.  639 

ompensed  by  the  honors  and  advantages  that  were  attached  to 
the  culture  of  the  sciences  and  arts."  *  It  was  not  until  the 
incursions  of  the  barbarous  nations  into  the  western  provinces, 
and  the  still  later  supremacy  of  the  papal  hierarchy,  that  ig- 
norant men  were  elevated  to  civil  alid  churchly  oflSces,  and  the 
cause  of  popular  education  began  to  wane. 

But  from  the  time  of  the  Reformation  down  through  three 
centuries  general  intelligence  has  been  rapidly  and  surely  gain- 
ing ascendency.  Every  year  has  developed  some  progress. 
Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  had  the  sciences,  philosophy, 
and  letters  a  stronger  hold  on  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple, nor  a  broader  sway,  than  they  now  have.  Whatever  a  few 
impracticable  leaders  in  infidel  clubs  may  say  to  the  contrary, 
it  is  demonstrable  that  the  present  eta/tua  of  intelligence,  edu- 
cation, and  civilization  is  owing  primarily  and  almost  wholly 
to  the  inspirations  and  encouragements  of  Christianity.  So 
true  is  this,  that  not  only  were  the  several  schools  and  institu- 
tions of  learning  in  all  the  world  founded  by  Christian  men,  but 
the  several  Protestant  Churches  in  all  lands  have  ever  made  the 
founding  of  schools,  the  arrangement  and  classification  of  rude 
tongues,  the  translation  of  books,  and  the  instruction  of  the  peo- 
ple, among  the  very  first  matters  of  enterprise  and  labor  alike 
in  heathen  and  nominally  Christian  countries.  They  foster  the 
cause  of  education  at  home  and  in  newly  settled  regions. 

For  the  idea  of  popular  education  we  are  indebted  primarily 
to  the  Hebrews  and  early  Christians.  The  Chinese  and  Arar 
bian  caliphs,  Charlemagne,  Alfred,  Abelard,  and  Duns  Scotus 
made  large  advances  in  general  intelligence.  The  Lutheran 
reform,  as  above  stated,  gave  great  impulses  to  the  cause,  and 
made  school-teachers  honored  co-laborers  of  preachers  of  the 
Gospel.  The  idea  of  popular  instruction  was  brought  to  this 
country  by  our  ancestors  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Very 
early  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  made  it  obligatory  on  par- 
ents to  see  that  their  children  wdre  taught  to  read  and  write, 
and  were  instructed  in  religion  and  morality.  In  the  history 
of  New  England,  the  names  of  Ezekiel  Cheever,  Cotton  Ma- 
ther, Horace  Mann,  and  Henry  Barnard  stand'  high  as  gifted 
and  laborious  laborers.! 

*  Moflheim's  "  Ecclesiastical  History.'* 

t  Eugene  Uwrence,  in  «*  Harper's  Magadne,**  Not.,  1876. 

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640  MethocUat  QuKi/rterly  lieoiew.  [October, 

Wishing  to  show  the  position  and  action  of  the  more  prom- 
inent Churches  of  this  country  on  this  subject,  I  briefly  refer 
to  them.  Though  after  careful  inquiry  I  have  been  unable  to 
learn  that  the  Congregational  Churches  have  of  late,  or  at  any 
time,  given  a  formal  declaration  of  their  sentiment  on  the  sub- 
ject of  popular  education,  as  we  indeed  might  expect  in  these 
times ;  yet,  from  the  long  and  well-known  character  and  activity 
of  those  Churches,  from  the  time  of  their  organization  in  this 
country,  July  20, 1629,  under  the  general  direction  of  Rev.  Mr. 
Robinson  both  in  England  and  in  Holland,  of  Elder  Brewster, 
who  was  a  practical  printer,  of  Governor  Bradford,  Rev.  Mr. 
Skelton,  their  first  pastor  at  Plymouth,  and  Mr.  Higginson, 
tlieir  formally  accepted  and  honored  teacher,  no  one  doubts 
the  position  of  that  denomination  in  reference  to  the  educa- 
tional interests  of  this  country.  Of  Governor  Bradford  it  is 
said,  "  he  had  acquired  an  excellent  education,  especially  in  the 
languages.  He  was  master  of  the  Dutch  tongue,  almost  as  of 
his  vernacular  dialect ;  the  French  was  familiar  to  him ;  the  Lathi 
and  Greek  he  most  diligently  studied ;  but,  above  all,  he  was 
learned  in  the  Hebrew,  because,  as  he  said,  he  would  see  with 
his  own  eyes  the  ancient  oracles  of  God  in  their  native  beauty."* 

The  original  first  colonists  planted  a  Church,  then  a  school, 
and  in  a  few  years  founded  a  college  as  a  pattern  for  the  future. 
Harvard,  t  and  Tale,:|:  William  and  Mary,  and  Princeton  Col- 
leges are  outgrowths  of  their  spirit  and  labors. 

In  Massachusetts,  where  the  spirit  of  the  first  settlers  may  yet 
be  found,  all  presidents,  professors,  and  tutors  in  the  colleges, 
teachers  in  academies,  and  all  other  instructors  of  youth,  were 
from  the  beginning  required  to  use  their  best  endeavors  to  teach 
the  principles  of  piety,  justice,  and  a  sacred  regard  to  truth. 
The  law  demands  that  instructors  lead  their  pupils  into  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  tendency  of  these  virtues  to  preserve  and 
perfect  a  republican  constitution,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  Ub- 

*  Journal  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth. 

t  Harvard  University  began  Oct.  26,  1686,  in  an  Act  of  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  voting  £400  for  collegiate  purposes.  In  1638  John  Harvard,  from 
whom  it  is  named,  made  to  it  a  liberal  donation  of  money  and  books. 

X  The  project  of  K  college  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut  took  shape  as  eariy  as 
the  year  1700,  when  ten  Christian  ministers  met  in  New  Haven  and  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  founding  a  college.  Incorporated  the  succeeding  year  under  its 
present  name,  from  €h>vemor  Elihu  Yale,  the  donor  of  a  valuable  library,  it  was, 
in  1717,  permanently  located  where  it  now  stands. 


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1881.]  Americcm  JEducation.  641 

erty  as  well  as  to  promote  their  future  happiness.  The  same 
principle  entered  into  the  laws  which  were  passed  in  Connecticut 
as  early  as  1656;  for  it  was  enjoined  upon  all  officers  of  govern- 
ment to  see  to  it  that  every  child  "  attain  at  least  so  much  as  to 
be  able  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  other  good  and  profitable 
books  in  the  English  tongue,  and  in  some  complete  measure  to 
understand  the  main  grounds  and  principles  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion.''* 

The  State  of  New  York  has  an  honorable  record  also.  The 
early  Dutch  clergy  were  very  commonly  school-teachers,  and  a 
free  school  was  early  founded  by  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  As  the  opinions  of  the  present  age 
may  be  somewhat  guided  by  a  reference  to  the  opinions  of 
some  of  the  leading  men  who  contributed  largely  to  make  our 
country  what  it  is,  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  as  early  as  1737, 
when  a  bill  for  appropriations  for  the  maintenance  of  the  pub- 
lic high  school  was  before  the  colonial  Legislature,  such  men  as 
Livingston,  Morris,  Schuyler,  Alexander,  Verplanck,  and  Rens- 
selaer advocated  it.  In  1753  William  Livingston  said,  in  ref- 
erence to  the  founding  of  King's  College : 

The  advantages  flowing  from  the  rise  and  improvement  of 
literature  are  not  to  be  confined  to  a  set  of  men.  They  are  to 
extend  their  cheerful  influence  through  society  in  general,  through 
the  whole  province,  and,  therefore,  ought  to  be  uie  peculiar  care 
of  the  united  body  of  the  Legislature.  ...  To  enumerate  all  the 
advantages  accruing  to  a  country  from  due  attention  to  the  en- 
couragement of  the  means  of  education  is  impossible.  .  •  • 
Knowledge  among  the  people  makes  them  free,  enterprising,  and 
dauntless;  but  ignorance  enslaves,  emasculates,  ana  depresses 
them.  When  men  know  their  rights  they  will  at  all  hazards  de- 
fend them,  as  well  against  the  insidious  designs  of  domestic  poli- 
ticians as  the  undisguised  attacks  of  a  foreign  enemy;  but  while 
the  mind  remains  involved  in  its  native  obscurity  it  becomes 
pliable,  abject,  dastardly,  and  tame;  it  swallows  the  greatest 
absurdities,  submits  to  the  vilest  impositions,  and  follows  wher- 
ever it  is  led.f 

Prior  to  1760,  and  under  the  reign  of  George  II.,  a  corpo- 
ration, known  as  "  The  Governors  of  the  College  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  New  York,"  was  created.  At  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, on  a  petition  of  the  governors  of  this  corporation,  the 
Legislature  erected  the/5ollege  into  a  university,  empowered 

♦  "  Question  of  the  Hour,"  by  Rev.  R.  W.  aark,  D.D. 

f  Report  of  Special  Ckmunission  of  New  York  State  Assembly,  1879. 


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642  Methodist  QitaHerh/  JReview.  [October, 

^^  to  fonnd  schools  and  colleges  in  any  part  of  the  State,  as  may 
seem  expedient  to  them."  This  Board  of  Regents,  as  it  has 
since  been  called,  inaagorated  the  system  of  common  schools 
"  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  children  in  the  lower  branches 
of  education  "  sufficiently  to  enable  them  "  to  transact  the  busi- 
ness arising  from  their  daily  intercourse  with  each  other." 

The  foundations  of  the  common-school  system  in  this  State 
were,  however,  laid  in  1795  by  Governor  George  Clinton.  In 
his  message  to  the  Legislature  he  recommended  "  the  establish- 
ment of  common  schools  throughout  the  State."  The  sugges- 
tion was  approved,  and  the  sum  of  $50,000  was  set  aside,  to  be 
divided  among  the  towns  and  counties  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  their  electors.*  From  another  source  I  gather  the 
following  provision  in  1790  : 

The  sum  of  £20,000  shall  annually  be  appropriated  for  the 
term  of  five  years  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  and  main- 
taining schools  ...  in  which  children  of  the  inhabitants  re- 
siding in  the  State  shall  be  instructed  in  the  English  language, 
or  be  taught  English  gnunmar,  arithmetic,  mathematics,  and  such 
other  branches  of  knowledge  as  are  most  useful  and  necessary  to 
complete  a  good  English  education.f 

This  is  the  American  idea,  an  idea  that  includes  all  men  and 
is  suited  to  the  nature  of  our  republic,  as  also  to  the  needed 
qualifications  of  all  its  citizens.  This  system  of  education, 
modified  for  the  better,  remains  to  this  day. 

The  time  of  the  above-named  appropriation  expiring  in  1800, 
another  impetus  was  given  to  the  cause  of  popular  education 
by  Jedediah  Peck,  of  Otsego  County,  Adam  Comstock,  of 
Saratoga,  and  De  Witt  Clinton,  who  secured  the  passage  of  a 
bill  by  the  Legislature  in  1812,  by  which  the  school  system  was 
founded.  In  1813  lion.  Gideon  Hawley  was  appointed  super- 
intendent of  public  schools,  and  by  his  intelligence  and  energy 
for  eight  years  brought  the  standard  to  a  high  degi-ee  of  com- 
pleteness.^ In  recommending  the  establishment  of  common 
schools  in  this  State,  Governor  Clinton  said :  "  The  advantage 
to  morals,  religion,  good  government,  arising  from  the  general 

*  Report  of  Special  Commission  of  New  Torlc  Stote  Assembly,  1879. 
I  Session  Laws,  1796,  chap.  76,  sec.  1,  cited  hj  Prof.  J.  H.  Hoose,  PIlD.,  in 
address,  1879. 

X  Eugene  Lawrence,  "  Harper's  Magazine,''  Not.,  1876. 


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1881.]  Am&rtcan  JEchieation.  648 

i 

diffusion  of  knowledge  being  nnivereaDy  admitted,  permit  me 
to  recommend  this  subject  to  your  deliberate  attention." 
One  of  the  ablest  representatives  of  education  *  in  this  State 

says: 

Common  schools  are  the  offspring  of  Protestantism.  "We  can 
have  them  because  we  are  not  under  the  dominion  of  the  Pope. 
He  has  proved  conclusively  that  Romanism  is  the  enemy  of 
common  schools,  of  popular  education  in  every  form.  Americans 
will  not,  if  they  are  wise,  put  an  institution  that  they  love  so 
much  into  the  hands  of  its  enemies.  The  glory  of  our  system  is 
universal  education;  that  of  Rome  is  universal  ignorance. 

Under  the  patronage  of  William  and  Mary,  King  and  Queen 
of  England,  and  under  the  general  direction  of  the  Episcopa- 
lians of  Virginia,  "  William  and  Mary,"  the  oldest  of  American 
colleges  except  "  Harvard,"  was  established  nearly  two  hundred 
years  ago.  Chartered  in  1693,  it  has  a  record  of  its  students, 
including  many  of  the  leading  men  of  this  country,  from  1720 
to  the  present  time.  So  dear  were  the  educational  interests  to 
the  colonists  of  Virginia  that  steps  toward  academic  and  popu- 
lar instruction  were  taken  as  early  as  1619,  and,  though  thwarted 
therein,  they  continued  to  labor  in  behalf  of  the  cause  until 
their  hopes  were  largely  realized,  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
institution  and  perpetuation  of  slavery,  their  efforts  would, 
doubtless,  have  equaled  those  of  other  old  States.!  Says  Hon. 
Justin  S.  Morrill :  ^ 

The  subject  of  education  was  not  slumbering  even  in  those 
early  days  when  Washington  and  Jefferson  were  prominent 
friends  of  both  schools  and  universities,  holding  them  to  be  in- 
dispensable to  the  success  of  our  American  political  institutions. 
The  celebrated  ordinance  of  1787  proclaimed  that  "schools  and 
the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged."  This  was 
an  ordinance  of  the  whole  country,  reaffirmed  m  1 798  by  Con- 
gress after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  its  obligations 
must  be  redeemed  by  the  authority  of  the  whole  country,  with 
the  proceeds  of  the  territory  and  property  originally  dedicated 
to  this  high  purpose.  Schools  and  the  means  of  education  can 
thus,  and  only  thus,  be  forever  encouraged. 

In  further  evidence  of  the  early  educational  anirfms  of  our 
countrymen,  I  refer  to  the  beginning  and  growth  of  public 

♦  R.  W.  Clark,  D.D.,  in  "The  Christian  World." 

t  Report  of  U.  S.  Conmiidsion  x>f  Education,  1872:  J.  E.  Cooke,  in  *'Scribner*B 
Monthly,"  Not.,  1875.  %  Speech  in  Senate  of  U.  a,  Deo.  16,  1880. 


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644  MethodAst  QuaHerly  Beview.  [October, 

libraries.  As  far  back  as  1652  Hezekiah  Usher  began  and  there- 
after successfully  prosecuted  the  business  of  bookselling  in 
Boston,  Mass.  In  1677  four  other  persons  engaged  in  the  same 
work  there.  In  1732  Benjamin  Franklin  started  a  subscription 
library,  which  he  called  "  the  mother  of  all  the  North  Ameri- 
can subscription  libraries.'^  In  1747  the  Redwood  Library  was 
established,  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  by  Abraham  Redwood,  who 
endowed  it  by  a  gift  of  five  hundred  pounds.  In  1776  there 
were  in  the  colonies  twenty-six  public  libraries,  aggregating 
about  43,000  volumes,  and  visited  by  hundreds  of  general  read- 
ers and  men  of  letters.* 

The  recorded  sentiments  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  from  "  the  Constitution  "  thereof,  early 
adopted  in  this  country  :  "  It  is  recommended  that  the  candi- 
date [for  licensure]  be  required  to  produce  a  diploma  of  Bach- 
elor or  Master  of  Arts  from  some  college  or  university  ;  or,  at 
least,  authentic  testimonials  of  his  having  gone  through  a  reg- 
ular course  of  leamiug.  They  shall  examine  him  on  the  arts 
and  sciences,  on  theology,  natural  and  revealed,  and  on  eccle- 
siastical history.''  f  Though  this  excerpt  has  but  little  refer- 
ence to  popvla/r  education,  it  shows  the  educational  standard  of 
that  cultured  Church,  and  its  influence  on  the  minds  of  the 
people.  What  is  more  significant,  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
now  popularly  known  as  "  Princeton  College,"  was  originated 
by  royal  charter  in  1746,  and,  by  a  more  ample  charter,  it  ac- 
quired, in  1748,  the  powers  and  privileges  then  held  by  the 
higher  institutions  of  Great  Britain.  "Columbia  College,'* 
another  Presbyterian  institution,  was  established  in  17534 

Expressive  of  the  views  and  spirit  of  the  Church  which, 
because  it  had  its  origin  amid  the  influences  of  the  highest 
style  of  educational  forces,  is  deemed  a  strong  opponent  of 
Romanism  and  ignorance,  as  it  is  a  zealous  ally  and  promoter 
of  popular  education  in  tiiis  country,  I  here  give  outline  evi- 
dences that  no  Church  takes  higher  ground  as  to  an  educated 
ministry  and  an  intelligent  people  than  does  the  Methodist 
Episcopal.  Not  only  are  all  candidates  for  the  ministry,  what- 
ever their  atcUvs  of  scholarship,  required  to  pursue  a  course  of 
study  preparatory  to  licensure  and  to  probation  in  Conference 

♦  "  Harpers'  Magazine,"  1877,  p.  722.  \  Confession  of  Faith. 

X  Report  U.  S.  €k)mmi88ion  of  Education,  1874. 


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1881.]  American  JEdaicaUon.  645 

— which  is,  of  course,  an  incentive  in  the  canse  of  general  edu- 
cation and  thorough  reforms — but  all  who  desire  admission  to 
the  full  and  regular  ministry  must  pass  a  satisfactory  examina- 
tion on  an  extensive  course  of  reading  and  study,  running 
through  four  years.  And  now  the  matter  of  prescribing  a 
course  of  post-graduate  studies,  to  be  puiisued  by  such  as  de- 
sire, is  urged  for  the  sake  of  greater  schol^hip  and  efficiency. 
As  might  be  expected,  these  men  are  required,  in  their  minis- 
terial relations,  to  give  special  attention  to  the  instruction  of 
children,  and  to  enjoin  the  same  duty  on  parents  and  guardians. 
And,  what  is  true  of  no  other  Church  in  America,  so  far  as  this 
writer  knows,  she  has  incorporated  in  her  "Book  of  Pisci- 
pline  "  a  section  devoted  especially  to  advices  and  directions  for 
the  higher  education  of  youth.  Among  them  are  recommend- 
ations that  each  Conference  have  an  academy  or  seminary 
under  its  direction,  that  four  Conferences  unite  in  the  support 
of  a  college  or  university,  and,  in  order  that  the  people  may  be 
properly  instructed  in  this  matter,  it  is  enjoined  that  "  it  shall 
be  the  duty  of  each  preacher  in  charge  to  preach  on  the  subject 
of  education  once  a  year,"  and  to  "  take  one  public  collection 
annually  in  aid  of  the  work  of  education." 

What  strikes  us  as  worthy  of  still  greater  commendation, 
this  Church  has,  by  formal  resolutions  adopted  by  her  chief 
body,  put  herself  openly  and  squarely  on  record  in  favor  of  the 
common  schools  of  this  country,  in  a  form  and  manner  that 
no  other  Church  has  don6.  She  has  placed  herself  in  antag- 
onism to  the  enemies  of  popular  education  in  these  few  but 
weighty  declarations : 

Wh^eas^  We  have  always,  as  a  Church,  accepted  the  work  of 
education  as  a  duty  enjoined  by  our  commission  "  to  teach  all 
nations;"  and 

Wh^reas^  The  system  of  common  schools  is  an  indispensable 
safeguard  to  republican  institutions;  and 

WhereaSy  The  combined  and  persistent  assaults  of  the  Roman- 
ists endanger  the  very  existence  of  our  common  schools;  therefore, 

Reaolvedy  1.  That  we  will  co-operate  in  every  effort  which  is 
fitted  to  make  our  common  schools  more  efficient  and  permanent* 

Reaolvedy  2.  That  it  is  our  firm  conviction  that  to  divide  the 
common-school  funds  among  reli^ous  denominations  for  educa- 
tional purposes  is  wrong  in  principle,  and  hostile  to  our  free  in« 
stitutions  and  the  cause  of  education.* 

^        ♦  Journal  of  General  Conference,  1872,  p.  441. 

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646  Methodist  QaaHerly  Review.  [October, 

To  show  the  agreement  to  these  advanced  steps  of  the  rep- 
resentative men  oflScially  connected  with  the  edacational  work 
in  this  coimtry,  I  select  the  following  by  the  Hon.  A.  E.  Rankin, 
late  Secretary  of  the  Vermont  Board  of  Education,  namely : 

I  suppose  it  to  be  a  fact  that  the  State  took  into  its  own  hands 
the  management  of  the  educational  interests  of  its  children  be- 
cause it  felt  that  its  <jwn  permanence  and  security  depended  upon 
the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  its  citizens.  And  no  republican 
government  can  long  stand  if  a  strong  and  vigorous  moral  senti- 
ment be  not  inculcated  into  the  minds  of  its  people,  and  the 
public  conscience  be  not  educated  and  enlightenea.  The  history 
of  the  world  shows  that  men  devoid  of  moral  principle  can  only 
be  governed  by  force.  .  .  .  The  nations  of  the  Old  World  have 
borrowed  the  common  school  from  us,  but  several  of  them  have 
surpassed  us  in  developing  the  resources  of  the  system.  The 
Prussians  have  a  maxim  that  whatever  you  would  have  appear 
in  a  nation's  life  you  must  put  into  the  public  schools. 

Forestalling  and  encouraging  this  state  of  things,  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  provides  that,  "  Religion,  moral- 
ity, and  knowledge  being  necessary  to  a  good  government  and 
the  happiness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education 
shall  forever  be  encouraged."  Accordingly,  all  our  State  Con- 
stitutions recognize  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the  duty  of 
providing  for  the  education  of  the  citizens  of  the  several  States. 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  as  early  as  Mai'ch,  1775,  a  banner 
with  the  inscription  "  George  Rex,  and  the  Liberties  of  Amer- 
ica," and  on  the  reverse  side  "  No  Popery,"  was  raised  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  And  we  deem  it  well  that  the  representatives 
of  the  Republican  party  in  the  State  of  New  York  did,  at  the 
convention  held  Sept.  8,  1875,  adopt  the  following  resolution : 

The  fre^  public  school  is  the  bulwark  of  the  American  Repub- 
lic. We  therefore  demand  the  unqualified  maintenance  of  the 
public-school  system,  and  its  support  by  equal  taxation.  We  are 
opposed  to  all  sectarian  appropriations,  and  we  denounce  as  a 
crime  against  liberty  and  republican  institutions  any  project  for 
sectarian  division  or  perversion  of  the  school  fund  of  the  State. 

In  further  evidence  of  the  policy  of  this  nation  Hon.  J.  S. 
Morrill,  in  support  of  the  bill  referred  to  in  the  early  part  of 
this  article,  declared  that  in  1858  he  introduced  into  the  na- 
tional Senate  "  a  bill  providing  colleges  for  each  of  the  States," 
and  though,  for  a  special  reason,  it  was  vetoed  by  the  President, 
yet  only  four  years  later  a  similar  measure  "  became  Ij^e  law  of 


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1881.1  Americcm  Sd%i,oaUon.  647 

the  land."  The  national  aim  in  this  direction  is  seen  also  in 
the  establishment  of  schools  for  the  advancement  of  agriculture 
and  other  industrial  arts,  as  supplementary  to  and  in  harmony 
with  classical  institutions.     He  continued  : 

Universal  education  diminishes  pauperism  by  opening  avenues 
to  labor,  and  by  showing  how  money  can  be  saved  as  well  as 
earned.'  It  makes  more  of  social  life,  and  there  is  less  of  crime 
to  be  supported  and  punished.  It  finds  nobler  fields  of  ambition 
than  are  nelds  of  war,  and  cherishes  human  brotherhood.  Under 
our  form  of  government,  swayed  to  and  fro  by  universal  suffrage, 
it  becomes  our  gravest  duty  as  legislators  to  take  heed  that  all 
those  who  wield  power  at  tne  ballot-box  shall  be  fully  informed 
of  the  hiffh  trust  they  hold,  and  of  their  duty  to  discharge  that 
trust  with  fidelity  to  the  whole  country  and  to  the  sacred  obli- 
gations of  an  enlightened  conscience.  All  of  our  citizens  must 
be  raised  to  that  intellectual  and  moral  dignity  which  appreciates 
and  accepts  some  personal  responsibility  to  their  country  for  their 
political  privileges  and  for  their  appropriate  exercise. 

The  senator  declares  further  that  the  political  and  moral 
interests  of  the  nation  can  b6  subserved  only  as  "  our  school- 
houses  as  well  as  churches  shall  be  wide  open  even  to  hea- 
thens, if  here  to  stay,  rather  than  our  jails  and  houses  of  cor- 
rection." Through  immigration  we  are  annually  receiving 
large  accessions  to  our  population. 

These  tidal  waves  of  drifting  population  will  continue  to  flood 
our  shores  as  long  as  men  and  women  are  attracted  by  our  free 
institutions,  by  free  homesteads,  by  free  common  schools,  and  by 
higher  wages.  Willing  to  labor,  anxious  to  learn,  as  should  be 
this  adventurous  host  of  comparative  strangers  to  American  in- 
stitutions, shall  we  not  plant  both  common  schools  and  colleges 
among  such  a  raw  and  relatively  uninstructed  multitude  wher- 
ever it  may  be  ultimately  distributed  ?  * 

Over  and  above  these'  "  foreign  legions"  from  Europe  and 
Asia  there  are  the  several  Indian  tribes,  who,  as  experiment 
shows,  can  be  educated,  civilized,  and  made  useful  citizens. 
"  Wards  of  the  nation,"  they  desire  to  live  and  work.  Unable 
to  educate  themselves,  and  it  being  impracticable  that  the 
States  and  Territories  in  which  they  in  greatest  numbers  have 
their  reservations  be  to  the  requisite  expense  for  their  educa- 
tion, it  becomes  necessary  that  the  nation  provide  the  means. 
The  same  is  true  and  more  urgent  in  reference  to  the  millions 

«  Senator  M onilL 


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648  Methodist  QitaHerl/y  Jieview.  [October, 

of  colored  people  recently  set  free  and  suddenly  intrusted  with 
a  political  power  for  which  they  are  generally  unprepared,  and 
for  which  education  and  morality  alone  can  prepare  them. 
That  this  people  can  be  taught  and  are  eager  for  the  rudiments 
of  education  is  now  acknowledged  at  the  South,  as  it  is  patent 
to  all.  In  an  address  to  a  delegation  of  colored  citizens  Gen- 
eral Grant  lately  said : 

I  am  glad  to  see  in  my  travels  the  progress  in  education  all 
over  the  country  made  by  the  colored  people,  even  in  the  South, 
where  the  prejudice  is  strongest.  It  is  rare  to  see  a  colored  child 
lose  an  opportunity  to  get  a  common-school  education.  Educa- 
tion is  the  first  great  step  toward  tlie  capacity  to  exercise  the 
new  privileges  accorded  to  you  wisely  and  properly.  I  hope  the 
field  may  be  open  to  you,  regardless  of  any  prejudLice  which  may 
have  heretofore  existed. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  held  at  Des 
Moines,  Iowa,  1875,  he  spoke  similarly  : 

Where  no  power  is  exercised  except  the  will  of  the  people  it 
is  important  that  the  sovereign  people  foster  intelligence — that 
intelligence  which  is  to  preserve  us  as  a  free  nation.  The  centen- 
nial year  of  our  national  existence  is  a  good  time  to  begin  the 
work  of  strengthening  the  foundations  of  the  structure  com- 
menced by  our  patriotic  forefathers  one  hundred  years  ago.  Let 
us  all  labor  to  aid  all  needful  guarantees  for  the  security  of  free 
thought,  free  speech,  a  free  press,  pure  morals,  unfettered  relig- 
ious sentiments,  and  equal  rights  and  privileges  to  all  men,  irre- 
spective of  nationality,  color,  or  religioiL  Encourage  free  schools, 
and  resolve  that  not  one  dollar  appropriated  for  their  support 
shall  be  appropriated  to  the  support  of  any  sectanan  schools;  that 
neither  the  State  nor  the  nation  shall  support  institutions  of 
learning  other  than  those  sufiicient  to  afford  to  every  child  in  the 
land  the  opportunity  of  a  good  common-school  education,  un- 
mixed with  sectarian,  pagan,  or  atheistic  dogmas. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  genius  of  our  institutions,  having 
such  a  marked  history,  is  to  be  preserved  largely  by  the  intelli- 
gence and  morals  of  the  people  through  the  agency  of  the 
public  schools  of  the  land.  And  it  becomes  us  to  look  well  to 
the  character  and  style  of  the  education  we  foster  and  offer  to 
the  wards  of  the  several  States  and  of  the  nation.  What  should 
be  its  chief  characteristics  is  the  special  subject  of  the  remain- 
ing pages  of  this  paper.  "That  nation  is  best  educated  in 
which  knowledge  is  the  most  diffused,  in  which  the  results  of 
learning  are  within  the  grasp  of  the  greatest  number."     By  an 


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1881.]  American  Edv^ation.  649 

education  euited  to  the  masses  we  understand,  therefore,  such 
a  leading  ont,  such  a  teaching  and  developing  of  them  in  gen- 
eral, as  will  induce  a  performance  of  the  duties  of  citizenship. 
Educated  after' this  model,  they  cannot  be  easily  subjected  to  the 
leadings  of  corrupt  and  designing  men,  but  will  be  somewhat 
identified  with  the  aims  of  a  free  people.  General  intelligence, 
a  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  and  sound  morality,  constitute 
the  real  worth  and  usefulness  of  life.  We  give  it  as  our  set- 
tled conviction  that  they  whose  character  is  formed  by  intelli- 
gence and  morality  scarcely  and  seldom  so  far  swerve  from 
their  early  education  as  to  contravene  the  grander  purposes 
and  duties  of  life. 

This  style  of  an  education,  fitting  the  people  to  their  places, 
should  be  given  to  all  the  wards  of  this  country.  The  provis- 
ions for  what  is  called  "compulsory  education"  should  be 
earnestly  and  universally  enforced.  The  children  of  foreigners 
among  us,  and  our  colored  citizens,  should  share  the  educational 
as  they  do  the  political  advantages  of  the  nation.  It  is  some- 
what remarkable  that  not  until  after  the  first  century  of  our 
national  history  are  any  enlarged  educational  advantages  surely, 
though  slowly,  being  offered  to  the  freedmen  of  the  South  and 
to  their  race  at  the  North.  Under  the  inspiration  and  direc- 
tion of  Northern  Churches  and  other  benevolent  societies, 
schools  of  all  grades  are  being  established.  And  the  time  wiU 
come  when  our  colored  citizens  will  proudly  look  back  to  the 
origin  of  the  institutions  that  now  rise  for  their  enlightenment, 
as  do  the  descendants  of  the  colonists  to  our  oldest  colleges. 
The  characteristics  of  sires  are  naturally  somewhat  reproduced 
in  the  ground-features  of  their  offspring.  As  the  solid  strength 
of  the  Abrahamic  and  Anglo-Saxon  races  is  found  again  in  the 
genius  and  force  of  their  descendants,  so  it  will  be  in  the  citi- 
zens of  this  republic. 

What  are  the  chief  ways  and  means  of  securing  to  the  peo- 
ple this  style  of  education  f  The  early  and  late  history  of  this 
republic,  as  we  have  in  this  paper  outlined  it,  teaches  that  the 
universal  education  of  the  people,  under  the  supervision  of 
competent  authority,  is  the  only  wise  method,  provided  always 
that  family  and  Christian  instruction  be  given.  This  well- 
established  fact  brings  us,  unfortunately,  into  antagonism  with 
religious  bigotry  and  sectarian  or  ecclesiastical  ignorance.    It 

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650  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

is  only  by  the  ascendency  and  maintenance  of  onr  Protestant 
and  democratic  institutions  that  these  combined  forces  can  be 
controlled  or  kept  in  check.  "  The  triumph  of  one  is  the  over- 
throw of  the  other.  The  modem  Latin  races,  with  their  igno- 
rant and  superstitious  people,  their  monks,  relics,  and  shams, 
are  rapidly  sinking  to  decay,  as  is  seen  in  Italy,  France,  Spain, 
Portugal,  Austria,  in  Europe  ;  in  South  America,  and  especially 
in  Mexico,  on  our  borders."  *  The  Roman  Catholic  Irish  seem 
to  hold  with  greater  tenacity  to  superstition  and  ignorance  than 
do  any  other  people  that  are  in  coraimercial  intercourse  with 
Protestant  and  intelligent  countries.  Our  chief  safeguard, 
therefore,  lies  in  universal  education  under  the  sanctions  of  vi- 
tal Christianity.  And  though  it  be  a  difficult  thing  to  secure 
a  strong  hold  or  wide  influence  over  this  people,  we  may  and 
should  guard  against  them.  Just  now  they  are  making  per- 
sistent and  special  efforts  to  gain  both  power  and  numbers  in 
the  South.  They  are  there  organizing  schools  and  Churches 
for  the  unsophisticated  and  easily  moved  freedmen — ^a  people 
who,  if  left  to  their  own  choice,  would  more  naturally  go  to  the 
schools,  churches,  and  other  associations  of  their  deliverers  from 
bondage,  and  yet  who,  because  of  the  intrigues  of  political 
ecclesiastics,  may  be  so  blinded  and  misled  as  to  be  perverted 
from  the  established  institutions  of  the  country.  The  freed- 
men take  to  education,  to  art,  and  to  religion  with  an  avidity 
and  success  highly  gratifying  and  encouraging.  Some  are 
turning  their  attention  to  the  learned  professions.  Give  to 
them,  as  they  desire,  all  the  rights  and  pri^-ileges  of  citizens, 
and  in  a  generation  of  time  they  will  show  themselves  worthy 
their  nationality.  Our  danger  is  less  from  them  than  from 
quite  another  people.  European  Conrniunists,  Roman  Catholic 
zealots,  and  corrupt  politicians,  who  openly  show  themselves 
inimical  to  popular  education,  as  provided  in  our  grand  system 
of  common  schools,  are  the  people  to  be  guarded  against.  Our 
obvious  duty,  therefore,  is  to  look  wisely  to  the  prevalent  in- 
fluences of  our  educational  facilities. 

First  among  these  are  our  common  schools.  From  the  na- 
ture of  things  these  are  a  vast  power.  They  are  adapted  to 
promote  the  intelligence  of  the  citizens,  and  to  fit  them  for 
their  several  duties.    They  are  not  "  godless,"  as  is  affirmed  by 

•  Froude.    •" 

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1881.1  American  Education,  651 

some  persons.  The  genius  of  our  country,  from  its  beginning, 
forbids  it.  A  Christian  atmosphere  pervades  the  thinking, 
the  literature,  and  the  history  of  the  guiding  minds.  The  re- 
sults are  seen  in  the  broad  currents  of  religious  thought,  supe- 
rior to  the  eddies  that  play  on  the  surface.  It  is  otherwise  in 
papal  countries.  Even  in  Great  Britain  primary  schools  are 
less  suited  to  promote  general  intelligence,  enlarged  freedom 
of  thought,  and  a  broad  and  uniform  civilization,  because  they 
are  chiefly  parochial  and  denominational,  than  in  this  country. 
They  foster  the  spirit  of  caste,  against  wliich  Mr.  Gladstone, 
in  his  attacks  on  papal  ignorance  and  priestly  domination,  is 
dealing  heavy  blows.  But  the  early  history  of  our  people,  the 
extent  of  this  country,  the  genius  of  its  founders,  are  promo- 
tive of  large  ideas,  general  intelligence,  and  a  wide-awake  en- 
terprise. Our  institutions  give  to  this  nation  a  prominence 
that  attracts  representatives  of  the  Orient  here  for  the  special 
purpose  of  studying  our  chief  peculiarities,  not  the  least  of 
which  are  our  institutions  of  learning,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest.  An  education  that  is  worthy  the  name  is  practical, 
intelligently  and  broadly  so.  The  good  sense  and  strong  qual- 
ities, as  of  those  who  rise  from  rustic  childhood  to  elevated  and 
honorable  positions  of  trust  and  power,  aided  by  the  instruction 
and  discipline  given  in  our  common  schools,  are  of  more  value 
in  this  country  than  are  the  ignorance  and  effete  customs  of 
the  Old  World. 

But  the  strongest  conservative  force  and  chief  element  of  an 
enduring  civilization  are  the  religious.  Say  what  any  body 
may,  a  Christian  education  is  the  ground  element  in  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government.  It  should  be  begun  and  fostered  in 
the  homes  of  the  people.  "Without  detriment  to  secular  edu- 
cation it  should  be  a  pervading  force  in  all  our  schools.  With- 
out it  no  morality,  no  civilization,  no  culture,  reaches  suffi- 
ciently deep  or  high,  nor  lasts  sufficiently  long,  to  contribute 
much  to  the  value  of  citizenship.  The  pulpit  and  school-room, 
the  home  and  press,  should  be  at  one  in  promoting  this  style 
of  education  among  the  people.  Our  honored  fathers  did  it ; 
we  should  do  it.  "Every  government,  to  say  nothing  of 
Churches,  is  bound  to  enforce  education  on  every  child.  It 
ought  to  put  the  ballot-box  behind  every  school-house,  so  that 
when  a  child  comes  to  vote  it  shall  do  so  through  the  school- 
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652  Methodist  Quarterly  Beoiew.  [October, 

house."  *  Leon  Gambetta,  of  France,  said  to  President  Thiers : 
"  The  salvation  of  France  depends  on  the  adoption  of  a  thor- 
ough system  of  obligatory  education."  When  this  condition 
of  things,  both  secular  and  religious,  shall  become  general  in 
this  country,  then  its  liberties  will  be  secured,  and  the  powers 
of  ignorance,  ecclesiastical  intrigue,  and  European  rationalism 
brought  to  America,  will  be  held  in  harmless  abeyance  or  sub- 
jection. And  did  the  people  of  these  United  States  understand 
and  realize  how  persistent  are  the  efforts  of  the  many  and 
subtle  enemies  of  sound  intelligence,  pure  morals,  and  universal 
education  among  us,  they  would  hasten,  we  think,  to  guard 
against  the  danger,  to  strengthen  and  extend  the  appliances  for 
which  we  here  plead. 

Believing  what  we  have  thus  far  said  to  be  eminently  true, 
particularly  in  reference  to  this  country,  where  every  citizen 
who  holds  the  elective  franchise  is  thereby  an  individual  sov- 
ereign, a  veritable  factor  in  government,  it  seems  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  they  each  and  all  be  suflBciently  educated  to 
understandingly  perform  the  duties  of  citizenship.  We  Amer- 
icans are  particularly  proud  of  our  State  or  national  system  of 
common  schools,  by  which  all  the  children  may  be  so  educated 
as  to  become  intelligent  citizens,  capable  of  understandingly 
exercising  the  elective  franchise. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  they  are  prouder  of  than  another 
it  is  their  national  schools.  The  Roman  Catholics  do  not  like 
these  schools.  They  insist  on  educating  their  own  children; 
thejr  intend,  if  they  can,  to  apply  the  education  vote  to  a  denom- 
inational purpose,  and  in  New  York,  and  possibly  in  Boston  it- 
self, their  numbers  give  them  a  chance  of  success.  Nor  is  this 
the  worst.  In  America,  as  in  England  and  Scotland,  they  are 
making  converts  out  of  the  Protestant  communions.  Weak, 
imaginative  people,  disturbed  by  theological  controversies,  are 
imposed  on  by  the  pretensions  of  a  Church  which  sits  so  calmly 
in  the  midst  of  the  confusion  and  claims  exclusive  possession  of 
truth.  .  .  .  The  Roman  Catholic  peasantry,  who  nave  flowed 
over  into  America,  are  poor,  ignorant  creatures,  who  care  noth- 
ing for  the  Constitution,  whose  interests,  so  far  as  they  have  any, 
are  in  Ireland  and  in  their  creed,  and  who  vote  as  their  priests 
direct  them.  Why  should  such  vices  be  allowed  to  exercise  a 
preponderating  influence  in  the  American  nation  ?  "  Universal 
suffrage,"  just  now,  is  the  American  sovereign,  f 

»  Rev.  H.  W.  Beecher. 

f  Froude,  in  "North  American  Reriew,"  Oct,  187». 


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1881.]  America/n  Education.  653 

This  being  a  fact  which  cannot  be  reversed,  it  is  of  the  ut- 
most importance  that  the  compulsory  feature  of  the  laws  in 
some  States  be  so  carried  out  as  that  every  child  of  school  age 
shall  receive  a  fair  conamon-school  education,  such  as  is  suited 
to  the  genius  of  our  institutions.  The  distinctions  of  race 
should  in  these  things  be  lost  Both  native-bom  and  foreign- 
born  should,  we  think,  be  required  to  be  able  to  read  suflSciently 
to  understand  the  duties  of  citizenship  and  what  is  involved  in 
allegiance  to  government.  Though  the  freedmen  of  the  South 
are  no  longer  regarded  nor  treated  as  "  wards  of  the  nation," 
much  less  of  the  several  States  within  which  they  live,  yet  it 
does  seem  an  imperative  duty,  as  also  a  wise  and  sound  policy, 
that  the  several  States  make  the  same  provisions  for  their  edu- 
cation, and  also  for  that  of  enfranchised  Indians,  which  they 
make  for  whites.  And  no  doubt  the  Southern  States  can  and 
should  do  more  for  popular  education  within  their  own  bounds 
than  they  either  have  done  or  are  now  doing.  For  the  educa- 
tion of  freedmen  the  Churches  at  the  South  are  doing  very  little, 
because  they  are  influenced  by  political  and  caste  prejudices. 
The  public  schools  in  which  colored  children  can  be  educated 
are  few,  poor,  and  inefficient.  The  most  that  is  being  done  is 
by  the  Churches  and  philanthropists  of  the  North,  and  that 
chiefly  for  the  education  of  those  who  design  to  serve  as  teach- 
ers or  preachers.* 

Without  going  here  into  the  statistics,  which  are  often  given 
and  generally  known,  it  is  clear,  from  the  history  of  all  repub- 
lics, ancient  and  modem,  and  from  the  history  of  Churches  as 
well,  that  a  certain  amount  of  knowledge,  a  certain  degree  of  edu- 
cation, and,  above  all,  of  Christian  morality,  are  absolutely  nec- 
essary to  the  perpetuity  and  well-being  of  these  United  States. 

It  is,  doubtless,  true  that  many  persons  think  or  fear  that 
universal  suffrage  is  a  mistake,  and  that  because  of  it  our  nation 
must  eventually  yield  to  the  influences  of  ignorance,  luxury, 
and  anarchy,  which  have  destroyed  other  republics.  Whether 
or  not  such  fears  are  well  grounded  depends  much  on  the 
character  of  the  people.  Popular  suffrage  is  in  this  country  a 
fixed  fact  from  which  there  will  be  no  receding,  and  it  remains 
an  imperative  duty  that  intelligence,  education,  and  good  mor- 
als be  also  universal ;  else  the  suffrage  should  be  restricted  to 

•  BeT.  Dr.  Hartzell,  "Methodist  Quarterly  Review,"  Oct.,  18Y9, pp. 742-744. 

FouBPH  Semes,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 43 

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654  Methodist  Qtiarterly  Mevieuo.  [October, 

certain  qualifications,  educational  or  property-possessing.  The 
elements  of  danger  must  be  somehow  neutralized,  a  thing  which 
can  be  done  best  by  making  a  Christian  education  open  to  all 
and  obligatory  upon  all.*  Property  qualification  may  be  welL 
But,  because  of  genius  and  skill,  because  of  shrewdness  and 
rigid  economy,  some  men,  who  are  both  ignorant  and  wicked, 
dishonest  and  fraudulent,  may  be  and  often  are  freeholders. 
The  being  a  taxable  freeholder  is,  therefore,  no  further  an  in- 
dication of  a  fitness  for  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizen- 
ship in  a  republic  than  being  personally  interested  in  the  pro- 
tection and  control  of  property.  But  the  rights  and  suffrages 
of  a  citizen  are  more  than  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a  man  as 
man.  Kapidly  accumulating  facts  in  reference  to  the  multi- 
tude of  foreign-bom  who  are  naturalized  citizens,  and  in  refer- 
ence to  an  equal  number  of  home-bom  and  enfranchised  f reed- 
men,  show  that  such  a  homogeneousness  of  character  and  con- 
dition, of  rights  and  privileges,  and  of  restrictions  and  control, 
as  a  Christian  education  gives,  is  necessary  in  order  to  the 
maintensyice  of  the  characteristic  elements  and  features  of  this 
nation. 

In  bringing  this  paper  to  a  dose  we  cannot  do  better  than  to 
use  the  short  and  crisp  address  made  by  ex-President  Grant 
at  San  Francisco,  after  his  return  from  his  tour  of  the  world, 
and  on  the  occasion  of  the  reception  given  to  him  by  the 
Board  of  Education  and  the  children  of  the  public  schools  of 
that  city : 

It  is  a  gratifying  sight  to  witness  this  evidence  of  the  educa- 
tional privileges  afforded  by  this  young  city.  The  crowds  gath- 
ered inside  and  outside  this  building  indicate  that  every  child  of 
an  age  fit  for  school  is  provided  for.  When  education  is  gen- 
erally diffused,  we  may  feel  assured  of  the  permanency  and 
perpetuity  of  our  institutions.  The  greatest  danger  of  our  peo- 
ple grows  out  of  ignorance,  and  this  evidence  of  the  universality 
of  education  is  the  best  guarantee  of  our  loyalty  to  American 
principles. 

*  Beport  of  Commission  of  New  Tork  State  Aseemblj  on  Normal  Schools,  1879. 


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1881.]  Christ  mid  our  Cenimry.  656 


Abt.  IV.— CHRIST  AND  OUR  CENTURY. 

The  invisible  Christ  confronts  onr  day  as  the  same  intense 
reality  that  Christ  visible  presented  to  his  conntrymen  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago.  At  that  time  he  was  to  many  a  beautiful 
enigma,  a  perplexity  of  wonder  and  awe,  but  yet  one  who, 
despite  of  intellect  unsatisfied  and  yearnings  disappointed,  kept 
a  firm  hold  on  love  and  adoration.  No  love  was  ever  so  sorely 
tried,  no  adoration  so  often  driven  by  stress  of  circumstances 
to  vindicate  its  tenacious  fervor ;  and  for  three  years  this  new 
pulse  of  life  swelled  and  contracted,  throbbed  and  quivered, 
under  the  pressure  of  that  sort  of  uncertainty  which  is  a  prov- 
idential element  in  our  highest  education.  To  others  this  mys- 
terious stranger  was  an  object  of  doubt  and  distrust.  Not  a 
few  believed,  or  pretended  to  believe,  that  he  was  a  deceiver, 
who  was  in  league  with  "  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils."  So, 
then,  from  the  outset  there  was  "  a  division  among  the  people." 
The  dividing  line,  at  first  faint  and  indistinct,  became  clearer. 
It  grew  broad  and  well-ddfined,  until  at  last  it  was  traced  in 
ineffaceable  blood.  On  the  one  side  or  other  of  this  line  men 
are  still  arrayed ;  and  though  Christ  is  hidden  from  the  senses, 
he  is  none  the  less,  but  indeed  all  the  more,  the  Christ  of  the 
Father  to  our  instincts,  whom  each  one  has  to  accept  or  reject. 
This  act  of  accepting  or  rejecting  Christ  is  the  most  important 
a  human  being  can  perform.  It  determines  his  character,  as 
estimated  by  the  eternal  ideal  of  character.  It  gathers  into 
oneness  all  tlie  issues  of  responsibility  pertaining  to  his  nature, 
endowments,  and  opportunities.  Nay,  more,  it  reaches  beyond 
the  individual,  and,  accordingly,  when  we  speak  of  "  Christ 
and  our  century,"  we  refer  to  an  interest  which  includes  the 
family,  the  nation,  and  the  race,  and  hence  is  supreme  in  its 
momentousness. 

The  earliest  attitude  in  which  we  see  Christianity  is  sublime. 
Before  the  Lord  Jesus  had  a  disciple  or  had  attracted  the  least 
notice,  he  had  a  perfectly  defined  gospel,  a  religion  of  "  glad 
tidings,"  a  religion  in  its  threefold  aspect  of  "glory  to  God," 
"  on  earth  peace,"  "good-will  toward  men ;"  and  this  system 
lay  within  his  mind  as  to  its  precise  scope  and  exact  details  just 
as  it  is  in  our  day.    Man's  art  is  seen  clearly  enough  in  efforts 


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656  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [October, 

to  modify  its  character  and  subject  it  to  adaptations  other  than 
its  divine  Founder  contemplated.  This  is  in  keeping  with 
man's  nature.  And,  furthermore,  we  may  beUeve  that  Provi- 
dence permitted  this  to  occur,  so  that  the  imprint  of  the  human 
hand  might  appear  in  startling  contrast  with  the  hand  of  Christ. 
"When  critics  like  Dennis  and  Warburton  undertake  to  improve 
Shakspeare,  the  only  effect  on  sensible  men  is  to  heighten  the 
estimate  of  the  dramatist's  genius.  Far  more  do  we  feel  the 
folly  of  Platonists,  ascetics,  mystics,  when  they  try  to  shape 
Christianity  according  to  human  fantasies  of  religion.  In 
nothing  has  the  intellect  been  more  prolific  than  in  this  sort  of 
ingenious  conceit ;  and  to  what  has  it  amounted  ?  Only  to  a 
fuller  disclosure  of  the  instinctive  symmetry  of  Christianity  as 
it  came  from  Christ.  Its  original  form  is  its  true  form.  And 
it  was  in  this  form — simple,  unbef riended  by  worldly  alliances, 
free  from  derogatory  associations — that  it  rested  calmly  and 
prophetically  on  its  own  might.  It  saw  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning, because  the  one  contained  the  other.  Understand, 
then,  that  Chiistianity  never  proposed  to  adapt  itself  to  man, 
but  to  adapt  man  to  itself.  Light  is  older  than  tlie  eye.  The 
eye  was  constructed  to  suit  the  light.  Man  was  created  for 
Christ,  and  hence  Christ's  religion  was  designed  to  fulfill  the 
purpose  of  his  creation  by  means  of  redemption.  If  so,  then, 
this  religion,  because  of  its  lofty  ideal,  would  deal  with  man  not 
as  a  mere  inhabitant  of  the  earth,  but  as  a  citizen  of  the  uni- 
verse. Much  that  it  had  to  say  to  him  would  be  only  nnder- 
etood  in  part.  The  very  dignity  it  put  upon  him  would  be 
turned  against  itself,  while  not  a  few  of  its  worst  enmities 
would  spring  from  the  fact  that  it  treated  him  as  "  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels."  Nay,  more ;  just  as  the  insane  are  often  more 
violent  against  their  nearest  friends  than  against  strangers,  how 
could  it  be  otherwise  than  that  its  extreme  opponents  should 
seek  to  rid  the  earth  of  its  presence  ?  Yet,  in  the  certain  pros- 
pect of  all  this,  Christianity  came  forth  from  the  provincial 
seclusions  of  Nazareth  and  challenged  the  homage  of  the  fore- 
most races  of  the  world.  It  did  this  of  choice.  A  prominent 
feature  of  its  plan,  from  the  first,  was  to  touch  the  highest  in 
man.  And  whereas  all  education  and  culture  in  other  matters 
begin  in  the  lowest  connections  of  intellect  with  the  senses, 
proceeding  from  the  material  to  the  sensuous,  and  thence  in- 

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1881.]  Christ  and  our  Centv/ry.  657 

wardly  to  the  imaginative  and  the  reflective,  it  evoked  at  once 
the  loftiest  sentiments  on  the  assumption  that  there  was  "  a 
spirit  in  man,"  and  "  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  "  gave  it 
"  understanding."  Therefore  onr  statement  that  in  the  outset 
of  its  course  the  attitude  of  Christianity  was  sublime. 

In  entire  consistency  with  this  aim,  we  find  the  Lord  Jesus 
opening  his  ministry  by  conversations  with  Nicodemus,  a  ruler 
of  the  Jews,  and  soon  thereafter  with  a  woman  of  Samaria. 
Nationality  and  non-nationality  are  side  by  side.  Immediately 
succeeding  these  incidents  we  see  him  working  miracles  in 
behalf  of  a  Jewish  nobleman's  son  and  a  Eoman  centurion's 
servant.  Nationality  and  non-nationality  emerge  again  into 
notice.  Extremes  in  society  are  brought  together,  and  the  new 
rain  from  tlie  rising  cloud  of  mercy  falls  alike  "  on  the  evil 
and  on  the  good."  The  best  in  each  is  addressed.  Nicodemus 
is  aroused  by  an  appeal  to  his  official  position,  the  woman  of 
Sychar  by  the  quickening  of  her  sensibilities,  the  nobleman  by 
access  to  a  father's  heart,  and  the  centurion  by  sympathy  with 
his  servant.  The  grouping  around  him  goes  on.  Day  by  day 
witnesses  an  enlarging  sphere,  of  which  he  is  the  center.  The 
magnetic  power  moves  freely  and  has  no  stoppage.  Men  hasten 
to  him  by  instinct,  and  instinct  in  them  is  met  by  the  utmost 
spontaneousness  in  him.  Among  the  poor,  the  wretched,  the 
outcast,  his  work  chiefly  lies,  and  this  because  suffering  and 
sorrow  open  the  shortest  path  to  what  is  noblest  in  humanity. 
Whence  came  in  no  lon^  time  discussion,  crimination,  fierce 
hostility  ?  For  the  most  part  from  scribes  and  Pharisees,  men 
of  learning  and  influence,  whose  pride  of  intellect  and  vanity 
of  office  arrayed  them  against  him.  Intellect,  unregulated  by 
something  higher,  always  tends  to  return  into  the  senses,  and  to 
experience  again,  and  even  more  fully,  the  sensations  in  which 
it  had  its  birth ;  and  intellect  in  Christ's  day  was  sensational  in 
its  worst  form.  Three  hundred  years  later,  when  Julian,  who 
was  no  common  statesman  and  philosophic  thinker,  opposed 
Christianity  because  it  was  not  a  philosophy  to  the  intellect, 
but  a  faith  to  the  heart,  he  followed  the  bias  of  all  culture  when 
it  concentrates  manhood  in  itself.  Clirist  proposed  to  satisfy 
the  intellect  by  means  of  the  affections  and  through  the  avenues 
of  the  spiritual  instincts.  These  were  more  open  in  the 
*•  common  people  "  than  in  the  cultivated  class,  and,  therefore, 

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658  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Heview.  [October, 

most  of  his  ministry  was  given  to  them,  for  "  they  heard  him 
gladly." 

Whatever  may  be  said  against  certain  current  forms  of 
Christianity,  A.  D.  1881,  it  cannot  be  affirmed  that  Christian- 
ity itself  has  lost  its  original  attitude  of  sublimity.  It  still 
speaks  as  of  old  to  the  primal  instincts  of  the  human  spirit, 
and  wherever  it  has  foothold  it  has  it  on  that  ground  and  on 
none  other.  Christ  in  our  century  is  the  Christ  of  Bethle- 
hem, Nazareth,  and  Galilee,  and  if  he  is  anywhere  "crucified 
afresh,"  it  is  in  our  metropolitan  Jerusalems,  that  want  a  seou- 
lar  Messiah,  and  will  have  him  only.  The  conditions  of  the 
question,  "  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ? "  are  not  changed  a  whit 
Admit  all  that  is  claimed  for  the  material  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion, nevertheless  the  fact  stands  that  man  has  not  added,  by 
modern  growth,  a  single  instinct  or  any  other  kind  of  moral  - 
capacity  to  the  old  constitution  of  his  nature.  What  we  have 
done  by  science,  art,  literature,  and  political  economy,  has 
been  development,  not  creation ;  and,  moreover,  most  of  the 
development  has  been  in  the  interest  of  the  sense-intellect  and 
its  gratifications.  It  has  been  education  in  its  literal  meaning 
of  drawing  out,  not  of  adding  to,  the  human  mind.  Charac- 
teristics of  men,  not  of  man,  have  altered.  And  while  our 
definitions  of  trade,  industry,  government,  have  been  re-wrifc- 
ten  to  suit  modem  ideas,  the  two  changeless  words  in  our  dic- 
tionary are  Christ  and  Man.  So  will  they  remain.  For  these 
are  not  liable  to  the  revereals  of  experience  nor  to  the  revisals 
of  more  acute  observation,  but  dwelt  above  the  fluctuations  of 
the  atmosphere,  and,  by  virtue  of  hidden  contact,  have  fast  hold 
of  the  unseen  and  etemaL 

Christ  and  man  stand,  then,  precisely  in  the  same  relation 
that  they  did  eighteen  centuries  ago,  and  they  have  been  no 
more  affected  by  time  than  the  relative  positions  of  the  sun 
and  the  earth.  Christ  in  our  century  is  the  Christ  of  the  New 
Testament.  Man  in  our  centuiy  is  the  man  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. As  then,  so  at  present,  tiiey  are  face  to  face.  Now,  if 
any  thing  in  Christ's  life  is  clear  it  is  that  he  put  away  from 
himself  whatever  might  come  between  him  and  man.  We 
know  what  these  intervening  objects  are.  Family  blood,  he- 
reditary traditions,  wealth,  fastidious  tastes,  class  habits,  are  in- 
sulators that  hinder  the  free  passage  of  the  soul-current  of 

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1881.1  Ch7*tst  and  our  Century.  669 

humanity  from  one  to  another.  On  the  other  hand,  also,  pov- 
erty, ignorance,  and  social  insensibility  are  separators  between 
man  and  man.  Were  these  ever  greater  than  in  Christ's  time  ? 
Was  the  distance  between  patrician  and  plebeian,  between 
Pharisee  and  the  "  common  people,"  ever  more  marked  than  in 
his  day  ?  From  all  sach  distinctions  Christ  held  himself  habit- 
ually aloof.  He  was  not  educated  as  an  ordinary  Jewish  boy. 
He  was  constantly  at  variance  with  Sadducean  civilization  and 
Pharisaic  religionism ;  and  where  he  conformed  to  Judaism  it 
was  that  of  the  pure  Hebrew  type,  which  we  have  instances  of 
in  the  way  he  observed  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  and  the 
memorial  feasts  of  his  country.  Obviously,  this  mode  of  life 
was  not  with  him  an  accident.  Circumstances  did  not  shape 
its  unique  configuration.  It  was  cast  in  the  mold  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mother's  womb.  And,  accordingly,  when  he  took  his  place, 
at  thirty  years  of  age,  in  the  open  world,  the  oi^anio  law  of  his 
being  continued  its  onmipotent  activity  in  fashioning  every 
external  fact  of  his  life  in  correspondence  with  his  interior  nat- 
ure. Thus  it  was  that  he  came  directly  to  the  heart  of  man. 
All  obstructions  of  birth,  rearing,  culture,  conventional  usages, 
having  been  kept  out  of  his  way,  the  access  to  human  instincts 
was  free  and  unimpeded.  Is  it  less  so  now  ?  If  it  be  less,  it  is 
the  fault  of  our  century. 

But  before  we  inquire  how  far  the  century  is  blameworthy 
in  this  matter,  let  us  look  at  the  typical  manhood  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  created  in  the  midst  of  a  civilization  which  had 
interblended  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Koman  constituents.  The 
first  fact  to  meet  us  is  that  the  new  type  did  not  appear  in 
his  own  earthly  life-time.  When  he  died  on  the  cross,  not  a 
single  individual  on  earth,  not  the  beloved  John,  not  his  own 
mother,  understood  him.  A  strange  period  of  forty  days 
intervened  between  his  resurrection  and  ascension.  The  mar- 
velous biography  that  had  recorded  his  incarnation,  career, 
death,  resumes  its  task  without  a  pause.  There  is  no  explana- 
tion, no  apology,  no  surprise,  when  the  dead  Christ  re-appears 
and  enters  again  on  his  work  of  instruction  and  tender  fellow- 
ship with  his  disciples.  The  disciples  themselves  were  amazed 
at  his  return,  but  the  evangelists  take  pains  to  show  that  their 
amazement  was  due  to  forgetfulness  of  his  words.  On  human 
grounds,  such  an  act  of  intellectual  daring  as  resuscitating  a 


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660  Meilwdittt  Quarterly  Heview.  [October, 

teacher  and  completing  his  teaching  ought  to  be  deemed  an 
impossibility.  On  the  ground  of  Christianity,  it  is  simple  and 
plain  enough.  The  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  were  es- 
sential facts  in  the  system,  and  he  exemplified  the  facts  while 
he  unfolded  the  infinite  truths  which  they  contained.  And  in 
this  semi-glorified  state  he  was  a  Christ  to  the  senses  no  lon- 
ger after  the  former  method  of  his  existence,  but  "  showed 
himself  "  at  intervals,  and  was  a  Christ  to  the  spirit.  Its  dis- 
tinct characteristic  was  that  of  a  jt^ow'-spiritual  dispensation. 
Pentecost  was  near  by,  and  these  forty  days  were  the  prelude 
to  its  wonders.  Pentecost  came,  and  this  typical  manhood, 
which  had  passed  through  its  three  stages  of  training  under  the 
Christ  of  Nazareth,  the  Christ  of  the  forty  days,  and  the  Christ 
of  the  throne,  reached  its  development. 

And  how  humanlv  philosophic,  in  the  light  of  inspiration, 
this  method  was  1  And  how  beautiful  in  Siat  beauty  which 
imagination,  in  its  moments  of  deepest  truthfulness,  sees  as  far 
remote  from  earthly  modes  of  thought  and  yet  nearer  than  any 
thing  earthly  to  the  spirit's  profoundest  instincts  1  Putting 
out  of  view  its  religious  significance  and  taking  it  as  an  intel- 
lectual method,  we  can  conceive  of  nothing  better  calculated 
to  give  us  what  we  so  much  need  in  this  age,  a  clear  insight 
into  the  laws  of  mind.  Here  we  have  "  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh."  The  same  organs  of  observation  are  exercised  as  in 
daily  life.  People  are  "  astonished "  and  even  "  amazed." 
This  is  human  experience.  Yet  while  the  wonders  are  oc- 
curring, a  directive  power  is  noticeable,  and  its  aim  is  uniform. 
Over  every  miracle  a  sovereignty  is  enthroned.  The  power 
acts,  but  the  sovereignty  acts  also.  The  beneficence  effects  a 
certain  end,  and,  at  the  same  instant,  the  sovereignty  asserts  its 
control.  The  miracle  is  not  a  spectacle  for  the  senses.  It  is 
not  an  excitement  for  the  imagination  and  its  co-related  emo- 
tions. Instead  of  these,  it  makes  its  way  toward  the  reflective 
intellect,  nor  does  it  stop  there,  but  advances  into  the  moral 
nature.  Beyond  doubt,  it  seeks  the  conscience  and  affections, 
and  the  enforcement  which  the  sovereignty  gives  is  not  con- 
tent till  its  force  appears  in  conviction  and  sentiment. 

Is  not  this  the  very  ideal  of  the  true  method  of  thought  ? 
Add  to  it  the  further  development  of  the  forty  days  and  of 
Pentecost,  and  what  faculty  has  been  unawakened  ?  what  f unc- 


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1881.]  Christ  cmd  our  Century,  661 

tion  of  a  faculty  unquickened  ?  what  recess  of  the  hidden  soul 
un visited  ?  what  latency  of  the  progressive  spirit  untouched  ? 
No  problem  connected  with  the  management  of  mind  was  ever 
so  complex  and  difficult  as  that  which  Christ  had  to  consider, 
namely,  how  the  human  soid  could  he  taught  a/ad  trained 
through  the  senses  for  the  spiritual  realization  of  God.  Eight- 
een centuries  have  shown  us  nothing  which  he  did  not  know 
and  act  upon  in  shaping  the  typical  manhood  to  which  we 
have  referred.  Is  it  a  law  of  mind  that  the  two  co-existent 
elements  of  perception  and  seneation  are  always  in  an  inverse 
proportion  ?  Most  fully  did  he  recognize  it.  Throughout  his 
career  his  miracles  were  quiet,  imobtrusive,  and  prefaced  by 
a  tranquillizing  influence.  Is  it  a  law  of  mind  that  feeling 
should  be  calm  in  order  to  give  a  continuous  support  to  intel- 
lectual energy  ?  Without  an  exception,  he  observed  this  prin- 
ciple. Is  it  a  law  of  mind  that  impressions  should  be  repeated 
and  that  the  mind  itself  should  recall  them  so  that  the  brain 
may  educate  the  senses  as  well  as  the  senses  educate  the 
brain?  This  was  Christ's  invariable  course.  Is  it  a  law  of 
mind  that  impressions  due  to  external  causes  should  recede  in 
process  of  completion  from  perception  to  reflection,  and  thence 
inward  till  tlie  whole  nature  has  been  traversed  ?  And,  mean- 
time, is  the  imagination  ever  busy  as  a  mediating  force,  har- 
monizing the  faculties  in  their  reciprocal  activities  no  less  than 
in  adjusting  sense  and  spirit  in  their  mutuality?  Take  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  sermon  recorded  in  the  sixth  chap- 
ter of  St.  John's  Gospel,  and  the  farewell  discourse,  and  you 
see  Christ's  recognition  of  these  laws  of  thought. 

It  is  the  highest,  the  most  august,  the  most  sacred  recogni- 
tion which  these  laws  ever  received.  It  cannot  be  identified 
with  any  thing  Hebrew,  Greek,  or  Roman.  It  is  distinctively 
Christ's  method.  No  one  ever  suspected  that  these  laws  ex- 
isted in  the  human  mind  until  he  appealed  to  them,  and  by 
the  appeal  made  men  conscious  of  their  existence.  For  in- 
stance, when  Christ  "  shxrwed  "  himself  on  the  second  Sunday 
night  after  the  resurrection  to  the  disciples,  did  St.  Tliomas  im- 
agine that  there  was  such  a  law  of  belief  as  that  on  which  he  now 
acted?  Discarding  his  own  philosophy  of  evidence,  which  he 
was  challenged  to  put  in  practice,  he  instantly  exclaimed,  "  My 
Lord  and  my  God."    The  instincts  of  his  heart  were  reached, 

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Methodist  Qtbo/rterly  Heview.  [October, 

and,  in  spite  of  his  recent  self,  unbelief  was  changed  to  wor- 
sliip.  Now,  what  we  urge  is  that  the  philosophy  of  the  mind, 
which  Christ  originated  aB  a  method  of  thinking  and  incor- 
porated into  a  permanent  system,  is  the  philosophy  that  has 
the  deepest  roots  in  our  century.  It  was  this  phiosophythat 
in  the  first  quarter  of  our  century  led  the  tremendous  reac- 
tion against  the  French  Eevolution  and  has  steadily  advanced 
in  its  achievements. 

Without  doubt,  our  times  have  some  very  painful  aspects. 
Vast  numbers  seem  to  be  living  in  a  world  given  over  to  the 
senses.  Materialism  never  had  such  opportunities  to  gratify 
its  myriad  propensities.  Myriad  verily  they  are,  and  the 
modem  world  has  grown  big  enough  to  give  them  ample 
scope.  Infidelity  has  its  powerful  auxiliaries  in  science, 
literature,  and  politics,  as  these  are  taught  and  enforced  by 
men  whose  talents  and  learning,  along  with  their  positions, 
secure  them  public  attention.  But  what  is  the  source  -of 
power  in  these  auxiliaries  ?  Not  in  themselves  certainly,  but 
in  their  connections  with  a  stage  of  civilization  and  a  transi- 
tional period  of  education  that  have  thrown  around  them  an 
air  of  importance.  The  importance  is  fictitious,  not  real; 
it  is  ephemeral,  not  permanent.  Nearly  all  these  questions 
have  grown  up  on  the  physical  side  of  our  nature,  and  they 
are  part  and  parcel  of  physical  development.  So,  too,  neural- 
gia has  been  greatly  increased  in  the  recent  progress  of  civili- 
zation; nerves  and  brain  have  become  far  more  sensitive; 
thousands  of  tiny  fibers,  once  too  insignificant  to  play  any  rdle 
in  life,  have  assumed  a  sudden  importance  in  the  animal 
economy,  so  that  now  we  can  hardly  have  an  eager  thought  or 
a  fervent  desire  or  an  anxious  care  without  the  nervous  system 
being  more  or  less  tortured.  But  the  spread  of  neuralgia  does 
not  alarm  us  in  behalf  of  Christianity,  and  why  should  Dar- 
winism, physiology,  and  the  data  of  ethics  ?  The  latter  are 
just  as  much  the  effect  of  physical  civilization  in  our  day  as 
neuralgia,  only  differing  in  this,  that  in  the  latter  the  nervous 
structure  has  been  implicated,  whereas  in  the  former  the  mind 
has  taken  cognizance  of  certain  phenomena  and  theorized  about 
them  in  the  mood  of  the  times. 

Let  us  not  be  misunderstood.  We  do  not  say  that  these 
questions  are  on  the  same  level  with  neuralgia.    What  we  do 


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1881.]  Christ  and  our  Cmtury.  663 

say  is,  that  they  are  the  prodncts  of  a  material  civilization, 
which,  owing  to  various  causes,  has  lately  had  a  rapid  and  ex- 
tensive augmentation  of  its  forces.  They  have  not  sprung 
from  the  mind  itself.  No  instinct  of  the  soul  called  for  them. 
They  met  no  want  of  reason  or  conscience.  Our  relations 
spiritually  to  God,  morally  to  man,  had  nothing  to  do  with 
their  origin.  On  the  contrary,  the  animal  man  is  the  only 
party  interested  in  their  discussion.  And  we  admit  tliat  this 
is  an  interest,  because  it  is  desirable  to  have  exact  ideas  of 
man's  place  in  the  physical  universe.  At  the  same  time  we 
protest  against  the  folly  and  evil  of  importing  them  from  their 
native  region  into  a  domain  where  they  do  not  belong.  Start- 
ing from  man's  consciousness  that  he  is  a  thinking,  willing,  and 
responsible  being,  and  that  this  consciousness  under  the  light  of 
Christianity  contrasts  itself  as  an  infinitude  of  evidence  between 
his  higher  nature  and  the  lower  animality  by  which  he  is  related 
to  the  outward  economy  of  things,  we  may  very  advantageously 
inquire  into  man's  connections  with  the  physical  universe. 
This  great  branch  of  scientific  investigation  has  been  neglected 
long  enough,  and  we  ai*e  now  suffei-ing  the  penalty  of  neglect. 
Our  punishment  has  come  in  the  natural  order  of  events  and 
under  the  authenticating  seal  of  providence.  Yet,  neverthe- 
less, there  is  a  right  way  to  pursue  this  inquiry  and  a  wrong 
way.  The  wrong  way  seems  just  now  to  be  in  the  ascendant. 
And  the  result  is,  the  animal  man  is  uppermost ;  and  what 
essays  he  writes  for  magazines  and  reviews,  what  lectures  he 
delivers,  what  poems  and  novels  he  creates !  And  what  a  fine 
creature  this  animal  man  is  with  the  mimetic  parrot,  the  noisy 
jay-bird,  the  stealthy  snake,  the  royal  lion,  perfected  in  him. 

This  is  one  aspect  of  our  century.  For  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  race,  we  have  an  approximation  to  the  ideal  of 
an  animal  man.  Epicurus  had  the  disabilities  of  heathen- 
dom. Horace  lacked  earnestness.  Lucretius  had  to  do  much  of 
his  own  thinking.  Nero  was  a  brute.  Montaigne  was  a  pro- 
visional doubter.  Hume  retired  into  the  shades  of  metaphys- 
ics to  indulge  his  subtle  skepticism.  Voltaire  wrote  with  a  gold 
ring  from  royalty,  and  Rousseau  was  a  sentimentalist,  "  aweary 
of  the  world."  But  in  the  long  run  Time  gives  every  thing 
a  fair  chance,  and  Time  has  been  just  to  the  animal  man.  And 
this  animal  man  has  reached — so  we  may  suppose — ^his  devel- 


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664  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [October, 

opment  in  our  century,  and  wears  the  panoply  of  perfected 
power.  He  is  not  a  sensual  being.  He  is  in  no  respect  low 
and  vulgar.  Though  made  "of  the  earth"  and  therefore 
"earthy,"  he  has  been  well  made  out  of  unparadised  dust, 
and  even  the  touches  of  soft  hands,  such  hands  as  Miss  Mar- 
tineau's,  Miss  Bevington's,  and  George  Eliot's,  are  traceable  in 
his  fashioning.  In  brief,  he  is  the  animal  man,  as  the  opposite 
of  the  spiritual  man.  If  you  recall  Christ's  typical  man,  as  com- 
pleted at  Pentecost,  and  set  this  other  typical  man  beside  him, 
the  breadth  of  contrast  appears.  Christ's  typical  man  was  like 
Christ.  One  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  imitate  him  by 
healing  the  lame  man  at  the  beautiful  gate  of  the  temple.  A 
grand  model  is  a  grand  inspiration,  and  the  typical  man  of 
Christianity,  appearing  in  one  aspect  in  the  impulsive  hearti- 
ness of  St.  Peter,  in  another  in  the  benignity  and  insight  of  St 
John,  in  yet  another  in  the  sublimity  of  St.  Paul,  strove  to 
conform  to  liis  model.  But  where  is  the  model  of  this  animal 
man  ?  And  what  is  it  ?  A  modem  Plato  could  not  find  it 
among  his  archetypes. 

Beneath  all  this,  however,  may  not  Providence  be  working 
in  behalf  of  Christianity  ?  The  relations  of  man  to  the  mate- 
rial universe,  and  through  it  to  Almighty  God  as  the  maker, 
preserver,  orderer  of  all  things,  as  we  have  said,  have  been 
strangely  neglected.  Beyond  question,  the  human  race  in 
Christian  lands  has  reached  a  point  in  its  advancement  at  which 
a  much  more  liberal  and  comprehensive  philosophy  of  our 
physical  attitude  and  its  connections  is  greatly  needed.  Stom- 
ach, blood,  nerves,  brain,  mean  a  good  deal  more  now  than  ever 
before.  Social  vices,  and  especially  the  sins  of  great  cities, 
make  an  urgent  appeal  for  consideration.  Philanthropy  re- 
quires a  broader  basis  of  activity.  Above  all,  men  have  to  be 
told  what  a  common  tenantry  of  the  globe  means,  and  how  far- 
reaching  sectionality  and  inter-nationality  are  with  regard  to 
race-unity.  Pause  a  moment,  and  consider  what  an  immense 
gain  would  accrue  to  education,  and  thereby  to  the  interests  of 
knowledge,  if  we  had  a  mental  physiology  which  would  com- 
mand general  assent  on  the  ground  of  ascertained  facts.  Met- 
aphysics would  then  have  its  complementary  science,  or,  rather, 
the  two  together  would  furnish  a  science  of  mind.  How  many 
religious  disputes  would  such  a  science  settle !     Calvinism  and 


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1881.]  Christ  cmd  ov/r  Century,  665 

Arminianism  mn  down  their  tap-roots  into  laws  of  the  mind. 
So  do  Ritualism  and  Quakerism.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say 
that  Romanism  and  Protestantism  rest  on  e^ntial  differences 
in  intellectual  philosophy.  Let  us  not  be  thought  extravagant 
if  we  aflSrm  that  a  true  system  of  mental  philosophy,  acknowl- 
edging the  spirituality  of  the  mind  while  approaching  the  study 
of  it  through  the  body,  would  make  such  a  work  as  President 
Edwards'  "  Inquiry  into  the  Freedom  of  the  Will "  as  impossi- 
ble as  Mr.  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization."  For  aught  wo 
know,  Christianity  may  now  be  silently  preparing  to  recover 
for  itself  the  ground  which  an  atheistic  or  a  mere  theistic 
scheme  of  philosophy  is  laboring  to  acquire.  Providence  has 
a  vast  force  of  miscellaneous  workers,  each  set  heedless  of 
others,  often  self-absorbed,  still  oftener  antagonistic,  and  the 
noisy  Babel  goes  on  with  its  confusion  of  tongues  till  Pentecost 
comes  and  every  man  hears  in  the  tongue  wherein  he  has  been 
bom  "the  wonderful  works  of  God."  Pentecost,  thanks  to 
God,  is  the  ideal  end  of  Babel ! 

Turn  now  to  another  view  of  this  question.  Many  tell  us 
that  Christianity  is  "  morihund,^^  By  what  method  of  thought 
do  they  reach  the  alarming  conclusion  ?  They  speak  of  the 
decay  of  reverence,  of  the  wide  unloosing  of  moral  ties,  of  the 
want  of  respect  for  authority,  and  particularly  the  authority  of 
public  opinion,  of  the  debauchery  of  national  morality  by  the 
prostration  of  national  conscience,  and  of  the  loss  of  the  old 
beliefs.  On  this  foundation  they  rest  their  con\ictions  and 
announce  the  impending  fate  of  Christianity.  But  it  is  no 
foundation  at  all.  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  did  not  build  on  any 
such  basis,  and,  consequently,  it  is  no  basis  for  a  criticism  on 
the  fortxmes  and  historic  prospects  of  his  religion.  Surely  we 
should  ask  an  artist  in  what  light  he  meant  his  picture  to  be 
seen.  Michael  Angelo  had  a  certain  idea  in  his  mind  when  he 
swung  the  dome  over  St.  Peter's,  and  we  ought  to  understand 
it.  Shakspeare  violated  his  usual  method  of  dramatization 
when  he  wrote  the  "  Julius  Csesar,"  and  we  should  know  the  rea- 
son thereof  before  presuming  to  criticise  the  tragedy.  In  the 
instance  of  Christianity  we  are  under  yet  more  stringent  obli- 
gations to  get  the  right  stand-point  as  preliminary  to  a  true 
method  of  thinking.  It  professes  to  be  a  divine  religion.  By 
that  standard  of  judgment  it  must  be  tried.    Instead  of  this, 

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666  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

onr  prophets  of  evil  take  the  nnpromising  appearances  on  the 
surface  of  society,  and  form  their  condusions.  They  are 
prophets  of  the  eye.  Prophets  of  the  eye  may  do  for  the 
weather,  but  they  are  not  trustworthy  in  matters  touching 
Christianity.  Long  ago  a  great  prophet  yielded  to  his  eye,  and, 
sinking  under  the  weak  tyranny,  cried  out :  "  I,  even,  I  only, 
am  left."  But  in  that  disheartening  day  there  were  "  seven 
thousand  in  Israel "  who  had  not  bowed  unto  Baal.  At  such  a 
time  "  seven  thousand "  were  enough  to  re-stock  a  depleted 
empire. 

Among  the  depreciating  critics  of  Christianity  in  our  day 
Mr.  James  Anthony  Froude  is  prominent  One  of  his  genius, 
backed  up  by  an  intrepid  spirit,  always  commands  attention. 
His  temperament  is  that  of  a  warrior,  his  intellect  that  of  a 
scholar,  while  his  habit  of  thought  is  that  of  a  student  of  af- 
fairs. Yet  his  mind  runs  in  a  groove  of  contrast,  and  beneath 
this  energetic  sense  of  contrast  lies  a  theory  of  "  Progress," 
always  on  the  alert  to  show  itself,  and  always  imperious  in  its 
narrow  logic.  He  falls  into  an  antithesis  as  easily  as  Shake- 
speare's Brutus  at  Csesar's  funeral,  and  without  the  excuse  of 
Brutus,  who  had  really  nothing  to  say.  Mr.  Froude  has  much 
to  say,  and  he  says  it  with  uncommon  force.  With  him  the 
present  is  always  antithetic  to  the  past.  Now,  it  is  well  enough 
to  compare  the  past  with  the  present,  but  better  to  have  an 
ideal  of  the  future  when  we  would  estimate  the  present. 
Barely  does  it  happen  that  a  man  can  have  his  ideal  in  the 
past  and  not  be  its  partisan.  Sometimes,  too,  we  find  it  neces- 
sary to  be  independent  of  our  higher  self,  lest  the  subtlety  of 
prejudice  conquer  us  unawares.  But  Mr.  Froude,  honest  and 
lofty-minded  as  he  is,  never  detaches  a  favorite  conception,  Uke 
the  "  days  of  yore,"  from  his  intellect,  and  looks  at  it  as  some- 
thing foreign.  When  he  writes  the  "  sketch "  of  Csesar  he 
shows  statesmanship  and  learning.  Neither  Merivale  nor 
Mommsen  is  his  equal  in  vividness,  in  ease  of  grouping,  and  in 
strength  of  effect  Tet  when  he  portrays  Bunyan,  while  he 
displays  very  keen  discernment  of  what  may  be  called  the  in- 
tellectual philosophy  of  his  marvelous  experience,  he  fails  to 
comprehend  that  deeper  psychology  in  which  the  essence  of 
his  subject  is  contained.  Under  all  the  disguises  of  th^  seven- 
teenth century,  Bunyan  was  a  precursor  of  the  religious  spirit 

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1881.]  Christ  a/nd  au/r  Century.  667 

of  our  century.  He  was  nearer  our  times  than  his  own.  The 
tender  heart  of  humanity  in  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,'*  escaping 
the  tranmiels  of  creeds  and  ccmfessions  and  vindicating  our 
primal  instincts,  lifted  him  above  the  Puritanism  of  his  period, 
and  signalized  the  forthcoming  era  of  Christian  sentiment  as 
the  beautiful  efflorescence  of  Christian  principle.  But  this  is 
precisely  what  Mr.  Froude  was  unable  to  see.  To  illustrate 
this,  we  have  only  to  give  a  remark  of  his  when  contrasting 
Bunyan's  intensity  of  religious  emotion  with  that  of  our  day  : 
"  Conviction  of  sin  has  become  a  conventional  phrase,  shallow 
and  ineffective  even  in  those  who  use  it  most  sincerely."  This 
is  downright  extravagance.  Thousands  of  men  in  our  times 
have  had  just  as  searching  and  overpowering  "  conviction  of 
sin  "  as  the  Bedfordshire  tinker,  only  their  sensational  nerves 
were  not  as  much  disturbed  as  his,  nor  did  they  have  his  extraor- 
dinary genius  to  express  it  in  images  like  those  that  leaped 
from  the  hot  furnace  of  his  heart. 

Another  of  these  sharp  critics  of  the  age  is  Mr.  Ruskin.  Of 
his  sympathy  with  truth  and  goodness  no  man  can  have  a 
doubt.  Reverence  for  God,  personal  devotion  to  Christ's 
service,  human  love  for  human  interests,  are  qualities  so  thor- 
oughly intermixed  with  his  nature  as  to  come  forth  on  all  occa- 
sions. He  cannot  criticise  a  painting,  describe  a  landscape, 
quote  a  stanza  from  Scott  or  Wordsworth,  without  his  soul 
showing  itself  in  some  utterance  of  love  and  veneration  beyond 
the  object  in  question.  Within  the  last  forty  years  his  services 
to  Anglo-Saxon  thought  have  been  invaluable.  And  they  have 
been  so  not  simply  because  of  knowledge  imparted,  and  that, 
too,  of  a  quality  extremely  scarce  in  books,  but  by  reason  of  a 
personal  spirit,  quick  to  penetrate  and  pungent  enough  to 
stimulate  one's  faculties.  One  feels  called,  under  his  strong 
words,  to  be  an  observer  of  nature  and  a  critic  of  art.  Tlie 
man  always  gets  in  front  of  the  author,  and  at  times  throws 
back  such  a  heavy  shadow  that  the  author  quite  disappears. 
Beauty  never  had  a  more  devout  expounder  than  he.  The 
expounder  is  philosopher,  poet,  preacher,  all  in  one.  When 
we  add  that  he  occasionally  puts  on  the  old  Hebrew  prophet, 
and  denounces  from  behind  the  shaggy  mantle  and  the  leather 
girdle,  we  mention  what,  in  his  complement  of  characters, 
never  loses. a  chance  to  display  itself  in  a  fierce  climax. 

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Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [October, 

Hooker  was  a  passion  with  Mr.  Kuskin's  early  manhood,  and 

he  has  imitated  the  great  ecdesiastieal  thinker  not  a  little his 

judiciousness  excepted.  Jeremy  Taylor  comes  back  to  us  in 
him,  on  the  whole,  much  improved.  He  has  somewhat  of 
Coleridge's  amplitude  of  discursiveness,  but  he  is  pretty  sure 
to  keep  his  subject  in  sight,  and  also  his  reader— a  virtue  that 
Coleridge  despised.  Yet,  most  of  all,  he  is  John  Euskin,  in- 
tellectually brave  to  the  verge  of  romance,  always  ready,  by 
step  or  stride  or  leap,  to  get  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  loftily 
indiflferent  whether  or  not  he  has  any  following.  While  he 
has  been  one  of  the  noblest  teachers  of  righteousness  this  cent- 
ury has  bred,  he  has  been  an  apostle  of  art,  and  of  art  in  its 
true  sense  and  best  uses.  No  man  ever  did  a  tithe  of  the  work 
he  has  accomplished  in  showing  the  vital  "union  between  beauty 
and  purity,  and  in  this — ^the  leading  function  of  his  life— his 
effoi-ts  command  universal  respect  and  gratitude.  "  Consider 
the  lilies  ; "  how  well  he  has  done  it  1  Of  all  the  commenta- 
tors on  Christ's  Gospel  he  has  gone  most  to  the  original  objects, 
to  the  field  and  forest  and  mountain,  and  reverently  pointed 
out  where  the  Lord  of  nature  laid  his  hand  and  left  his  smile. 
The  remark  of  Isaac  Taylor,  that  Nature,  by  her  '*  diversities, 
her  gay  adornments,  and  copious  fund  of  forms,"  allures  the 
eye  of  man  to  draw  him  on  to  "  the  more  arduous  but  more 
noble  pursuit  of  her  hidden  analogies,"  he  has  illustrated  with 
a  scope  of  originality  and  a  plenitude  of  resources  uncommon 
among  men  who  have  trod  the  higher  walks  of  genius. 

Yet,  with  all  his  fine  endowments,  Mr.  Euskin  has  an  un- 
usual share  of  the  frailty  that  depreciates  the  rehgious  earnest- 
ness of  our  century.  How  a  man  like  him  can  produce  vol- 
ume after  volume  with  scarcely  a  warm  word  of  commenda- 
tion for  the  age  is  a  mystery.  In  the  "  Modem  Painters"  the 
divine  earnestness  of  the  old  masters  is  eulogized  well-nigh  to 
extravagance.  Eecently,  however,  his  eye  seems  to  have  been 
busy  finding  morbid  flesh  for  cauterization.  If  we  have  not 
had  enough  of  this  infirmity  of  talent  in  Thackeray  and  the 
later  George  Eliot,  the  Anglo-Saxon  capacity  to  stand  an  at- 
tempted flaying  is  a  channmg  testimony  to  the  protecting 
mercy  of  its  skin.  Eidicule  and  sarcasm,  as  commonly  used, 
are  bom  of  the  lower  nature  of  authors,  and  act  on  the  lower 
nature  of  readers.    They  are  of  the  animal  intellect,  refined 


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1881.]  Christ  and  our  Century.  669 

forms  of  the  sting  of  the  wasp  and  the  fang  of  the  snake. 
Unquestionably,  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  employ  them. 
But  to  make  it  a  business  to  exercise  art  and  ingenuity  in  this 
way  is  to  wound,  not  to  heal,  to  be  smart  not  to  be  wise,  to  cor- 
rupt, not  to  purify.  Mr.  Kuskin,  in  his  "  Fors"  and  in  the 
discussions  on  the  Lord's  Prayer,  is  full  of  fault-finding.  Nay, 
more,  he  is  often  harshly  censorious.  It  was  a  beautiful  thing 
in  him  to  write  of  "  Moderation  "  as  the  "  girdle  and  saf eguai'd 
of  all  the  attributes  ; "  but,  had  he  exemplified  it  a  little  more 
m  his  personal  example,  the  lesson  would  have  liad  its  beauty 
enhanced.  Writing  of  the  life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  he  says 
that  "  it  was  interwoven  with  white  and  purple,"  while  "  ours 
is  one  seamless  stufE  of  brown.  .  .  .  The  profoundest  reason 
of  tliis  darkness  of  heart  is,  I  believe,  our  want  of  faith.  There 
never  yet  was  a  generation  of  men  (savage  or  civilized)  who, 
taken  as  a  body,  so  woefully  fulfilled  the  words  ^  having  no 
hope,  and  without  God  in  the  world.'  A  red  Indian  or  Otahei- 
tan  savage  has  more  sense  of  a  Divine  existence  round  him  or 
government  over  him  than  the  plurality  of  refined  Londoners 
and  Parisians."  .  This  is  a  masterpiece  in  the  annals  of  literary 
dogmatism. 

Others  have  written  in  the  same  strain.  We  cannot  but  re- 
gard it  as  utterly  erroneous.  Christianity  is  not  " maribundy^ 
but  is  doing  its  work  quite  as  fast  and  quite  as  well  as  could  be 
looked  for  in  a  generation  like  ours.  The  evil  in  the  world  is 
confessedly  gigantic  We  see  and  know  it.  In  an  advancing 
civilization  evil  comes  with  great  facility  to  the  surface,  and, 
relatively  to  the  amount,  the  eyes  that  notice  and  the  tongues 
that  report  it  have  very  largely  increased.  How  bad  the  world 
is  the  newspapers  keep  us  well  posted  every  morning.  How 
good  it  is  we  are  not  quite  as  well  informed.  Outward  life  of 
all  sorts  is  excessively  demonstrative,  and  is  feverish  to  have 
itself  advertised.  Meantime  private  life,  while  enlarging  its 
sphere  and  multiplying  its  blessings,  conceals  itself  from  prying 
inspection.  Christianity,  thanks  to  God,  does  not  imitate  the 
daily  newspaper.  It  follows  the  method  of  the  family,  and 
not  that  of  the  babbling  thoroughfare.  Its  emblem  is  the  dew 
falling  in  quiet  benedictions.  It  "  cometh  not  with  observa- 
tion." If  so,  how  can  we  apply  the  measure  of  the  sense-in- 
tellect to  its  workings,  and  take  a  census  of  its  products  as  we 

Fourth  Seriks,  Vol.  XXXUI.— 44 

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670  Methodist  Qtuirterh/  Hevtew.  [October, 

would  of  the  population  and  its  wealth  ?  Its  statistics  are  not 
within  our  reach,  and  never  can  be.  Christian  institutions  en- 
dowed, hospitals  erected,  asylums  opened,  charities  increased, 
sermons  preached,  Sundaynschools  established,  five  millions  of 
the  colored  people  cared  for,  the  amazing  impulse  recently 
given  to  the  spirit  of  foreign  missions,  hundreds  of  thousands 
converted  annually  to  God — these  are,  indeed,  magnificent  re- 
sults, and  they  are  occurring  right  under  our  eyes.  But,  not- 
withstanding all  these  things,  we  have  here  but  a  fragment  of 
the  glorious  effects  of  Christianity  in  our  century.  The  grand- 
eur of  Christianity  is,  that  it  can  dispense  with  the  attesta- 
tions of  the  senses  and  the  sensuous  intellect.  It  is  the  leaven 
of  almightiness,  and,  therefore,  hidden.  Only  in  one  sphere  is 
its  sublimity  fully  exercised — the  sphere  of  unconsciousness ; 
and  while  the  earth  alternates  its  affluence  of  fertility  and  love- 
liness in  successive  seasons,  and  the  stars  move  in  visible  splen- 
dor night  by  night  across  the  vast  spaces  of  the  firmament, 
Christianity  is  content  to  exert  its  unceasing  omnipotence 
where  no  eye  can  see  and  no  voice  can  celebrate  the  majesty  of 
its  triumphs.  And  so  evermore  the  miracle  of  Christ,  with  the 
two  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  repeats  itself.  Our  eyes 
are  "  holden,"  and  the  Infinite  Glory  walks  by  our  side  in  the 
garb  of  a  stranger. 


Am,  v.— THE  EARLY  ERRORS  AND  RECENT  PROG- 
RESS OF  PHILOLOGY. 

The  days  of  the  Old  Philology  are  numbered.  Bom  almost 
too  late  to  witness  the  death  of  its  sisters,  the  other  deductive 
sciences,  and  sole  relic  of  their  brood,  it  has  passed  through  a 
green  old  age  and  lingering  dissolution  which  are  among  the 
marvels  of  the  century.  Now  that  in  the  department  of  the 
classics  we  see  at  last  all  the  old  manuals  which  taught  us  in 
our  school-boyhood  that  Greek  was  parent  to  the  Latin  either 
discarded,  or  rewritten  in  order  to  embody  "  the  latest  results 
of  modem  scholarship,"  we  may  safely  pronounce  the  domin- 
ion of  mediaeval  ideas  in  philology  over,  and  the  succession 
of  tme  linguistic  science  accomplished.  The  occasion  sug- 
gests the  following  inquiries  :  What  were  the  errors  of  the  dis- 


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1881.]     Philology:  Early  ErrorSy  Becent  Progress.         671 

carded  philology,  and  the  reason  of  its  strange  persistence  ?  What 
is  the  science  of  Comparative  Philology,  and  how  did  it  origi- 
nate ?    These  questions  we  shall  endeavor  to  answer  briefly. 

It  is  a  diflScult  task  to  revive  the  assumptions  which  formed 
the  basis  of  an  ancient  science ;  but  it  is  not  hard  to  account 
for  the  rise  of  philology.  It  has,  in  fact,  had  many  begin- 
nings ;  and  under  the  old  conditions,  or  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
new  light,  would  create  itself  independently  again  in  many  aa 
isolated  brain.  It  did  not  grow  up,  like  the  other  sciences, 
from  accumulated  traditions,  nor  was  it  propagated  in  a  lineage 
of  masters,  but  rather  may  be  said  to  have  perpetuated  itself 
from  its  own  ashes.  All  the  outfit  that  was  necessary  for  a 
discoverer  in  philology  was  a  mind  consenting  to  be  curioue 
about  the  origin  of  words  and  speech.  No  special  preparation 
was  called  for,  no  mastery  of  predecessors'  labors :  all  the 
requisite  material  was  derivable  from  within.  For  the  tend- 
ency to  etymologize, — to  push  words  back  upon  their  reserves 
of  meaning,  is  common  to  the  learned  and  illiterate  alike,  and 
amounts  to  an  instinct  of  the  race.  It  seems  to  be  accepted 
as  an  axiom  by  every  mind  that  words  contain  within  them- 
selves some  warrant  for  their  existence,  and,  like  coin,  possess 
an  intrinsic  value  in  addition  to  that  stamped  upon  their  face. 
The  man  wholly  unlettered,  and  slow  to  appropriate  the  lan- 
guage of  books,  displays  this  tendency  in  his  so-called  popular 
etymologies.  When  he  hears  long  and  unusual  words  that 
convey  to  his  mind  no  meaning,  he  instinctively  forces  them 
into  some  shape  self-explaining  or  at  least  intelligible,  and  capi^ 
ble  of  being  remembered  and  put  to  use.  To  his  ear  asparagus 
is  "sparrow-grass"  or  nothing,  and  perhaps  equinoctial,  ^'cmc- 
tioneer.^^  *  The  man  of  literary  tastes  and  culture,  though  m 
general  content  to  accept  the  facts  of  his  native  language  withr 
out  inquiry,  who  perhaps  never  looks  into  his  dictionary  for  a 
derivation,  will  yet,  upon  occasion,  philosophize  over  the  origin 
and  inner  meaning  of  some  word  which  has  impressed  his 
fancy,  and  will  probably  experience  a  lively  curiosity  concemr 
ing  the  many  correspondences  he  discovers  in  the  languages  he 
may  chance  to  know.  If  his  tastes  are  decidedly  linguistic,  or 
if  he  be  drawn  into  the  field  of  lexicography  or  some  other 

*  A  veritable  instance,  heard  repeatedlj  by  the  writer  from  the  lips  of  an  illit- 
erate natiye  of  New  England. 

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672  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

Bpecially  philological  labor,  he  will  in  time  frame  a  theory  of 
his  own  concerning  the  relations  of  the  languages  with  wliich 
he  has  to  do, — a  theory  which  experience  shows  is  likely  to 
be  different  from  all  others  ever  devised,  yet  with  them  will 
surely  be  reducible  to  tliis  assumption :  that  any  given  word  in 
any  language  can  be  explained  by  some  other  word  similar  in 
meaning,  form,  or  both,  in  some  other  language,  living  or  dead. 
That  the  languages  thus  associated  should  be,  or  ever  have  been, 
spoken  by  contiguous  peoples,  or  should  have  ever  had  the  op- 
portunity of  mutual  borrowing,  is  not  thought  of  at  all  as  a 
condition,  the  essential  unity  of  all  human  speech  being  taken 
for  granted  with  the  rest.  This  common  assumption — whether 
grounded  on  theological  inferences,  or  an  intuitional  glimpse 
of  truth,  crude  as  the  mediaeval  belief  in  the  philosopher's 
stone,  it  would  be  useless  to  inquire  here — ^is  the  sole  basis  of 
the  philology  now  discarded. 

The  old  scholars  seem  never  to  have  encountered  the  sus- 
picion that  their  principle  was  too  broad.  If  they  found  a  word 
in  Chinese  or  Zulu  similiar  in  sound  or  meaning  to  an  English 
or  Gennan  vocable,  they  did  hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  two 
terms  were  identical,  or  that  one  was  parent  to  the  other.  How 
it  was  possible  for  races  utterly  unlike  in  civilization,  and 
separated  for  thousands  of  years  from  all  possible  contact,  to 
borrow  words  from  one  another,  they  did  not  stop  to  inquire. 
They  did  not  stop  to  think,  moreover,  that  in  many  instances 
the  older  forms  of  the  words  compared  were  very  unlike  their 
present  shape.  There  are  even  yet  eminent  investigators  of 
the  outlying  languages  of  the  world  who  refuse  to  be  warned 
of  the  risk  of  inaccuracy  here.  If  they  find  a  word  in  an  Af- 
rican or  South  American  language,  which,  as  often  enough 
happens,  has  the  same  pronunciation  as  some  word  in  English, 
and  a  meaning  not  irreconcilably  diverse,  they  accept  it  at  once 
as  a  case  of  identity,  without  taking  the  precaution  of  inquiring 
whether  either  or  both  of  the  words  have  changed  in  form  since 
the  earliest  known  records  of  the  languages.  We  recollect  how 
loath  we  were  to  give  up  the  belief  that  whole  was  the  Greek 
^Xoq :  we  had  found  this  asserted  in  our  earliest  Greek  vocabu- 
lary, and  it  was  a  most  convincing  etymology.  But  the  primi- 
tive or  earliest  known  Teutonic  form  of  whole  iB  hailsy  between 
which  and  ^Xog  no  such  affinity  would  have  been  suspected. 

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1881.]      Philology:  Early  Errors^  Recent  Progress.  673 

There  was,  moreover,  aii  almost  utter  ignorance  in  those 
early  days  of  the  laws  of  change  and  growth  in  language, 
which  are  as  positive  and  unfailing  as  any  thing  in  science. 
Thus  it  has  been  established  that  two  kindred  dialects,  if  en- 
tirely separated  and  without  the  conservative  force  of  a  litera- 
ture and  literary  standards,  can  in  a  century  become  so  dissim- 
ilar as  to  conceal  all  proof  of  kinship  except  to  trained  and 
expert  examination.  In  the  case  of  two  languages  thus  dissev- 
ered and  grown  unlike,  identity  of  form  or  meaning  must  be 
held  as  casual,  and  no  relationship  admitted  until  by  tracing  to 
first  stages  the  original  of  each  word  is  seen  to  have  been  iden- 
tical  in  archaic  form.  In  general,  in  etymology,  mere  resem- 
blance must  go  for  nothing,  since  the  most  direct  and  positive 
kinship  will  often  be  found  to  exist  in  words  every  way  unlike. 
Nothing  is  to  be  admitted  in  derivation  except  on  proof,  which 
proof  must  consist  in  tracing  words  back  through  their  history 
to  their  first  occurrence  or  their  source.  If,  for  example,  we 
wish  to  find  the  origin  of  the  English  plural  are^  which  does 
not  occur  in  Anglo-Saxon,  instead  of  resorting  to  the  Latin  and 
fastening  its  parentage  upon  eram^  which  would  not  be  worse 
than  many  of  the  hap-hazard  etymologies^  we  should  begin 
with  to-day's  English  and  follow  the  word  back  through  old 
authors  to  its  first  appearance  in  the  language.  It  will  in  this 
way  be  quickly  proved  of  alien  origin,  represented  in  its  oldest 
form  by  the  Old  Norse  erum^  and  brought  into  English  by  the 
Danes.  This  recourse  to  the  earliest  monuments  of  a  language, 
and  the  calling  into  service  of  its  history  to  determine  the  der- 
ivation of  its  words,  have  given  the  name  Historical  Etymol- 
ogy to  that  branch  of  modem  philology. 

A  modei*ate  number  of  coincidences  of  form  or  meaning, 
moreover,  was  accepted  as  proof  that  the  languages  in  which 
they  occurred  were  similar  or  akin.  But  close  comparison  of  all 
most  any  two  languages,  taken  at  random,  will  disclose  enough 
accidental  resemblances  to  afford  such  evidence ;  and  the  phi- 
lologists were  speedily  confounded  in  a  new  confusion.  There 
was  no  starting-point  from  which  to  begin  the  classification  of 
the  languages  of  the  world;  and  without  determining  the 
families  of  human  speech  there  was  little  hope  of  progress. 
For  more  than  two  centuries  the  maze  grew  wider  with  every 
newly  acquired  language,  until  in  the  discovery  of  Sanskrit  the 

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674  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

key  to  the  required  classification  was  obtained,  and  the  science 
of  comparative  philology  established.  It  is  a  curious  history, 
and  will  be  given  as  nearly  as  may  be  from  the  beginning  in 
the  order  of  events. 

Philology,  though  named  by  the  Greeks,  does  not  date  its 
proper  beginning  from  their  era.  They  had  too  much  con- 
tempt for  the  babblers  (pdpPapoi)  who  constituted  the  rest  of 
mankind,  to  compare  speech  with  them ;  and  Rome  later,  bent 
only  on  universal  conquest  and  domination,  cared  little  for  the 
languages  she  displaced  with  Latin.  The  first  philologists, 
therefore,  do  not  appear  until  after  the  revival  of  learning. 
Essays  a-t  verbal  etymology  are  here  and  there  met  with  in 
Plato,  Cicero,  Varro,  and  the  scholiasts,  but  hardly  a  glance  at 
the  broad  field  destined  at  length  to  be  occupied  by  western 
scholars.  To  Theodore  Bibliander  appears  to  belong  the  credit 
of  beginniDg  the  comparison  of  miscellaneous  tongues.  He 
published  in  1548  a  commentary  containing  a  version  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  in  fourteen  languages,  and  a  theory  of  affinity 
in  which  he  derives  the  Celtic  dialects  from  Greek.  This  labor 
was  quickly  imitated  and  its  comparisons  extended  by  otlier 
scholars,  so  that  by  the  end  of  the  century  the  Lord's  Prayer 
had  been  published  in  fifty  diflEerent  tongues.  As  the  survey 
of  the  Unguistic  field  advanced  fresh  correspondences  were 
noted,  and  new  explanations  of  the  affinities  they  were  sup- 
posed to  prove  attempted.  Lipsius  and  others  asserted  a  close 
relationship  between  the  Persian  and  German  languages,  which 
was  explained  by  the  supposition  that  the  former  idiom  had 
been  produced  by  the  blending  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  German 
elements.  But  ere  long  the  attention  of  philologists  was  drawn 
away  from  the  task  of  linking  together  the  various  languages 
of  the  world  to  the  negative  one  of  explaining  how  they  could 
all  have  been  derived  from  Hebrew.  The  belief  that  this  must 
have  been  the  original  speech  of  man  had  been  found  in  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers,  who  had  derived  it  perhaps  tradition- 
ally from  Jewish  sources,  and  was  held  by  nearly  all  scholars  of 
note.  A  small  minority  in  the  mean  time  put  forth  counter 
theories  of  the  most  diverse,  and  often  of  the  most  amusing, 
character.  Goropius  Becanus  maintained  that  Dutch  must  have 
been  the  dialect  of  Eden,  and,  in  a  work  published  in  1580, 
attempted  to  s^iow  that  the  very  names  Adam  and  Eve  were 


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1881.]      Philology :  Ea/rly  Errors^  Recent  Progress.         675 

self-evident  compounds  of  Low-Dutcli  words.  Other  claimants 
of  the  honor  were  Pezron  for  the  Celtic,  Kempe  for  the  Scan- 
dinavian dialects,  and  the  Spaniard  Erro  f  or  the  Basque.  But 
the  orthodox  had  better  grounds  for  their  advocacy  of  Hebrew. 
It  being  admitted,  as  it  then  was  universally,  that  speech  was 
not  a  human  instrument,  but  a  divine  gift  to  man,  it  was  natu- 
ral to  conclude  that  it  must  have  been  imparted  in  the  form  of 
a  complete  and  perfected  language.  What  language  could  this 
have  been  if  not  the  Hebrew,  the  language  of  the  chosen  race 
and  the  depositary  of  the  oracles  of  God  ?  In  this  reasoning 
they  seem  to  have  forgotten  the  Confusion,  which,  whatever 
the  original  speech,  would  have  changed  it  beyond  recognition. 
At  any  rate,  the  task  of  tracing  the  multitude  of  tongues  so  di- 
verse to  this  Semitic  source  proved  not  only  discouraging  but 
endless.  Every  new  language  complicated  the  problem.  Not 
even  could  the  venerated  Greek  and  Latin,  the  next  languages 
in  importance,  be  successfully  referred  to  this  original :  the 
great  skill  and  acumen  with  which  one  authority  professed  to 
have  proved  the  descent  were  rejected  by  another  no  less  emi- 
nent. At  length,  after  several  generations  of  zealous  toil  had 
been  thrown  away  in  the  vain  attempt  to  solve  this  false 
enigma,  the  time  arrived  for  putting  away  the  deductive 
method  also  from  philology.  The  inductive  system  had  al- 
ready yielded  rich  results  in  other  fields.  It  was  the  days  of 
Newton  and  Leibnitz ;  and  the  latter  philosopher,  after  com- 
passing the  whole  circle  of  science,  paused  to  inaugurate  anew 
the  department  of  philology.  In  a  letter  to  Tenzel  he  called 
attention  to  the  utter  absence  of  proof  that  Hebrew  was  any 
thing  more  than  any  other  language.  He  urged  upon  travelers 
the  necessity  of  gathering  the  facts  and  vocabularies  of  all  new 
languages  they  should  chance  to  find,  not  only  for  the  sake  of 
philological  material,  but  also  as  aid  in  solving  the  problems  of 
ethnography,  another  scientific  departure  of  this  master-mind. 
In  a  letter  written  in  1713  to  Peter  the  Great,  he  suggests  the 
systematic  collation  of  vocabularies  and  translations  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  Ten  Commandments  into  the  various  obscure 
idioms  of  the  empire.  "  This,"  he  adds,  "  would  increase  the 
glory  of  your  majesty,  .  .  .  and  likewise,  by  means  of  a  com- 
parison of  languages,  enable  us  to  discover  the  origin  of  those 
nations  which  have  advanced  from  Scythia  to  other  countries." 

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676  Methodist  Qiuirterlj/  Review,  [October, 

Leibnitz  had  inferred,  from  the  small  array  of  facts  at  hand, 
that  the  nations  of  Europe  had  emigrated  from  the  £ast  He 
did  not  live  to  see  his  wishes  accomplished.  None  of  his 
supporters  had  his  foresight  or  expectations,  though  the  im- 
pulse he  gave  to  research  and  comparison  of  dialects  did  not 
die  out.  Some  time  after  his  death  his  plan  of  collating  lan- 
guages was  taken  up  by  the  Spanish  Jesuit  missionary  Don 
Lorenzo  Hervas,  who,  after  many  years  of  unremitting  labor, 
published  a  catalogue  of  more  than  three  hundred  languages. 
This  was  in  1800.  A  few  years  befoi'e  he  had  seen  the^rst 
grammar  of  Sanskrit,  the  work  of  Fra  Paolo  di  San  Bartolo- 
meo,  just  published  at  Home,  and  was  thus  put  in  possession  of 
some  facts  unaccessible  before.  Although  with  the  key  to  the 
enigma  of  the  western  languages  thus  in  his  hands,  Hervas 
failed  to  recognize  its  use,  finding  in  the  new  language  proofs 
merely  that  the  Greeks  had  borrowed  forms  of  speech  from 
the  farthest  Orient.  Meanwhile  other  laborers  scarcely  less 
diligent  were  executing  the  behests  of  Leibnitz.  The  advice 
contained  in  his  letter  to  Peter  the  Great  had  lain  neglected 
during  the  czar's  lifetime,  but  now  found  acceptance  with  the 
Empress  Catharine  11.  She  not  only  favored  the  plan  Leibnitz 
had  sketched  out,  but  entered  also  personally  into  the  drudgery 
of  its  execution,  and  appears  to  have  withdrawn  from  all  busi- 
ness of  state  for  the  best  part  of  a  year,  comparing  languages 
and  filling  up  tables  of  correspondences  from  all  the  languages 
of  which  she  could  obtain  information.  At  length  tiring  of 
the  labor,  she  Consigned  her  mass  of  materials  to  Prof.  Pallas, 
the  naturalist,  to  be  finished  for  publication.  It  was  an  un- 
grateful commission,  hastily  and  perfunctorily  executed  (invita 
Minerva,  as  he  confesses),  the  work  appearing  in  1787.  It 
bore  a  rather  pretentious  title,  Zinffuarum  Totius  Orbis  Vo- 
cabularia  Comparativa,  considering  that  in  the  first  edition 
only  the  Asiatic  and  European  languages  were  compared.  A 
few  years  later  there  were  added  several  of  the  African  and 
American  dialects,  amounting  to  two  hundred  and  eighty  in 
all.  A  still  greater  work,— the  final  of  its  class,  and  derived 
largely  from  the  two  preceding,  was  now  projected,  the  Miihr 
ridates  of  Adelung  and  Vater.  It  filled  four  volumes,  and 
was  not  finished  until  1817.  In  plan  it  was  essentially  differ- 
ent from  its   predecessors,  containing,  instead  of  alphabetic 


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1881.]      Philology :  Ewrly  Errors^  Recent  Progress.         677 

word-lists,  a  history  and  description  of  the  various  languages, 
with  tables  of  correspondences  and  versions  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

But,  since  1784,  the  most  important  work  was  being  done 
for  philology  in  India.  The  task  of  reducing  important  lan- 
guages elsewhere  to  grammar  and  comparison  had  long  been 
prosecuted,  but  only  the  most  barren  and  unsatisfactory  results 
.had  been  derived.  The  reason  lay  in  the  strange  omission  of 
Sanskrit  from  the  close  examination  that  had  generally  been 
given  to  other  tongues, — Sanskrit,  the  only  language  capable  of 
throwing  light  upon  the  others.  In  the  year  just  named  the 
Asiatic  Society  was  founded  at  Calcutta,  and  the  sacred  idiom 
of  the  Brahmins  began  to  yield  its  secrets.  Sir  William  Jones 
was  the  first  member  of  this  famous  coterie  to  perceive  and 
declare  its  relations  to  the  classic  languages.  A  very  slight 
examination  was  sufficient  to  reveal  to  him  what  had  escaped 
Bartolomeo  and  the  two  or  three  priests  who  had  studied  the 
language  before  him,  that  this  Sanskrit,  with  the  Greek  and 
Latin,  had  sprung  from  some  common  parent  apparently  no 
longer  in  existence :  they  were  sister  languages,  dialects  of  the 
same  family,  and  not  derived  from  one  another.  It  was 
scarcely  less  probable,  he  further  observed,  that  the  Celtic, 
Zend,  and  Gothic  were  descended  from  the  same  source.  In 
point  of  literary  merit  he  rated  the  Sanskrit  as  far  superior  to 
Greek  and  Latin,  an  opinion  which  later  study  shows  was  un- 
duly influenced  by  the  almost  unrivaled  sweetness  and  beauty 
of  a  single  work,  the  Shakuntala  of  Kalidasa.  This  drama  he 
translated  into  English,  together  with  the  episode  of  Nala, 
from  the  mammoth  epic  called  the  Maha-bharata,  while  other 
meipbers  of  the  society  prepared  translations  of  other  Sanskrit 
classics,  and  compiled  grammars  from  the  voluminous  works 
of  native  scholars  upon  that  subject. 

The  necessity  for  the  use  of  Sanskrit  in  the  Indian  civil 
service  soon  brought  manuscripts  and  teachers  to  England  to 
set  up  the  study  of  the  language  there.  After  the  death  of  Sir 
William  Jones,  in  1794,  there  was  left  no  scholar  in  England 
apparently  at  all  inclined  to  examine  further  into  the  kind  or 
degree  of  resemblance  borne  by  Sanskrit  to  its  sister  dialects. 
The  part  England  was  to  perform  for  comparative  philology 
seems  to  have  been  only  to  give  the  less  venturesome  nations 

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678  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

of  Europe  access  to  Sanskrit  stores.  Scholars  from  the  conti- 
nent were  at  once  attracted  to  London  to  study  the  new  lan- 
guage and  make  copies  of  its  manuscripts,  and  amo'ng  them 
two  Germans,  whose  names  are  imperishably  connected  with  the 
science  of  language  they  were  to  found, — Frederick  Schlegel 
and  Francis  Bopp.  Schlegel  was  the  first  to  be  heard  from  on 
his  return,  and  in  his  "  Essay  upon  the  Language  and  Philoso- 
phy of  the  Indians  "  drew  the  almost  obvious  inferences  which 
form  the  basis  of  modem  philology,  and  formulated  some  of 
its  governing  principles.  To  the  family  of  languages  thus  es- 
tablished he  applied  the  name  Indo-Germanic,  derived  from 
what  he  supposed  were  the  antipodal  limits  of  its  spread.  All 
this  was  but  the  work  of  the  discoverer  and  pioneer.  Bopp 
followed  in  1816  with  his  "System  of  Conjugation,"  in 
which  he  compared  the  inflection  of  the  verb  in  the  Sans- 
krit, Greek,  Latin,  Persian,  and  German  languages.  In  this, 
though  a  most  important  work,  Bopp  but  lays  the  foundation 
of  the  greatest  name  in  philology.  He  afterward  super- 
seded it  by  his  Comparative  Grammar  of  the  Greek,  Latin, 
Zend,  Lithuanic,  Slavonic,  Gothic,  and  German  languages, 
which,  in  consideration  of  the  fact  that  he  had  no  predeces- 
sors from  whom  to  draw,  fairly  eclipses  all  the  discoveries 
and  achievements  made  by  other  investigators  in  philology, 
and  goes  far  toward  establishing  his  fame  as  inferior  to 
none  other  among  all  scientists.  So  firm  is  Bopp's  hold 
upon  every  side  of  his  vast  subject,  and  so  clear  and  saga- 
cious his  perception,  that  only  in  minute  particulars  is  his 
work  defective,  and  can  never  be  superseded.  The  first  vol- 
ume, which  appeared  in  1833,  was  the  fniit  of  twenty  years' 
labor,  and  twenty  years  more  were  required  to  finish  the  whole 
work. 

The  attention  of  linguists,  as  we  have  seen,  was  early  drawn 
to  the  close  resemblances  of  form  in  many  words  observed  in 
certain  of  the  languages  above  enumerat€Ki.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  their  minds  were  filled  with  expectation  :  such  correspond- 
ences could  have  sprung  only  from  some  remarkable  fact  of 
connection ;  and  this  conviction  spurred  them  to  persevere  in 
their  gropings  after  its  discovery.  In  the  majority  of  cases 
where  there  was  similarity  of  form  there  was  also  identity  of 
meaning,  as  in  these  examples  : 


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1881.]      Philology :  Early  Errors^  Recent  Progress.         679 


ENeusH, 

hraOuT 

new 

mKyidh 

namt 

strew 

Sanskrit, 

bhratar 

nava 

mas 

naman 

stri 

Persian, 

brata 

nava 

maonh 

naman 

star 

Orksk, 

^T^P 

vko^ 

^ 

b'VOfia 

OTpCnnnffU 

Latin, 

frater 

novas 

mensis 

nomen 

Btemo 

OOTUIO, 

brothar 

niuyis 

mena 

namo 

straujan 

GiRlCAN, 

brade 

neu 

monat 

name 

streuen 

Slatonio, 

bratr 

novu 

meseci 

i-man 

stre 

Snch  instances  of  almost  perfect  identity  of  form  and  mean- 
ing in  languages,  separated  by  thousands  of  miles  of  space  and 
thousands  of  years  of  time  from  the  possibility  of  mutual  bor- 
rowing, might  be  said  to  constitute  in  themselves  suflScient 
evidence  of  kinship.  But  the  many  accidental  coincidences 
which  are  constantly  met  with,  in  meaning  as  well  as  form,  in 
words  belonging  to  the  most  unrelated  languages,  require  that 
the  investigator  find  a  likeness  of  grammatical  structure  also 
before  admitting  relationship  or  descent.  Schlegel  laid  down 
this  first  principle  of  comparative  philology,  and  demonstrated 
that  in  the  comparison  of  languages  really  akin  this  evidence 
will  never  be  wanting,  and  can  never  mislead  ;  since,  however 
much  languages  may  borrow  from  one  another's  vocabularieSi 
they  can  never  borrow  methods  of  inflection.  Bopp  illustrated 
this  truth  in  his  "  Conjugationssystem "  by  comparisons  of 
inflectional  terminations  like  the  following,  in  which  the  simi- 
larity is  seen  to  be  hardly  less  striking  than  before  : 


singular. 

PLURAL. 

English, 

bear' 

hear-eet 

hear-eUi, 

English, 

hear-          bear- 

bear- 

Sanskrit, 

bhara-mi  bhara-si  bharapti 

Sanskrit, 

bhara-mas  bbara-tha  bhara-nti 

Persian, 

bara-mi 

bara.hi 

bara-ti 

Persian, 

bara-mahi  bara-ta 

bara-nti 

^po- 

(^pe-cxO  (^/pe-rt)  ! 

Greek, 

(^ipo-fiec)  <^ige-Te 

(ipipo-vTi) 

Latin, 

fero- 

(feri.8) 

(feri-t) 

Latin, 

feri-muB  .(feri-tis) 

foru-nt 

Gothic, 

bai-ra 

bairi-8 

bairi-th 

Gothic, 

baira-m     bairi-th 

baira-nd 

0.  German,  beni- 

beri^ 

beri-t 

0.  German 

,  bera-mes  bera-t 

bcra-ut 

Celtic, 

biur- 

bir- 

beri-d 

Celtic, 

bera-m      beri-th 

bera-t 

Slavonic, 

bra-mi 

bra-shi 

bra-U 

Slavonic, 

bra-mu      bru-te 

bra-nti 

Such  correspondences  as  these  were  found  to  run  through 
the.  whole  system  of  inflection,  noun  as  well  as  verb ;  and 
nearer  examination  revealed  every-where  still  more  minute 
traces  of  original  identity.  Bopp  continued  his  investigations 
with  indefatigable  zeal,  and  soon,  re-enforced  by  the  labors  of 
other  eminent  philologists,  proceeded  to  solve  some  of  the 
most  abstruse  problems  of  the  science.     This  half  century  be- 


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680  Methodist  Qtuxrterh/  Heview.  [October, 

ginning  with  the  date  of  SchlegePs  "Essay"  is  the  heroic  age 
of  pliilology.     Almost  every  department  was  at  once  occnpi^, 
and  with  a  genius  and  enthusiasm  which  we  are  already  begin- 
ning to  wonder  at.     One  of  the  early  questions  which  had 
arisen — that  relative  to  the  common  origin  of  the  verb-endings 
above  given — was  answered  in  a  discovery  which,  in  a  sense, 
was  the  key  to  the  whole  Indo-Germanic  system  of  inflection. 
These  endings  were  found  to  be  nothing  less  than  the  personal 
pronouns,  which,  as  subject  to  the  verb,  had  been  placed  after  in- 
stead of  before  it,  and  at  length  compounded  with  it.     A  mere 
glance  at  the  table  shows  this  true  for  the  singular.    In  the  plural 
the  pronouns  were  combined,  ma^a  {me  and  tJiou)  forming  the 
needed  we^  sorta  {tJiou  and  he)  the  second  personal  suflBx,  and 
an-ti  {he  and  he^  or  thai  one  and  thaf)  the  third.     Thus  was 
here  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  root-stage  of  the  primitive  Indo- 
Germanic  speech,  and  of  the  be^nning  of  its  inflection.    Words 
which  stood  in  isolation  and  independent  in  the  sentence,  as  in 
Chinese,  had  become  compounds ;  then,  through  long  use,  the 
independent  significance  and  value  of  one  of  them  being  lost 
sight  of,  it  was  degraded  to  a  mere  aflBx,  and  became  an  instru- 
ment of  inflection.     Every-where  in  the  system  of  substantive 
declension  Bopp  found  the  fossil  relics  of  extinct  words ;  and, 
further,  in  the  verb  the  signs  of  voice,  tense,  and  mode  were 
traced  to  words  still  preserved  in  Sanskrit  or  Greek.     Finally, 
evidence  was  accumulated  sufficient  to  require  the  conclusion 
that  every  syllable  of  all  polysyllables  in  any  of  the  languages 
of  the  family  (including  each  descendant,  and  hence  modem 
English  also)  is  the  representative  of  what  was  originally  an 
independent  wprd.     From  the  monosyllabic  stage  to  the  full 
inflectional,  composition  had  been  the  principle  of  growth. 
As  for  the  time  required  for  this  development  there  were  no 
safe  grounds  for  computation  ;  but  the  study  of  the  languages 
of  other  families  of  human  speech  had  furnished  illustrations 
of  the  process.     The  Chinese  was  an  instance  of  a  language 
which  had  remained  monosyllabic  and  isolating  from  its  earliest 
history ;  but  in  the  body  of  this  speech  there  were  found  traces 
of  the  beginning  of  composition  which  had  probably  been 
checked  at  the  outset,  but  would  yet,  perhaps,  overcome  the 
rigid  traditions  of  the  language  in  its  own  good  time.     In  the 
Turkish  and  Japanese  there  was  found  an  example  of  growth 


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1881.]      Philology :  Early  Errors^  Recent  Progress.         681 

by  composition,  checked  at  the  point  where  each  element  nsed 
in  inflection  retained  its  early,  independent  meaning.  This 
may  be  seen  in  the  inflection  of  the  Turkish  verb,  to  love.  The 
first  person,  sever-im^  is  not  I  love,  but  lover-I ;  seversen  is 
lover-thou  ;  while  the  third  person  is  simply  sever ^  lover.  Thus 
in  like  manner  for  the  plural,  sever-izy  sever-siz^  severler. 
Here  we  see  that  the  pronouns  im^  sen^  iz,  etc.,  are  not  mere  suf- 
fixes or  endings  of  inflection,  but  keep  their  value  as  in  true 
compounds.  In  tliese  languages  there  is  proof  that  the  further 
progress  of  inflection  had  been  begun:  there  are  forms  in 
which  the  added  syllables  are  little  more  than  endings,  contain- 
ing no  longer  the  independent  suggestion  of  things,  but  only  of 
relation.  There  is  little  doubt  that  this  development  would 
have  gone  on  rapidly  had  not  national  success  introduced  the 
practice  of  writing  and  insured  the  foundation  of  a  literature. 
All  languages  stop  rapid  changes,  except  of  vocabulary,  at  the 
civilized  stage,  though  each  family  has  its  own  type  and  own 
limit  of  development.  The  Indo-Germanic  languages  show  also 
that  a  type  when  once  perfected  may  return  upon  its  steps  to- 
ward cruder  forms,  as  is  so  often  illustrated  in  geology.  After 
the  primitive  or  parent  speech  had  perfected  the  wonderful 
system  of  inflection  which  Sanskrit  so  well  preserves,  it  began 
to  retrace  the  path  of  centuries.  Each  successive  descendant 
dialect  shows  increased  inflectional  loss,  until  we  have  in  the 
unborrowed  or  Anglo-Saxon  half  of  modem  English  a  virtual 
return  to  monosyllabism. 

The  old  conjecture  of  a  period  when  only  the  ultimate  roots 
of  speech  were  used  was  thus  confirmed  ;  and  even  these  roots 
were  in  due  time  traced  out  and  reduced  to  two  ultimate 
classes,  a  pronominal  and  a  verbal,  the  former  including  those 
roots  used  at  will  in  the  designation  of  objects,  the  latter 
names  of  attributes.  It  was  little  further  that  science  could 
go  in  this  direction,  and  the  question  of  the  origin  of  language 
and  of  the  kind  and  degree  of  relationship  borne  by  the  differ- 
ent families  of  language  to  one  another,  was  put  off  for  a  time. 
Meanwhile  inquiries  relative  to  the  earlier  history  of  the  Indo- 
Germanic,  or  now  preferably  called  Indo-European,  dialects, 
were  being  prosecuted.  Of  these  the  Sanskrit  was  clearly  the 
oldest,  having  preserved  the  system  of  inflection  of  the  primi- 
tive language,  whatever  that  was,  almost  unaltered.    A  glance, 

Digitized  by  VjOOQIC 


682  Methodist  Qvarterly  Review.  [October, 

Buch  as  we  have  taken  above,  in  the  way  of  comparison,  was 
enough  to  show  how  widely  each  of  the  other  languages  had 
departed  from  the  norm.  In  the  eight  cases  of  Sanskrit,  which 
included  a  locative  and  an  instinmental,  one  reads  the  cause  of 
the  double  and  triple  functions  of  certain  cases  in  Greek  and 
Latin,  and  of  the  consequent  confusion  in  their  syntax.  San- 
skrit had  preserved  these  ancient  forms  because  it  had  ceased  to 
be  a  living  speech  so  early,  passing  out  of  use  about  500  B.  C, 
and  from  the  accident  of  being  a  sacred  language,  and  so 
guarded  against  change.  Its  inner  sanctity  proceeded  from  the 
circumstance  of  its  being  the  depositary  of  the  Brahmanic 
Scriptures,  the  four  Vedas,  which  were  compositions  that  had 
been  handed  down  traditionally  from  a  period  long  anterior  to 
written  speech.  So  sacredly  had  these  treasures  been  preserved 
that  the  words  and  metric  form  had  often  been  kept  when  the 
traditional  interpretation  had  been  lost.  This  was  of  inestima- 
ble importance,  as  the  knowledge  obtained  by  applying  the  aid 
of  comparative  philology  could  be  accepted  as  undeniably  au- 
thentic. The  results  obtained  were  surprising.  Hardly  a  dogma 
or  a  practice  of  the  modem  religion  of  the  Brahmins  was  found 
sanctioned  or  recorded  in  these  old  rituals,  while  in  character 
and  customs  the  patriarchal  forefathers  were  shown  to  have 
been  incomparably  superior  to  their  effeminate  descendants. 
Many  local  references  prove  that  this  ancient  people  were  new- 
comers into  India,  and  were  advancing  from  the  north-west 
passes  to  the  occupancy  of  the  country.  The  period  of  this 
immigration  could  have  been  but  little  later  than  2000  B.  C. 

Bumouf ,  in  his  researches  with  the  Zend,  found  out  the  late 
companions  of  this  wandering  people.  It  had  fallen  to  his  lot 
to  attempt  the  riddle  of  the  Parsis.  This  people,  Persian  exiles 
in  India  since  probably  the  tenth  century,  had  been  discovered 
to  be  worshipers  of  fire  according  to  what  purported  to  be  the 
ritual  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  and  to  possess  sacred  books 
written  in  a  language  they  no  longer  understood.  From  these 
a  translation  that  had  long  before  been  made  into  their  more 
modem  speech  was  in  use  among  the  priests.  Manuscripts  of 
these  scriptures — the  Zend-Avesta — were  brought  to  Europe, 
but  no  scholar  could  decipher  their  forgotten  secrets.  In  1771 
Anquetil  Duperon  published  a  full  translation,  but  from  the 
version  of  the  Parsis,  and  not  from  the  originals.     Fifty  yeara 

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1881.]      Philology :  Early  Errors^  Recent  Progress.         683 

later  Erasmns  Rask,  the  eminent  Danish  scholar,  established 
the  fact  that  there  was  an  intimate  connection  between  the 
Avestan  language  and  the  Sanskrit;  but  it  was  reserved  for 
the  above-named  French  sa/vcmty  Eugene  Bumouf,  to  employ 
the  Sanskrit  more  fully  as  the  key.  By  applying  certain  dis- 
covered laws  of  phonetic  equivalence,  he  speedily  reduced  the 
Avestan  vocabulary  to  its  Sanskrit  counterpart,  and  read  the 
original  with  ease.  From  the  near  resemblance  of  the  lan- 
guages there  could  be  no  question  of  the  recent  union  of  the 
Zoroastrian  community  and  the  people  of  the  Vedas.  Also  the 
geographic  references  contained  in  the  Avesta  were  unmistak- 
ably to  Bactria  as  the  place  of  its  composition,  a  region  signifi- 
cantly near  to  the  path  of  Vedic  emigration.  The  period  of 
separation  had  been  suflScient,  but  only  through  the  rise  of  a 
great  religious  leader,  to  develop  striking  changes  in  the  relig- 
ion of  the  Persians.  All  other  evidence,  and  especially  that  of 
the  still  near  identity  of  language,  showed  unmistakably  that 
hardly  more  than  five  centuries  could  have  elapsed  since  the 
two  peoples  had  swarmed  apart  from  one  another.  For  this  was 
clearly  the  manner  of  their  separation.  The  one  people,  grown 
so  numerous  as  to  cumber  the  soil,  (the  Vedic  records  show  that 
still  the  principal  wealth  was  cattle,)  must  needs  disperse,  and 
after  filling  a  wider  neighborhood  for  a  time,  wander  in  clans 
or  sections  out  of  mutual  reach  and  knowledge.  Thus,  prob- 
ably long  before,  the  Greek  and  Latin  tribes  had  become  suc- 
cessively detached  and  wandered  westward  through  Asia  Minor, 
while  still  earlier,  and  from  a  position  more  interior  and  north- 
ward, the  Celtic  and  Teutonic  emigrations  had  moved  forth. 
Here  then  was  the  explanation  of  the  origin  of  dialects.  There 
was  no  parent  speech  which  had  sent  off  portions  of  itself  west 
and  south,  itself  remaining  to  perish  in  old  age  upon  the  central 
plains  of  Asia.  Rather,  each  migrating  portion  of  the  family 
bore  away  the  same  original  speech,  but,  in  isolation  and  under 
the  influence  of  different  circumstances,  each  changed  it  in  a 
different  way,  until  the  long  dissevered  communities  were  as 
unlike  in  language  as  in  national  types  and  dress.  The  long 
array  of  evidence  and  argument  by  which  it  was  proved  that 
this  change  need  not  have  been,  and  undoubtedly  was  not, 
greater  than  is  now  daily  taking  place  in  language,  especially  if 
unwritten,  and  that  it  was  of  the  same  character  as  each  of  us 

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684  Methodist  Quarterly  Hemew.  [October, 

is  helping  to  make  continnally  in  his  own  vernacular  by  his 
discourse  and  writing,  cannot  be  epitomized  and  must  be  ex- 
cluded here.  But  it  will  be  an  aid  to  the  understanding  of  the 
long  process  if  we  examine  some  of  the  changes  undergone  by 
these  languages  within  the  range  of  history.  Sanskrit  has 
given  rise  to  three  idioms,  the  Bengali,  Hindi,  and  Mahratta, 
but  by  no  other  than  a  quiet  and  unconscious  transformation. 
Instead  of  the  ponderous  and  highly  inflected  Sanskrit  which 
was  spoken  by  the  high-bom  and  priestly  caste,  the  lower 
classes  and  the  women  used  a  simpler  dialect,  the  Prakrit,  a 
kind  of  patois ;  and  in  time  the  latter  prevailed  as  being  the 
easier  to  speak,  leaving  the  Sanskrit  to  the  grammarians  and 
the  learned.  This  patois-Prakrit,  with  the  Pali,  which  was  a 
like  simplified  derivative  of  Sanskrit,  can  be  followed  through 
long  centuries  of  development  until  we  arrive  at  the  modem 
period  of  the  dialects  just  named.  Latin,  as  we  more  famil- 
iarly know,  has  perished  in  a  similar  way,  less  cultivated  and 
bookish  idioms  having  sprung  up  beside  it,  which  finally  dis- 
placed it  from  sheer  preponderance  of  usage.  The  Greek,  on 
the  contrary,  has  never  ceased  to  be  a  living  speech,  though  it 
has  so  far  abandoned  its  ancient  type  that  Homer  and  his  co- 
worthies  have  had  to  be  translated.  But  the  best  example  of 
simple  and  undirected  growth  in  language  is  afforded  by  the 
German,  which,  in  addition  to  having  been  only  in  the  slightest 
degree  acted  upon  and  altered  by  external  influences,  possesses 
an  inner  conservatism  and  inflexibility  which  have  tended  to 
minify  the  expected  progress.  Here  we  are  also  fortunate  in 
having  for  comparison  the  fragments  of  Ulfilas'  Gothic  version 
of  the  Scriptures,  made  in  the  fourth  century.  The  Mceso- 
Goths,  whose  language  may  be  safely  taken  as  representative 
of  the  speech  of  our  Germanic  forefathers  of  that  day,  had  just 
settled  upon  the  Danube  under  the  protection  of  the  empire. 
The  following,  from  Matt,  v,  38,  of  Ulfilas'  version,  would  puz- 
zle the  profoundest  German  scholar,  if  unaided,  to  decipher: 
HoAisideduth  ihatei  qithan  ist,  augo  vmd  attgin^  jah  tunthu 
und  tuntha/u.  "  Ye  (have)  heard  that  it  is  said,  Eye  for  eye, 
and  tooth  for  tooth.''  In  the  transition  there  has  been  no  vio- 
lence, no  conquest  and  engrafting  of  a  foreign  idiom,  as  in 
English ;  only  a  little  more  than  a  thousand  years  of  natural, 
unconscious  development  or  growth. 


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1881.]      Philology :  Ea/rhf  Ettotb^  Recent  Progress,         685 

In  the  labors  of  etymolop^^,  which  had  now  begun  to  be  pros- 
ecuted according  to  the  historical  method  spoken  of  above,  it 
was  observed  that  the  liquids  were  generally  found  unaltered 
all  the  way  from  German  back  to  Greek  and  Sanskrit,  while 
the  rnutes  had,  for  the  most  part,  suffered  changes.  Upon 
closer  examination  these  changes  seemed  to  be  restricted,  each 
mute  being  shifted  to  a  different  order  merely,  never  to  a  dif- 
ferent dass.  Something  of  the  kind  had  been  observed  before 
by  Eask,  the  Dane,  but  had  never  been  made  to  yield  a  prin- 
ciple. The  principle  was  at  length  detected  by  Jacob  Grinmi, 
the  great  Teutonic  philologist  and  lexicographer,  and  formu- 
lated into  what  will  probably  always  be  called  from  its  discov- 
erer "  Grimm's  Law.''  It  simply  declares  the  scale  of  change :  a 
surd  or  smooth  mute  in  Sanskrit,  Greek,  and  Latin  will  appear 
in  the  Low  German  dialects  (including  English)  as  an  aspirate 
of  the  same  class,  and  in  High  German  as  a  sonant  or  middle 
mute ;  an  aspirate  in  the  same  primitive  languages  will  be  in 
Low  German  a  sonant,  in  High  German  a  surd ;  and,  finally,  a 
primitive  sonant  will  yield  for  Low  German  a  surd,  and  for 
High  German  an  aspirate  mute.  To  illustrate,  nk^iajq  and  comu 
ought  to  show  their  «  and  c  in  English  in  the  form  of  A,  as  is 
the  fact  in  horn.  So  the  Latin  homo  is  traced  to  the  English 
g{r)oom  (Anglo-Saxon  guraa^  man) ;  and  genus  will  be  A?m.  Or, 
to  illustrate  throughout  the  scale : 


SAmxxn; 

QWOM, 

Latdi. 

OotMM. 

ENaun. 

Old  Hmb  Obkma«. 

irayoM 

rpelc 

tre$ 

OreU 

three 

dH 

danta 

ihdoVT" 

dent- 

iurUhua 

tooth 

Mond 

bhar 

i^peip 

ferre 

bairan 

bear 

peran 

The  words  given  above  in  the  table  on  page  679,  and  espe- 
cially the  verb-endings  in  the  table  following,  can  also  be  brought 
into  much  nearer  conformity  by  this  rule. 

The  further  studies  of  Bopp  and  the  brothers  Grimm  in  the 
Teutonic  field  were  exceedingly  fruitful.  Among  the  many 
results  established  the  brief  compass  of  our  sketch  will  allow 
the  admission  of  only  one.  In  the  Gothic  there  was  found  a 
small  group  of  verbs  which  still  preserved  a  genuine  reduplica- 
tion, the  same  in  significance  and  form  as  that  of  the  Sanskrit, 
Greek,  and  Latin.  The  remainder  of  the  so-ealled  irregular 
verbs  showed  the  vowel  change  which  the  Germanic  languages 
still  preserve,  such  as  is  seen  in  singj  scmgy  mmg.    Certain  f  eat- 

FouRTH  Series,  Vol.  XXXIH. — 45 

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686  Methodist  Qvurterly  Beoiew.  [October, 

ures  in  this  vowel  change  were  peculiar,  and  led  finally  to  the 
remarkable  discovery  that  these  verbs  also  were  once  redupli- 
cated, and  owed  their  change  of  vowel  to  contraction.  This 
may  be  illustrated  from  the  Anglo-Saxon,  in  which  the  former 
class  of  verbs  in  Gothic  appear  with  vowel  changes,  namely : 
Gothic,  haldcmy  hold,  imperfect,  hoArhald^  I  held;  Anglo- 
Saxon,  heaZdcmy  imperfect,  heold.  Thus  the  so-called  irregular 
verbs  of  English  and  German  were  proved  to  be  the  oldest  and 
most  normal  in  inflection.  The  "  regular  "  verbs  were  found 
to  be  the  result  of  composition — the  inevitable  resort  of  the 
Indo-European  languages  to  supply  loss  and  extend  inflection 
with  the  preterit  did^  of  the  verb  to  da.  If  we  return  to  the 
sentence  above  quoted  from  the  Gothic,  ^^  HauaidedutK  thateiy^ 
etc.,  we  shall  see  an  example  of  this  union.  Hauairdedruth  is 
demonstrably  Kear-did-ye^  the  nth  being  the  regular  termina- 
tion of  the  second  plural  of  the  Gothic  preterit  or  imperfect. 
In  English  the  whole  has  been  shortened  to  drf  or  d;  in  Ger- 
man, as  required  by  Grimm's  principle,  to  te. 

Grimm  began  at  once  to  make  practical  use  of  these  discov- 
eries in  his  great  Deutsche^  Worterbuch^  but,  strange  to  say, 
it  was  found  impossible  to  make  them  otherwise  useful  to  the 
public.  The  eminent  scholars  who  were  busy  brooding  over 
the  classical  languages  shook  their  heads,  and  declined  the 
trouble  of  hearing  about  the  new  discoveries,  or  of  putting 
them  to  the  proof.  The  old  theory  of  the  descent  of  Latin 
from  Greek  continued  to  be  put  forth,  with  always  suflBcient 
variation  to  make  it,  at  least  to  its  propounders,  new;  and 
prodigies  of  industry  were  wroqght  by  men  like  Doderlein  in 
tracing  and  calculating  a  priori  the  minute  steps  of  derivation. 
Passow  and  Freund  prosecuted  their  patient  labors  unassisted 
by  the  new  light ;  and  their  works,  translated  and  re-issued  in 
this  country,  retarded,  as  by  an  eclipse,  the  rising  dawn  of  a 
true  philology.  Our  own  venerated  lexicographer  of  English, 
Noah  Webster,  from  the  same  lack  of  a  key  to  the  classification 
of  speech  which  had  led  to  the  collective  waste  of  centuries  of 
toil  before  the  days  of  Schlegel,  spent  twenty  years  in  the  use- 
less study  of  miscellaneous  languages,  in  the  fond  belief  that 
the  etymologies  he  needed  could  there  be  mined.  Enthusiastic 
scholars  of  Greek  and  Latin  refined  upon  the  old  dogmas  in 
their  zeal,  and  notably  Prof.  Crosby,  who,  in  his  earlier  gram- 

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1881. J      PhiUiU>gy :  E(Mrly  ErroTSy  Recent  Progress.         687 

mar,  devised  a  beautiful  system  of  upbuilding  for  the  Greek, 
which  he  loved  too  well  to  suppose  was  not  a  primitive  lan- 
guage. But  at  length  the  facts  and  teachings  of  the  new  sci- 
ence began  to  be  received  by  the  new  generation  of  scholars. 
Learned  societies  sprang  up  and  disseminated  its  truths  and 
principles.  Germany  had  at  last  been  dawned  upon  by  the 
true  light  of  linguistic  science,  and  it  could  not  be  long  before 
the  new  day  of  truth  would  reach  also  our  western  shores.  In 
1860  Prof.  Iladley  published  his  adaptation  of  the  Greek 
Grammar  of  Georg  Curtius,  which  had  been  prepared  upon  an 
adequate  basis  of  comparative  philology.  This  was  an  innova- 
tion, and  stood  alone  for  more  than  a  decade.  Then  followed 
a  similar  manual  for  the  Latin,  and  American  scholarship  gen- 
erally began  to  be  revised.  Now  we  have  attained  such  prog- 
ress that,  probably,  never  again  will  linguistic  authorship  suc- 
ceed among  us,  unless  provided  with  the  warrant  of  historic 
truth. 

The  progress  of  philology  since  the  death  of  Bopp  and 
Grimm  has  continued  without  interruption,  and  can  be  sunmied 
up  briefly.  The  fields  of  labor  have  been  more  carefully  sur- 
veyed, and  it  is  now  agreed  where  the  boxmdaries  must  pass. 
There  are  three  great  divisions  of  language  recognized :  the 
Indo-European  (Japhetic),  the  Semitic,  and  the  Scythian  or 
Turanian.  The  latter  is  not  a  family  in  any  strict  sense,  but 
serves  as  a  kind  of  temporary  category  for  all  languages  of  in- 
determinate relationship  and  origin.  Labor  thus  far  has  been 
but  sparingly  bestowed  upon  this  field ;  the  Semitic  and  Aryan 
prove  still  the  most  alluring.  Great  achievements  have  not 
only  been  wrought  by  Pott  and  others  in  the  department  first 
entered  by  Bopp,  but  also  by  special  investigators  who  have 
passed  somewhat  beyond  the  pale  of  abstract  linguistics.  Facts 
bearing  with  great  positiveness  upon  ethnology  have  been  estab- 
lished, and  the  beginnings  of  history  have  been  pushed  back- 
ward. Tlie  great  clearness  with  which,  as  cannot  fail  to  have 
been  observed,  central  Asia  had  been  suggested  a^  the  starting- 
point  of  Indo-European  emigration  attracted  early  attention. 
It  was  found  that  there  were  distinct  Scandinavian  and,  prob- 
ably, Celtic  traditions  of  such  westward  march ;  and  the  Slavs, 
the  youngest  member  of  the  Indo- Germanic  family,  had  forced 
their  way  into  the  society  of  European  nations  within  the  cog- 

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688  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Beview.  [October, 

nizance  of  history.  One  branch  of  the  latter  people,  the  Lith- 
uanic,  had  brought  with  them,  and  were  still  speaking,  a  lan- 
guage which  had  changed  so  little  from  its  primitive  Asiatic 
condition  as  to  rival  even  the  Sanskrit  in  ancientness  of  type. 
It  retained  the  eight  cases  of  the  primitive  language  except  the 
ablative,  the  dual  number,  with  much  of  its  phonetic  system 
and  many  of  its  radicals.  In  the  verb  especially  was  it  well  pre- 
served. This  was  phenomenal ;  the  resemblance  of  the  Zend 
to  Sanskrit  was  hardly  less  striking.  From  the  Indo-Persian 
or  Aryan  branch  was  gathered  further  assurance,— indeed,  posi- 
tive tradition  from  the  Brahmins.  Finally,  no  small  contribu- 
tion toward  determining  the  home  of  the  Indo-European  na- 
tions was  obtained  by  the  sifting  of  their  vocabularies;  and  not 
only  the  latitude  of  their  first  home,  but  a  glimpse  of  the 
primitive  Japhetic  civilization  and  mode  of  life.  The  different 
vocabularies  of  all  the  Indo-European  languages  were  carefully 
compared,  and  all  words  and  terms  not  found  in  each,  or  which 
were  not  clearly  brought  away  by  each  emigrating  tribe  in  its 
earliest  speech,  were  cast  aside.  The  residue,  of  course,  repre- 
sented in  some  degree  what  might  be  called  the  dictionary  of 
the  primitive  speech;  and  the  words  included  constituted  an 
index  of  the  thought  and  a  gauge  of  the  intellectual  advance- 
ment of  the  race  who  spoke  it.  This  people  were  thus  seen  to 
have  advanced  somewhat  beyond  the  purely  nomadic  stage, 
as  they  lived  in  towns  which  were  often  defended  with  walls 
and  in  stationary  dwellings  fitted  with  firm  doors.  They  broke 
the  soil  with  plows,  and  gathered  harvests  of  wheat  and  barley. 
Wagons  were  in  use,  and  boats  propelled  by  oars.  Cattle  were 
still  their  chief  riches,  war  and  combat  their  pastime.  The 
captives  taken  in  battle  were  enslaved,  but  woman  was  re- 
garded as  man's  equal,  and  treated  with  respect.  It  was  not  a 
hot  country  where  thus  they  lived,  for  winter  was  dreaded  and 
spring  hailed  with  gladness.  The  forests  grew  of  the  hardy 
oak,  and  the  constellation  of  the  Ursa  Major  was  most  conspic- 
uous and  admired.  As  to  the  longitude  of  this  fatherland,  it 
could  only  be  proved  that  it  was  remote  from  seas — ^no  name 
for  ocean  can  be  found,  the  country  abounded  in  streams,  and 
was  in  sight  of  mountains.  There  were  found  traces  also  of  a 
traditional  first  man,  and  of  a  flood  causing  universal  destruc- 
tion, from  which  man  alone  escaped.    Hence  it  has  been  in- 

Digitized  by  VjOOQIC 


1881.]      Philology :  Early  ErrorSy  Becent  Progress.         689 

ferred  by  some  philologists  that  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  peoples 
were  once  united,  and  the  problem  was  accepted  of  eventually 
proving  the  identity  by  comparison  of  languages.  Thus  far, 
however,  the  attempt  has  been  entirely  unsuccessful. 

With  respect  to  the  origin  of  language,  it  is  only  recently 
that  inquiries  have  begun  to  be  conducted  in  a  Sjcientific  way. 
Only  lately,  indeed,  have  enough  phenomena  of  the  life  and 
growth  of  language  been  collected  to  make  such  investigation 
possible.  The  old  belief  that  speech  was  of  divine  origin, — 
probably  a  direct  impartation  to  human  lips,  was  long  accepted. 
"William  von  Humboldt  was  the  first  to  point  out  that  the  mir- 
acle was  no  greater  thus  than  if  man  were  found  to  have  been 
so  endowed  as  to  devise  and  fabricate  it  for  himself.  It  is  cer- 
tainly a  human  instrument,  and,  considering  the  instinct  and 
necessity  of  communication,  no  more  remarkable  *than  many 
known  achievements  of  mankind.  The  necessity  for  shelter 
has  led  him  to  devise  implements  with  which  to  build,  and 
these  he  has  improved  from  the  rudest  types  in  stone  to  the 
most  intricate  and  compUcated  steel  machinery.  Every  art  has 
made  like  progress,  and  from  equally  rude  beginnings.  Sci- 
ence shows  that  language  could  have  begun  in  a  like  simple 
way,  and  in  like  manner  perfected  itself,  thinking  only  of  sup- 
plying the  present  need,  and  never  aiming  to  improve  itself, 
yet  constantly  improving.  There  seems  no  doubt  that  children 
growing  up  together  and  denied  all  knowledge  of  their  mother- 
tongue  would  gradually  devise  a  system  of  vocal  communica- 
tion. Every  child  does  almost  as  much ;  in  his  early  essays  at 
speech  he  invents  names  of  his  own  for  surrounding  objects, 
which,  being  accepted  at  his  value  by  others,  become  actual 
elements  of  language.  If  he  could  only  find  associates  willing 
to  continue  their  use  with  him,  they  would  serve  a  lifetime  as 
well  as  any  terms  of  speech.  For  the  old  notion  that  it  makes 
any  difference  to  a  child  learning  to  talk  what  kind  of  language 
he  hears,  whether  correct  speech  or  patois,  or  that  he  would 
speak  at  all  (much  less  the  primitive  language),  if  he  were  se- 
questered from  all  communication  by  spoken  signs,  was  among 
the  first  to  give  way  before  actual  investigation.  The  mission- 
ary's child  learns  the  idiom  of  his  adopted  country  as  readily 
as  the  language  of  his  parents,  and  with  greater  rapidity  and 
ease  if  he  chance  to  hear  less  of  their  conversation  than  of  his 


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690  Methodist  Qaa/rterly  Beview.  [October, 

native  nurse's.  He  will,  however,  try  his  hand  at  amending 
and  extending  both,  until  warned  by  the  limits  of  intelligibility. 
He  finds  that,  to  communicate  his  ideas  successfully,  he  must 
use  terms  familiar  to  other  people.  There  must  be  convention 
in  regard  to  the  meaning  and  value  of  words  and  phrases ;  he 
must  add  his  consent  to  the  collective  consent  of  the  commu- 
nity that  such  and  such  a  term  shall  have  such  and  such  signifi- 
cance. It  is,  in  fact,  this  consent  which  makes  language  what 
it  is ;  remove  the  convention,  and  it  becomes  a  useless  instru- 
ment. Each  member  of  the  commonwealth  of  speech  not  only 
consents  to  the  labors  of  his  predecessors  in  making  and  alter- 
ing language,  but  is  himself  continually  passing  personal  judg- 
ment of  disfavor  or  approval  upon  certain  empirical  changes,  and 
upon  the  admission  of  the  new  terms  required  by  the  growth  of 
ideas  and  knowledge.  Some  of  these  will  be  embodied  into 
living  language  by  the  preponderance  of  consenting  suffrages, 
some  will  perish  still-bom  upon  the  tlireshold  of  existence. 
Many  curious  illustrations  might  be  cited,  if  space  permitted, 
of  the  failure  of  well-devised  terms,  and  of  the  success  of  others 
obviously  inapt,  through  some  freak  of  the  popular  fancy. 
This  voice  of  the  people  may  be  folly,  or  it  may  be  wisdom, 
but  it  is  final.  Each  intelh'gent  speaker  is  therefore  not  only 
a  censor  over  the  common  speech :  in  his  indorsement  of  the 
old  and  his  judgment  of  the  new,  his  activity  is  the  same,  if  not 
in  degree  at  least  in  kind,  as  that  of  an  originator  or  adapter. 
And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  process  of  mastering 
one's  vernacular,  a  thing  never  perfectly  accomplished,  and  the 
acquiring  of  that  habit  of  correct  and  dignified  speech  called 
style,  require  the  constant  labor  of  half  a  hfetime.  The  in- 
vention of  the  humble  beginnings  of  speech  which  philology 
supposes,  could  not  have  been  a  more  difiicult  process  than  is 
the  mastery  of  the  finished  product,  any  more  than  the  crude 
beginnings  of  the  mechanic's  art  were  more  abstruse  and  difficult 
than  the  mastery  of  the  accumulated  and  complex  appliances  of 
the  modern  artisan. 

But  how  can  speech  have  been  begun  without  materials  ? 
How  was  it  possible  for  those  whose  task  it  was  to  originate 
language,  to  construct  roots  from  nothing  ?  Philology  recog- 
nizes the  difficulty  of  these  questions,  which  it  does  not  pro- 
fess itself,  as  jet,  able  to  answer,  but  suggests  a  theory  suffi- 


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1881.]     Philology :  Ea/rly  Errors^  Recent  Progress.         691 

cient  to  support  its  grounds — all  the  grounds  it  takes.  For  it 
does  not  deny  the  supernatural  genesis  of  language,  but,  in  the 
absence  of  evidence  either  way,  only  asserts  the  possibility  of 
the  human  ;  and  the  latter  view  seems  to  commend  itself  to  the 
thinking  mind  as  the  most  reasonable  and  natural,  the  most  in 
accord  with  the  divine  economy.  The  theory  regarding  the 
origin  of  the  ultimate  roots  of  language  is  that  they  could  have 
been  formed,  at  least  in  large  measure,  by  imitation  of  natural 
sounds, — a  process  still  in  operation  in  all  languages.  Every 
child  names  objects  independently  in  this  way:  his  dog  is 
"bow,"  an  engine  "pufE-puff,"  and  so  on.  The  number  of 
like  onomatopoetic  roots,  such  as  buzz,  hum,  bang,  whiz, 
whir,  etc.,  which  we  constantly  use  and  with  perfect  accept- 
ance, suggests  that  we  might  multiply  them  indefinitely  if  our 
vocabulary  should  need  replenishing.  We  should  in  that  case 
make  abundant  use  of  analogy,  both  to  bring  objects  and  actions 
inaudible  into  relations  with  sound,  as  well  as  to  extend  roots 
directly  imitative  of  sound-action  into  other  meanings.  More- 
over, there  is  evidence  to  show  that  roots  expressive  of  emotion 
can  have  arisen  in  their  earliest  form  as  interjections.  These 
two  processes,  without  being  imagined  to  yield  their  utmost, 
can  have  furnished  as  many  roots  as  are  supposed  to  have  been 
original  in  the  primitive  Indo-European  language, — a  number 
not  exceeding  a  few  hundred.  It  is,  however,  probable  enough 
that  the  number  of  really  original  Indo-European  roots  was 
considerably  less,  and  was  gradually  increased  during  the  whole 
period  of  the  growth  of  inflection,  in  the  same  manner  as  we 
know  has  been  the  case  since  until  the  present  time. 

But,  though  there  is  no  little  variance  of  opinion,  we  believe 
that  philologists  generally  do  not  suppose  a  special  root-creation 
for  the  Indo-European  family.  It  is  accepted  as  likely  to  be 
in  time  established  that  the  ultimate  roots  of  human  speech 
were  identical.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  attempts  to 
bring  the  Indo-European  and  Semitic  languages  together ;  but 
the  most  careful  examination  has  as  yet  brought  to  light  hardly 
any  thing  more  than  may  be  found  in  the  comparison  of  any 
two  languages  not  known  to  be  related, — ^resemblances  which 
the  unprejudiced  philologer  must  consider  accidental.  To  es- 
tablish aflSnity  between  two  languages  or  groups  of  languages 
there  must  be  found  traces  of  at  least  ultimate  likeness  in 


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692  Methodist  Quarterly  lieview.  [October, 

structure  ;  if  such  occur,  on  the  principle  that  the  greater  in- 
cludes the  less,  single  words  may  then  be  admitted  to  compari- 
son. Only  the  most  wholesale  conformity  in  vocabulary  can 
be  allowed  as  having  the  least  weight,  if  no  structural  resem- 
blances are  discovered.  Such  likeness  to  the  Japhetic  struct- 
ural type,  as  is  well  known,  is  nearly  wanting  in  the  Semitic 
tongues.  The  fact  of  triliterality  of  verb-roots  and  inflection 
by  vowel-insertion  is  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  any  thing 
Indo-European.  In  the  matter  of  word-comparison  there  are 
on  the  whole,  perhaps,  rather  fewer  coincidences  than  are  usu- 
ally met  with  outside  of  family  boundaries.  Furthermore,  the 
Semitic  languages  are  exceptionally  steadfast  and  intolerant  of 
change.  There  is  the  strongest  reason  for  believing  that  their 
rigid  and  inflexible  type  resisted  the  common  tendencies  of 
growth  as  successfully  before  the  historicAl  period  as  we  can 
see  it  has  done  since.  This,  as  all  agree,  will  carry  present 
differences  back  almost  to  the  infancy  of  the  race.  Philologists 
can  only  resort  to  the  supposition  that  ages  separate  the  era 
when  the  Japhetic  and  Semitic  communities  parted  and 
the  stage  at  which  each  language  assumed  its  earliest  his- 
toric type.  But  the  interval  between  Sanskrit  and  English 
— more  than  four  thousand  years,  and  a  period  of  immense 
growth  and  change — has  not  been  sufficient  to  obliterate  the 
evidences  of  Indo-European  kinship ;  while  the  task  of  con- 
necting the  ultimate  roots  of  the  two  families  meets  with  not 
the  slightest  encouragement  or  success.  Surely  there  is  in  this 
the  broad  suggestion  of  some  interference  from  without 
Philologists,  however,  as  true  disciples  of  science,  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Confusion.  This  is  the  first  and  only 
real  conflict  of  comparative  philology  and  Revelation  ;  a  conflict 
fortunately  confined,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  mute  scorn  on 
the  one  hand  of  the  scientists,  and  the  mute  record  on  the 
other.  Let  us  hope  that  no  voice  will  break  the  silence  until 
time  vindicates  the  truth.  For  it  is  not  improbable  that  proof 
may  eventually  be  discovered,  if  not  of  the  once  complete 
union  of  the  radical  elements  of  Japhetic  and  Semitic  speech, 
at  least  of  the  arbitrary  and  violent  partition  of  the  outgrowth 
of  these  radicals.  Meanwhile  one  cannot  but  be  reminded  that 
geology  readily  admits  the  theory  of  cataclysms  and  glaciers  to 
account  for  otherwise  inexplicable  phenomena;  and  one  day 


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1881.]      Philology :  Early  Errorsy  Recent  Progress.  693 

will  science,  when  the  meaning  of  "  Nature  "  shall  have  been 
better  comprehended,  recognize  the  Confusion  as  no  greater 
miracle. 

We  incline,  therefore,  to  the  view  that  philology  will  never 
approach  much  nearer  to  the  beginnings  of  human  speech. 
From  the  unclassified  and  miscellaneous  languages  of  the  world 
but  small  contribution  can  be  expected  toward  the  solution  of 
this  problem  ;  for  there  is  ample  evidence  that  they  have  gen- 
erally been  subject  to  far  greater  changes  than  the  Semitic  and 
Indo-European.     They  have  been  longer  in  the  process,  many 
having  still  no  written  literature  ;  and  as  for  the  languages  of 
barbarous  nations,  they  are  observed  sometimes  to  change  be- 
yond recognition  in  a  century  or  two.     But  the  future  of 
comparative  philology  in  other  departments  is  full  of  promise. 
Phonetics,  almost  a  science  in  itself,  has  advanced  nearly  to 
perfection  in  the  present  generation.     The  variotis  vocal  sounds 
capable  of  use  in  speech  have  been  named  and  classified,  and 
their  correct  formation  and  exact  relations  determined.    With 
this  apparatus  the  pronunciation  of   dead  languages  may  be 
restored,  and  those  newly  discovered  are  reduced  at  once  to 
writing.     By  its  use,  with  the  aid  of  comparison,  the  original 
alphabet  of  the  primitive  Indo-European  pronunciation  has 
been  recovered,  and  the  creation  of  later  sounds  explained. 
Like  success  may  be  predicted  with  the  Scythian  languages, 
when  once  they  shall  have  received  the  requisite  attention.    It 
is  probable,  also,  that  most  of  these  idioms  retain  enough  of 
their  primitive  characteristics  to  be  classified ;  and  from  this 
will  doubtless  emanate  new  light  regarding  the  unity  of  the 
race  and  the  early  history  of  its  wanderings.     But  for  a  long 
time  yet  will  the  chief  philological  interest  cling  to  the  Japhet- 
ic and  Semitic  families.     The  numberless  Phoenician,  Assyr- 
ian, and  Sabean  inscriptions  have  important  secrets  to  reveal, 
and  the  problems  of  mythology  are  multiplying.     Finally, 
there  looms  up  the  possibility  of  tracing  the  decadence  of 
primitive  monotheism  and  the  beginnings  of  idolatry — a  tran- 
sition whieh,  from  the  testimony  of  the  Vedas,  can  have  begun 
scarcely  earlier  than  the  Indo-European  dispersion. 


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694  Methodist  Qua/rterly  JReview,  [October, 


Abt.  VI.— the  elements  of  the  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

The  Lord's  Supper  has  supplanted  the  Feast  of  the  Passover 
in  the  Jewish  economy.  If  the  Lord's  Supper  was  part  of  the 
paschal  feast  that  fact  would  have  great  force  in  determining 
what  kind  of  bread  was  to  be  used  in  its  celebration,  and  \yould 
decide  what  kinds  of  wine  were  permissible.  If  the  supper 
was  part  of  a  common  meal  preceding  that  of  the  passover, 
then  the  bread  and  wine  were  not  prescribed,  but  were  such  as 
were  in  common  use  in  Judea  at  the  time.  In  order  to  un- 
deretand  the  import  of  the  Lord's  Supper  the  passover  would 
necessarily  come  under  our  inspection,  but  more  especially  so 
if  part  of  that  ritual  is  still  to  be  observed.  For  tliis  consult 
Clarke's  or  Whedon's  Commentary. 

It  is  stated  in  chap,  x.  Treatise  Pesachim,  §  1 :  "...  A 
person  shall  not  have  less  than  four'cups  of  wine,  even  if  they 
be  given  to  him  from  the  fund  devoted  to  the  charitable  sup- 
port of  the  very  poor."  In  §  1,  chap,  iii,  of  the  Pesach.  it  is 
stated  :  "  The  law  concerning  the  due  observance  of  the  pass- 
over  will  be  transgressed  by  using  the  following  articles,  namely, 
Babylonian  nn^a,  (a  mixture  of  moldy  bread  with  milk  and  salt, 
used  to  dip  food  in,)  Median  beer,  (made  of  wheat  or  barley,) 
Edomite  vinegar,  (made  by  the  fermentation  of  barley  and  wine,) 
Egyptian  zeithum,  (the  name  of  a  medicine  of  Egyptian  origin, 
mentioned  by  Pliny  under  the  name  of  zythum ;  according  to 
the  Talmud  it  was  composed  of  equal  parts  of  barley,  salt,  and 
wild  saffron,)  etc."  If  there  had  been  any  article  of  wine  in 
common  use  which  could  not  be  properly  used  in  the  passover, 
it  would  have  been  mentioned  in  this  catalogue.  The  absence 
of  any  injunction,  therefore,  gives  us  to  understand  that  the 
wine  in  common  use,  under  the  general  term  n>  y^yi^^  was 
used  indiscriminately,  while  the  benediction  was  pronounced 
using  the  general  terms  IBjn  na,  peri  haggapen^  the  fruit  of  the 
vine^  in  all  cases,  as  in  the  Hebrew  ritual  of  the  present  day.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark  that  the  word  KH^^n,  tirosh^  is  nev^  tcsed  in 
these  benedictions  for  "  the  fruit  of  the  vine^^^  but  the  words 
jaan  "nB,  peri  hnggapen^  have  invariably  been  used  from  the 
earliest  times.  This  is  a  parallel  expression  to  that  of  the  Greek 
yew^fiarog  ttj^  dfineXoVy  gennematos  tes  ampeUm^  fruit  of  ths 


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1881.]  The  EUmerUa  of  the  Lord  'a  Supper.  695 

vvne^  used  by  our  Saviour,  or  perhaps  the  Syriac  in  the  Peshito 
New  Testament,  aldo  dagpithoj  and  the  translation  of  the 
words  "  fruit  of  the  vine,"  IBan  ro^^rio,  mitnvhath  haggephen^ 
signifying  properly  the  growth  or  product  of  the  vine.  The 
words  vtao  p:,  yayin  megitto^  were  used  frequently  to  signify 
new  wine^  as  opposed  to  t?7  T,  yayin  yashcm^  as  in  the  Tal- 
mud, "  Eabbi  Jose  said,  to  what  may  he  who  leameth  the 
law  from  little  children  be  likened  ?  To  one  who  eateth  sour 
grapes  and  drinketh  new .  wine  /  but  he  who  learneth  from  the 
old  men  may  be  compared  to  one  who  eats  ripe  grapes  and 
drinks  old  vriTie.^^  The  antithesis  forbids  that  the  words  should 
be  applied  in  any  other  way.  I  am  not  aware  that  the  word 
^??,  'rnegittOy  appears  in  connection  with  HI,  yayi'^y  as  a  de- 
scriptive qualification  any  where  in  the  sacred  writings,  but  as 
na,  gath,  signifies  a  wine-press,  and  the  word  occurs  in  the 
plural  in  Neh.  xiii,  15,  and  is  there  translated  winepresseSy  it 
seems  that  this  term  iriSD  |^^,  yayin  megitto^  was  used  to  signify 
raw  winey  new  wine^  wine  recently  from  the  press.  The  use 
of  this  figure  of  speech  would  likewise  indicate  that  this  article 
was  not  considered  as  possessed  of  much  merit,  or  an  article  in 
common  use. 

While  the  Mishna  is  very  explicit  in  the  instructions  for  the 
observance  of  the  passover,  and  in  these  instructions  expressly 
includes  wine,  yet  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  use  of  wine 
at  the  paschal  feast  was  not  enjoined  by  the  law,  but  was  sanc- 
tioned by  the  especial  notice  given  to  it  by  our  Saviour  in  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  so  that,  whatever  position  it 
may  take  as  part  of  the  type,  it  becomes  part  of  the  seal  and 
memorial  of  our  Saviour's  sufferings  and  death.  Being  con- 
sidered as  part  of  a  sacrificial  offering  and  feast,  however,  such 
wine  would  be  used  as  was  commonly  used  at  such  feasts  and 
sacrifices  at  the  temple.  Calmet  says  of  M^PJ  p^,  yayin  nesi- 
kajUy  the  wine  of  libation,  "That  it  was  the  most  excellent 
wine  poured  on  the  victims  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  or  pure 
wine,  because  in  hbations  they  used  no  mixtures."  In  the 
command  given  for  the  perpetual  sacrifice,  morning  and  even- 
ing, (Exod.  xxix,  39-42,)  the  wine  is  designated  by  the  word 
r?  yayin^  and  in  the  directions  given  in  the  Hebrew  rituals, 
the  word  *19?>,  shekary  is  used.  This  would  indicate  that  the 
wine  used  in  the  perpetual  sacrifice  was  possessed,  at  least,  of 


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696  Methodist  Qtiarterly  Hevieto.  [October, 

the  generally  received  characteristics  of  wine ;  that  is,  it  had 
gone  through  the  regular  process  of  vinous  fermentation,  since 
the  word  "13?^,  aheka/Ty  means  invariably  strong  drink,  and  is  so 
translated,  not  only  in  the  Bible,  but  also  in  the  "  Prayers  of 
Israel."  In  the  command  for  the  presentation  of  the  first-fruits 
and  the  accompanying  drink-offering,  (Lev.  xxiii,  13,)  r, 
yayin^  is  again  mentioned,  thus  indicating  that  the  general 
wine  of  Judea  must  be  tithed  to  the  Lord,  and  must  be  thank- 
fully received  in  his  name,  since  there  is  no  special  instruction 
as  to  the  kind  of  wine  to  be  used.  In  the  general  directions 
given  for  the  offerings  of  other  sacrifices  (Xum.  xv,  5)  H!, 
yayin^  is  again  used  to  designate  the  wine  for  the  drink-of- 
fering. In  the  general  directions  given  for  burnt-offerings  in 
the  continual  morning  and  evening  sacrifice,  in  Num.  xxviii,  7, 
the  word  "^3?^,  shehar^  is  used,  and  is  rendered  in  our  transla- 
tion "  strong  wine^'^  thus  establishing  the  fact  that  strength  was 
no  bar  to  the  offering  of  wine  to  the  God  of  Israel.  In  the 
offering  of  tithes  of  first-fruits  (Deut.  xviii,  4)  the  word  used 
for  wine  is  KTi^n,  tirosh^  and  in  the  blessings  promised  to  those 
who  fulfill  this  command,  (Prov.  iii,  9, 10,)  B^^n,  tiroshy  is  again 
used  in  the  expression,  "  And  thy  presses  shall  hurst  out  with 
new  wine.^^  These  passages  will  be  sufficient  to  establish  the 
fact  that  first-fruits  of  Knn^n,  tirosh,  were  offered  annually  at 
the  Temple,  and  that  daily  morning  and  evening,  as  weU  as 
other  sacrificial  offerings^  were  made  of  XZt  y<^yi^^  or  "^3^, 
shehi/r.  These,  then,  were  common  wines  of  Judea,  were  used 
in  sacrifice,  especially  yayin  and  shekar^  and  received  the  di- 
vine sanction. 

Now  let  us  see  what  effects  are  attributed  to  them  in  the 
sacred  writings.  The  allusions  to  the  effects  of  cH^^n,  tirosk, 
are  confined  to  a  single  passage,  but  that  is  a  most  decisive  one, 
namely,  Hosea  iv,  11 :  "  "Whoredom  and  wine  (C,  yayin)  and 
new  wine  (55^"i^n,  tirosh)  take  away  the  heart."  In  this  passage 
tirosh  appears  as  the  climax  of  engrossing  influence,  in  imme- 
diate connection  with  yayin.  Dr.  Clarke  says  on  this  passage, 
"  These  darken  the  understanding,  deprave  the  judgment,  per- 
vert the  will,  debase  all  the  passions,"  etc.  There  is  a  passage  in 
Acts  xi,  13,  having  allusion  to  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  "  These  men  are  full  of  new  wine^'*  {y'ksxh- 
«of,  gleuJcos;)  and  this  term  will  be  understood  by  Peter's  re- 


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1881.]  The  Elements  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  697 

ply  in  the  15th  verse,  where  the  word  fie&vovgiVy  methuoumty 
derived  from  fudv^  Toethu^  signifying  wine,  and  which  is  ap- 
plied to  the  effects  which  the  Jews  supposed  resulted  from  an 
intemperate  use  of  gleuTcos^  is  used.  It  is  worthy  of  notice 
that  "  new  vnne "  in  this  passage  is  translated  in  the  modem 
Hebrew  New  Testament  by  the  word  W^n,  tvroeh.  Schleus- 
ner  says  of  gleuhos  in  this  passage,  "  Semel  legitur  in  N.  T.  Act. 
ii,  13,  ykevKovg  fiefieoUjfuvoi  eialy  vino  dvlci  {non  musto;  vinde- 
miam  enim  in  mensem  Tisri  cecidisse  apud  Judseos,  satis  notum 
est)  pleni  sunt."  *  In  Job  xxxii,  19,  the  word  wine  is  translated 
from  the  Hebrew  C  yayvn,^  by  the  word  yAcvicov^*,  gleukous^ 
in  the  Septuagint.  The  reading  of  the  passage  will  convince 
every  one  of  the  character  of  B^^n,  Tirosh.  But  the  particu- 
lar point  to  which  I  wish  to  call  attention  is  this :  In  the  He- 
brew New  Testament  yXevKovg^  gleukovSj  is  translated  Knn^n, 
tirosh,  and  in  the  Septuagint  H^,  yctyin,  is  translated  yXevKovq^ 
gleuhms.  Things  that  are  equal  to  the  same  thing  are  equal 
to  each  other.  Tirosh  must  partake  of  the  same  nature  as 
yayin,  but  yayin  and  sheka/r  are  used  interchangeably  in  the 
divine  command.  Sheka/r  is  strong  wine.  By  this  grouping 
of  facts  one  can  easily- understand  why  tirosh  '^  takes  away 
the  heartP  Parkhurst  says  of  this  passage:  '^ Sweet  wine — 
which  distills  of  its  own  accord  from  the  grapes,  which  is  the 
sweetest  and  smoothest — the  juice  of  the  grape  before  it  is 
trodden.  If  it  be  asked  how  there  could  be  any  jXsvko^,  gleur 
has,  or  sweet  wine,  at  Pentecost,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  reply 
that  it  appears  both  from  the  heathen  and  Jewish  writers,  cited 
by  Wetstein  on  Acts  ii,  13,  (whom  see,)  that  the  ancients  had 
a  method  of  preserving  the  sweetness,  and,  by  consequence,  the 
strongly  inebriating  qaaUty  of  the  y'kevKoq,  for  a  long  time." 
Eobinson  says  of  yAcvicoc,  gleukos:  "In  N.  T.  sweet  wine, 
fermented  and  intoxicating.  Acts  ii,  13.  Comp.  v,  15,  Sept., 
for  C!,  yayin,  Job  xxxii,  19."  Leigh,  in  Critica  Sacra,  8ays,f 
"Alii  vertunt,  Vino  dulci  pleni  erant — sed  quum  hsec  gesta 
sunt  die  Pentecostes,  quo  tempore  nuUum  est  rrmstum.'''    Arius 

•  "Once  it  is  written  in  the  N.  T.,  Acts  ii,  18 :  Thej  are  fall  of  wwed  tnne,  {not 
mutt^  or  unfermented  juice,  since  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  vintage  among  the 
Jews  occurred  in  the  month  Tisri.") 

f  "  Others  render,  *  were  full  of  sweet  wine,*  but  when  these  things  were  done  it 
was  the  day  of  Pentecost,  nt  which  time  there  U  no  rmmt^^  over  seven  months  hav- 
ing elapsed  since  the  preceding  vintage. 

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698  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Heview.  [October, 

Montanns,  in  "  Sac.  App.  Antwerp  Polyglott,"  gives  the  defi- 
nition of  "  yAev/coc,  gleukos^  mustum,  vinum,  and  buccus  dul- 
cis,"  indicating  that  these  terms  were  not  synonymous.  This 
will,  however,  suffice  to  give  a  tolerably  clear  understanding 
that  while  gleukos  may  mean  rrmsty  yet  that  the  weight  of  evi- 
dence leads  us  to  the  belief  that  gleukos^  which  is  translated  and 
used  as  the  equivalent  of  tirosh  and  yayin^  could  and  did  intoxi- 
cate, and  was  understood  to  be  an  intoxicating  liquor  by  critics. 

Perhaps  before  I  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  next  word, 
yayin^  I  should  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  Peshito  Syr- 
iac  New  Testament,  after  the  word  ;A-iJ|jS>,  meritho^  which 
is  the  Syriac  equivalent  of  cri^n,  tiroshy  and  yAd)«of,  gleukos^ 
according  to  Ari.  Mon.,  in  "  Sac.  App.,"  and  which  is  defined  by 
Gutbir  as  "  merum,".pure  wine,  without  mixture  or  alloy ;  or, 
as  Ainsworth  has  it,  "  racy,  neat  wine,"  the  Syriac  word  arviu 
(and  are  intoxicated)  is  appended.  The  same  word  which  is 
rendered  well  drunken  in  John  ii,  10,  in  the  description  of  our 
Saviour's  miracle  in  Cana. 

To  r,  yayin^  are  attributed  the  "  darkly  flashing  eye." 
Gen.  xiix,  12,  "  red ;"  but  see  "Gesen.  Thes.  Append.,"  p.  89  ; 
''the  unbridled  tongue"  and  "error  of  judgment,"  Prov. 
XX,  1;  Isa.  xxviii,  7;  "the  excitement  and  inflammation  of 
the  spirit,"  Prov.  xxxi,  6 ;  Isa.  v,  11 ;  Zech.  ix,  15 ;  x,  7 ; 
"  the  perverted  judgment  and  debased  affections  of  its  vota- 
ries," Ilosea  iv,  11 ;  "  the  indecent  exposure,"  Hab.  ii,  15,  16 ; 
and  "the  sickness  resulting  from  ih^heatoi  wine,"  Hosea  vii,  5. 
p^non,  chemath  meyayin^  translated  in  our  version  "bottles 
of  wine,"  as  non,  chemath^  is  likewise  used  in  Gen.  xxi,  35, 19, 
and  V,  14,  to  signify  a  leathern  bottle,  a  water  sHn/  but  in  Job 
xxi,  20,  and  Hosea  vii,  5,  to  designate  heat,  anger,  but  trans- 
lated, as  I  have  said,  in  the  authorized  version  of  the  Scriptures 
"  bottles  of  wine  "— «ee  Gesen. — a  very  significant  fact  in  rela- 
tion to  the  use  of  "leathern  bottles."  As  yayin  occurs  so 
very  frequently  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  I  have  only  quoted  the 
more  pronounced  allusions  to  the  effects  which  it  produced, 
showing  that  yayin  would  and  did  intoxicate,  and  its  abuse 
would  produce  drunkenness  with  all  its  attendant  evils. 

In  Isa.  xxviii  the  word  ^3^,  shikkori,  is  used  in  the  1st  and 
3d  verses  to  designate  drunkards,  and  in  the  7th  verse  "i??^, 
*  Must,  wine  and  sweet  juice. 

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1881.]  The  ElemenU  of  the  Lord^s  Suppfff^  GOO 

shekar,  is  nsed  with  yaym  to  denote  the  cause  of  the  enw 
and  backsliding  of  Israel.  In  this  verse  yayi/n  occurs  twice 
and  ahekar  three  times,  and  is  translated  strong  drink.  In 
Lev.  X,  0,  the  priests  are  forbidden  to  use  wine,  yayin^  and 
sheka/Tj  strong  drink,  in  the  performance  of  priestly  service  in 
the  Tabernacle,  conveying  the  impression  that  it  was  through 
the  improper  use  of  wine  and  strong  drink  tliat  Nadab  and 
Abihu  offered  strange  fire  unto  the  Lord,  and  died  in  their  dis- 
obedience. 

The  word  sheka/r  seems  to  have  been  applied  to  intoxicating 
or  inebriating  liquor  in  general,  and  a^  such  included  the  C, 
yayin^  of  the  sacrifices.  So  that  when  sheka/r  is  used  to  desig- 
nate the  wine  used  in  the  daily  sacrifice  in  Num.  xxviii,  7,  it 
shows  that  when  yayin  was  shekar^  strong  drink,  it  was  ac- 
ceptable to  God  when  properly  offered,  that  all  ygyin  was 
shekar^  or  that  shekur^  in  the  sense  of  all  intoxicating  drinks, 
was  acceptable  to  God  in  sacrifice.  One  or  more  of  these  con- 
clusions seems  unavoidable.  I  will  not,  however,  press  the 
matter  beyond  the  statement  that  "  the  impression  produced  on 
the  mind  by  this  review  of  the  biblical  use  of  the  terms  is  that 
both  yayin  and  tirosh^  in  their  ordinary  and  popular  accep- 
tation, referred  to  fermented,  intoxicating  wine.  In  all  the 
condemnatory  passages  in  the  Bible  no  exception  is  made  in 
favor  of  any  other  kind  of  liquid  passing  under  the  same  name, 
but  not  invested  with  the  same  dangerous  qualities.  Nor, 
again,  in  these  passages  is  there  any  decisive  condemnation  of 
the  substance  itself,  which  would  enforce  the  conclusion  that 
elsewhere  an  unfermented  liquid  must  be  understood.  The 
condemnation  must  be  understood  of  excessive  use  in  any  case ; 
for  even  where  this  is  not  expressed  it  is  implied ;  and,  there- 
fore,  the  instances  of  wine  being  drunk  without  any  reproof 
of  the  act  may,  with  as  great  a  probability,  imply  the  moderate 
use  of  an  intoxicating  beverage  as  the  use  of  an  unintoxicating 
one."  As  my  present  inquiry  does  not,  however,  include  the 
examination  of  all  Bible  wines,  nor  the  allusions  made  to  them 
in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  but  only  those  which  were  permissible 
in  sacrifice,  and  especially  the  pajschal  solemnities,  if  it  be  true 
that  the  Lord's  Supper  was  instituted  during  the  celebration  of 
them,  or  if  it  be  tnie  that  the  Lord's  Supper  was  instituted  at 
a  common  meal  before  the  celebration  of  the  Passover,  the 

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700  ^-^  ^Methodist  Qvxtrierly  Beview.  [October, 

wines  which  were  in  common  use,  according  to  divine  law,  in 
Judea  at  that  time,  must  have  been  used. 

It  thus  far  appears,  from  biblical  sanction,  that  vmiey  in  its 
generally  accepted  sense,  was  permissible  in  these  solenmities, 
since  in  no  sense  prohibited  or  proscribed  by  law,  but  sanctioned 
by  divine  acceptance  in  the  Temple,  in  their  daily  religions 
service,  and  made  an  indispensable  accompaniment  in  all  their 
holocausts.  Moreover,  it  was  used  from  the  earliest  times,  ac- 
cording to  the  Mishna,  with  no  other  regulation  than  that  it  be 
man  ^D,  j?<9ri  haggepKen^  the  fruit  of  the  vine.  Unless  it  can 
be  proved  that  all  the  passovers  were  celebrated  with  the  un- 
fermented  juice  of  the  grape,  kept  from  the  general  vintage  of 
from  the  middle  of  September  or  November — for  this  vintage 
continued  about  that  long — ^to  the  fourteenth  day  from  the  first 
new  moon  of  April,  in  such  quantities  that  every  person  cele- 
brating it  could  at  least  have  four  cups,  all  the  arguments  in 
favor  of  the  unfermented  juice  of  the  grape  must  fail*  If  tBe 
unfei^mented  juice  of  the  grape  was  to  be  used  during  the 
paschal  supper  ordy^  there  would  have  been  some  mention  of 
that  fact,  as  of  the  bread  required  ;  if  it  was  to  be  used  during 
the  entire  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  it  would  necessitate  the 
opening  of  new  bottles  of  the  unfermented  juice,  if  it  were 
possible  to  keep  it  so,  for  every  day  in  that  warm  climate, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  special  acconmiodations  and  arrange- 
ments,  and  especially  of  all  mention  of  such  requirements  in  the 
ritual  of  that  ceremony-loving  people,  seems  to  be  an  impossi- 
bility. If,  as  the  Greek  Church  maintains,  the  Lord's  Supper 
was  instituted  at  a  common  meal  preceding  the  paschal  supper, 
it  would  necessitate  the  cormnon  use  of  this  unfermented  juice 
in  order  to  support  the  theory  of  the  use  of  v/nfermented  wine 
in  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  that  in  the  face  of 
all  biblical  notices  and  commands  in  reference  to  that  which 
did  intoxicate,  without  one  allusion  to  this  fact,  which  is,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  absurd. 

•  The  enormous  amount  of  wine  used  in  these  services  will  appear  when  we  con- 
sider that  every  male  must  be  present,  and  they  were  accustomed  in  addition  to 
take  their  families  with  them,  (see  Luke  ii,  41,  42,)  and  everyone  must  have  four 
cups  of  wine !  Josephus  says,  hi  A.  D.  66,  (War  ii,  14.  8 :)  "  8,000,000  Jews  were 
present ;  and  at  the  feast  in  the  reign  of  Nero,  2,700,000,  when  206,600  lambs 
were  slain. — 76.,  vi,  9,  8.  Twelve  million  cups  of  unfermenied  wine  in  one  ewning 
of  the  feast !!  J    Scarcely  possible !    And  that  six  months  after  the  vintage  I 


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?881.]  The  Elements  of  the  Lord's  Shipper.  701 

The  vintage  commences  in  Syria  (I  quote  from  Jahn's  Bib, 
Arch4B.)  about  the  middle  of  September  and  continues  un- 
til the  middle  of  November.  But  grapes  in  Palestine,  we  are 
informed,  were  ripe  as  early  as  June  or  July,  which  probably 
arose  from  a  triple  pruning,  in  which  case  there  was  also  a 
third  vintage.  The  first  vintage  was  usually  in  August,  the 
second  in  September,  and  the  third  usually  in  October.  Grapes 
sometimes  remained  on  the  vines  until  November  and  Decem- 
ber. The  rmist^  or  new  wine,  as  is  still  customary  in  the  East, 
was  preserved  in  large  vessels,  which  were  buried  in  the  earth. 
The  store-houses  for  wine  were  not  subterranean,  but  built  upon 
the  earth.  When  deposited  in  these,  the  vessels,  as  is  done  at 
the  present  time  in  Persia,  were  sometimes  buried  in  the  ground 
and  sometimes  left  standing  upon  it.  Formerly,  also,  new 
wine  was  preserved  in  leathern  bottles,  and,  lest  they  should 
burst  during  fermentation,  the  people  were  careful  that  the 
bottles  should  be  new.  See  Job  xxxii,  19  ;  Matt,  ix,  17 ;  Mark 
ii,  22.  The  earliest  wines  were,  doubtless,  in  all  cases  simple 
and  pure,  being  obtained  by  mere  expression  and  fermentation 
of  the  grape  juice  ;  but  modifications  in  the  way  of  increasing 
the  saccharine  element,  by  partial  drying  of  the  grapes,  and  of 
aiding  the  development  of  alcohol  by  heat,  began  very  early  to 
be  introduced.  Leaves  and  aromatic  substances  were  infused 
in  the  expressed  grape  juice,  additions  were  made  of  various 
resins,  and,  in  order  to  give  body  and  fiavor  to  certain  wines 
that  would  otherwise  be  thin  and  poor,  a  portion  of  must  con- 
centrated by  boiling  was,  as  at  the  present  day,  added  to  the 
fermenting  juice.  The  very  sweet  wines  of  the  present,  or 
modem  times,  are  produced  by  previously  boiling  the  must  to 
a  considerable  degree  of  thickness,  or  the  grapes  are  left  very 
long  on  the  vines,  and,  by  twisting  the  stalks,  the  access  of  fresh 
sap  is  checked  and  evaporation  from  the  grapes  allowed  until 
they  shrivel  and  appear  like  raisins.  The  extent  to  which  the 
must  will  go  on  fermenting,  if  immediately  bottled  or  put  in 
casks,  endangering  the  bursting  of  these,  depends  on  the  oxy- 
gen already  in  the  liquid.  It  may  be  added  that  the  fermenta- 
tion is  more  prompt  and  satisfactory  as  the  quantity  of  must  in 
the  vat  is  greater ;  and  that  the  covering  of  the  vats,  by  the 
preventing  the  escape  of  the  carbonic  acid,  alcohol,  and  aroma, 
tends  greatly  to  preserve  the  proper  strength  and  quality  of  the 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 46 

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702  Methodist  Qawrterly  Review.  [October, 

wine.  Dr.  Jahn  tells  ns,  in  Bib.  ArchcB.^  that  the  grapes  of 
Palestine  are  mostly  red  or  black,  whence  originated  the  phrase 
"  blood  of  grapes,"  D^aj8.D^,  dam  aoncMm.  See  Gen.  xlix,  11 ; 
Deut.  xxxii,  14 ;  Isa.  xxvii,  2. 

Dr.  Justin  Perkins  says,  in  "  A  Eesidence  of  Eight  Years  in 
Persia,"  p.  437 : 

The  juice  of  the  grape  is  used  in  three  ways  in  Persia.  When 
simply  expressed  it  is  called  "  sweet,"  that  is,  sweet  liquor.  It 
is  not  drunk  in  that  state,  nor  regarded  as  fit  for  use,  any  more 
than  new,  unsettled  cider  at  the  press  in  America.*  f  Nor  is  it 
called  wine  till  it  is  fermented.  A  second  and  very  extensive  use 
of  the  juice  of  the  grape  is  the  syrup,  made  from  boiling  it  from 
this  sweet  state,  which  resembles  our  molasses,  and  is  used  in  the 
same  way  for  sweetening,  but  is  never  used  as  a  drink.  This  is, 
in  fact,  neither  more  nor  less  than  oriental  molasses.  The  third 
use  of  the  juice  of  the  grape  is  the  distillation  of  it  into  arrack, 
or  Asiatic  brandy.  The  wines  of  Persia  are,  in  general,  inuch 
lighter  than  those  of  Europe,  but  they  are  still  always  intoxicat- 
ing. Rev.  Benjamin  Labaree,  Jun.,  writes  to  his  father.  Dr.  La- 
baree,  late  President  of  Middlebury  College,  after  a  residence  of 
seven  years  as  a  missionary  among  the  Nestorians  :  "  With  the 
most  careful  inquiries  I  have  been  unable  to  learn  that  any  wine 
is  ever  manufactured  in  the  country  which  is  not  intoxicating. 
The  various  kinds  made  differ  more  or  less  in  their  intoxicating 
powers,  but  all  are  fermented,  and  all,  sooner  or  later,  produce 
the  same  effect.  The  simple  unfermented  juice  of  the  grape  is 
never  used  as  a  beverage.  The  very  Syriac  word  chemrOy  by  its 
etymology,  signifies  fermented."  Dr.  feli  Smith,  long  a  resident 
in  Syria,  and  to  whom  "Robinson's  Biblical  Researches"  are 
largely  indebted  for  their  minute  and  accurate  information,  gives 
an  account  of  the  wineS  of  Mount  Lebanon  in  the  Bibliotheca 
Sacra,  in  which  he  says  :  "  The  methods  of  making  wine  in  Leb- 
anon may  be  reduced  to  three  :  (a)  The  must  is  fermented  with- 
out desiccation  or  boiling.  Little  is  made  in  this  way,  and,  ex- 
^  cept  in  cool  localities,  it  does  not  keep  well,  though  possessing 
*  rather  strong  intoxicating  powers,  {b)  The  must  is  boiled  down 
about  four  or  five  per  cent,  and  then  fermented,  (c)  The  grapes 
are  dried  in  the  sun  from  four  to  five  days,  till  the  stems  are 
dry ;  they  are  then  pressed,  and  must,  skins,  stems,  and  all  are 
put  into  open  jars  to  ferment  about  a  month.     This  wine  keeps 

*  Is  it  trae  that  new  cider  is  not  considered  fit  for  use  in  America  ?  We  sus- 
pect that  thousands  would  drink  no  other. — Ed. 

f  This  use  of  the  word  cider  has  scarcely  a  warrant  in  the  present  popular  use 
of  the  term  among  us,  but  it  was  not  so  originally  understood.  Dr.  A.  Clarke,  in 
his  conunent  on  Lev.  z,  9,  says :  "  From  the  original  word,  probably,  we  have  bor- 
rowed our  term  cuUtj  or  tider^  which  among  us  exduaively  signifies  the  fermented 
juice  of  applet^    So  also  M'Clintock  A  Strong,  Encyclo.,  Art  ''  Wine,''  Div.  Faym. 

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1881J  The  Elements  of  tJie  Lord's  Supper.  703 

better,  and  will  sometimes  burn,  but  it  is  only  about  one  third  of 
the  weight  of  the  grapes  that  are  used  in  making  it.  The  best 
wines  yield  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  what  is  called  good  brandy. 
Wines  are  never  enforced  with  brandy,  but  unintoxicating  wines 
I  have  not  been  able  to  hear  of.  All  wines,  they  say,  intoxicate 
more  or  less.  So,  when  inquiring  for  unfermented  wine,  I  have 
uniformly  been  met  with  a  stare  of  surprise.  TThe  very  idea  seems 
to  be  regarded  as  an  absurdity.  The  name  for  wine  in  Arabic, 
chemTy  "iDn  chemeTy  is  derived  irom  the  verb  to  ferment  I  have 
not  been  able  to  learn  that  any  process  is  ever  adopted  for  ar- 
resting vinous  fermentation  before  it  is  completed." 

Dr.  C.  V.  A.  Van  Dyck,  who  has  been  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  in  Syria,  says,  in  answer  to  Dr.  Laurie : 

In  reply  to  your  question  about  wine  for  communion  there  is 
not,  ana,  as  far  as  I  can  find  out,  never  was  (in  Syria)  any  thing 
like  what  has  been  called  unfermented  wine.  The  thing  is  not 
known  in  the  East.  Syrup  is  made  of  the  juice  of  the  grape,  and 
molasses,  as  you  know,  but  nothing  that  is  called  wine.  They 
have  no  unfermented  drinks  but  water  of  licorice  root.  Rai- 
sins are  sometimes  soaked  till  they  swell,  and  are  then  eaten  and 
the  water  drank  ;  but  it  is  never  called  wine  or  supposed  to  be 
related  to  wine.  In  Syria,  and,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  in  all  the 
East,  there  is  no  wine  preserved  unfermented,  and  they  never 
make  wine  of  raisins,  but  they  do  make  ^21,  dibs,  or  molasses, 
of  raisins,  and  they  ferment  them  and  make  arrack  of  them,  (by 
distillation,)  but  they  could  not  keep  grape  juice  or  raisin  water 
UT^ermented  if  they  wovM.  It  would  become  either  wine  or  vin- 
egar in  a  few  days,  or  go  into  putrefactive  fermentation.  At  the 
passover  only  fermented  wine  is  used  ;  as  I  have  said  before, 
there  is  no  other,  and,  therefore,  thev  have  no  idea  of  any  other. 
From  the  above  you  can  easily  infer  my  judgment  as  to  the 
proper  wine  for  the  sacrament.  The  same  as  the  blessed  Saviour 
used  when  he  instituted  the  ordinance,  namely,  the  juice  of  the 
grape  so  fermented  as  to  be  capable  of  producing  mtoxication  ^ 
when  taken  in  sufficient  quantity.  The  wmes  of  the  East  differ 
in  the  percentage  of  alcohol  which  they  contain,  but  all  the  va- 
rious kinds  are  used  by  the  native  Churches  and  by  the  Jews. 
They  take  that  which  chances  to  be  at  hand,  just  as  the  Saviour 
took  that  which  was  at  hand  at  the  passover. — BiNiotheca  Sacra, 
Jan.,  1869. . 

Thomas  M'Mnllen,  in  his  "  Hand-Book  of  Wines,"  says  in 
relation  to  "rfiJ«;" 

This  compound  originated  in  the  prohibition  placed  upon  the 
use  of  fermented  and  intoxicating  liquors  by  the  Mohammedan 
religion.     The  grape  juice^  therefore,  instead  of  being  converted 

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704  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [October, 

into  wine,  is  chiefly  boiled  down  to  a  syrup,  which,  under  the 
name  of  "  dibs,"  is  much  used  in  the  East  by  all  classes,  where 
there  are  vineyards,  as  a  condiment  with  their  food.  The  grape 
juice  is  put  into  large  boilers  and  reduced  to  one  half  or  possi- 
bly one  third  of  the  original  quantity.  It  is  then  removed  to 
large  earthen  jars  and  subjected  to  a  process  not  unlike  churn- 
ing, which  is  repeated  for  a  few  days  until  it  thickens.  When 
properly  churned  or  beaten  but  little  separation  of  the  particles 
takes  place.  It  is  represented  to  be  a  pleasant  article  for  table  uae, 
and  decidedly  preferable  to  molasses.  The  name  "dibs,"  by  which 
it  is  known  in  the  East,  is  said  to  be  the  same  as  the  original 
Hebrew  word  which  in  many  passages  of  Scripture  is  rendered 
honey.— P.  146. 

In  reference  to  "  boiled  wines  "  he  says  : 

The  must  is  placed  over  a  clear  fire,  with  as  little  smoke  as 
possible.  The  wine  must  be  boiled  until  it  is  reduced  to  one 
third  of  its  original  quantity.  It  is  then  skimmed  and  poured 
into  clean  wooden  vessels  to  remain  until  cool,  after  which  it  is 
to  be  barreled  up  close.  This  wine  is  very  pleasant  to  the  taste, 
of  a  deep  amber  color,  delicate,  and  generates.  Boiling  is  also 
adopted  to  make  new  wine  have  the  appearance  of  old.  For  this 
purpose  it  is  raised  in  temperature  close  to  the  boiling  point, 
oarreled  and  bunged  up  directly,  and  in  three  months  it  is  found 
possessed  of  the  character  of  wine  kept  for  some  years. — P.  148. 

Dr.  Jahn  (in  Bib.  ArchoB.)  says : 

Wine,  although  very  rich  in  Eastern  climates,  was  sometimes 
mixed  with  spices,  especially  myrrh,  and  this  mixture  was  named 
from  a  Hebrew  word  which  signifies  mixed.  This  word,  namely, 
i)VlO,  mahul^  means  also  a  wine  diluted  with  water,  which  was 
given  to  the  buyer  instead  of  good  wine,  and  was,  consequently, 
used  figuratively  for  any  kind  of  adulteration.  Wine  in  the 
East  was  frequently  diluted  after  it  was  bought.  There  is  a  sort 
of  wine  called  13??,  shekar^  oiKsga,  sikera,  or  strong  drink.  It 
was  made  of  dates  and  of  various  seeds  and  roots,  and  was  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  occasion  intoxication.  It  was  drank  mixed 
with  water.  From  the  pure  wine  and  " sikera^^  there  was  made 
an  artificial  beverage  yon,  hometSy  which  was  taken  at  meals  with 
vegetables  and  bread.  Ruth  ii,  14.  It  was  also  a  common  drmk, 
(Num.  vi,  3,)  and  was  used  by  the  Roman  soldiers.  Further, 
there  is  a  wine  called  by  the  Talmudists  vinegar,  whence  the 
passage  in  Matt,  xxviii,  34,  may  be  explained. 

Dr.  Clarke  says,  (Commentary,  Prov.  ix,  5 ;  Isa.  i,  22 :) 

Among  the  ancient  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Romans  wine  was  rarely 
drank  without  being  mingled  with  water ;  and  among  ancient 
writers  we  find  several  ordinances  for  this.    Some  direct  three 


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1881.]  The  Elements  of  the  Lord^s  Supper.  705 

parts  of  water  to  one  of  wine ;  some  five  parts  ;  and  Pliny  men- 
tions some  wines  that  required  twenty  waters ;  but  the  most 
common  proportions  appear  to  have  been  three  parts  of  water  to 
two  of  wine.  It  is  remarkable  that  whereas  the  Greeks  and  Latins 
by  mixed  wine  always  understood  wine  diluted  and  lowered  with 
water,  the  Hebrews,  on  the  contrary,  mean  by  it  a  wine  m^de 
stronger  and  more  inebriating  by  the  addition  of  higher  and  more 
powerful  ingredients,  such  as  honeys  spices,  defrutum,  (or  wine 
inspissated  by  boiling  it  down  to  two  thirds  or  one  half  the  quan- 
tity,) myrrh,  mandragora,  opiates,  and  other  strong  drugs.  This 
IPP  f- >  y^y^  m^aaachy  mingled  wine,  however,  was  not  permissi- 
ble in  the  sacrifice^  nor  would  our  Saviour  receive  this  drink- 
offering  when  offering  up  himself  as  a  sacrifice  for  us  ;  but  that 
the  paschal  wine  was  mmgled  with  water  seems  very  probable 
from  the  directions  to  be  found  in  the  MiahnA  in  relation  to  a 
pan  to  be  used  for  the  warming  of  water. 

In  alluding  to  the  various  sacrifices,  offerings,  and  oblations, 
Dr.  Clarke,  on  Lev.  vii,  says  of  IDD,  mesech^  and  1DD»,  mimr 
sachy  that  "  it  is  a  mixture-offering,  or  mixed  libation^  called  a 
dHnk-oS.e,rmg^  Isa.  Iv,  11,  from  IDD,  masach^  to  mingle;  it 
seems  in  general  to  mean  old  wine  mixed  with  the  lees,  which 
made  it  extremely  intoxicating.  This  offering  does  not  appear 
to  have  had  any  place  in  the  worship  of  the  true  God ;  but, 
from  Isa.  Ixv,  11,  and  Pro  v.  xxiii,  30,  it  seems  to  have  been 
used  for  idolatrous  purposes,  such  as  the  Bacchanalia  among 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  *  when  all  got  drunk  in  honor  of  the 
god.'  "  103,  nesechy  libation  or  drink-offering  from  HDJ,  no- 
sach,  to  diffuse  or  pour  out,  consisted  of  water  or  wine  poured 
out  at  the  conclusion  or  confirmation  of  a  treaty  or  covenant. 
To  this  kind  of  offering  thei'e  is  frequent  allusion  and  reference 
in  the  New  Testament,  as  it  typijied  the  hlood  of  Christ  pow^  ed 
out  for  the  sin  of  the  world ;  and  to  this  our  Lord  himself  al- 
ludes in  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist.  In  this  libation,  as  I 
have  already  shown,  t!,  yayin,  or  "iS??,  sheka/r,  were  used  by 
special  divine  command.  This  wine  seems  to  have  been  mixed 
with  water  in  the  paschal  solemnities,  and  in  all  probability  was 
so  diluted  in  the  "  cup  of  blessing "  used  in  the  institution  of 
the  Lord's  Supper. 

Calmet  says,  "The  wines  of  Palestine  being  heady,  they 
used  to  qualify  them  with  water  that  they  might  be  drank 
without  inconvenience.  Prov.  ix,  2,  5."  The  word  must,  from 
the  Latin  mustum^  seems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  same 


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706  Methodist  Qtiarterlt/  Review.  [October, 

word  which  is  used  to  designate  the  urdea/oened  bread  of  the 
Passover,  namely,  matsothy. from  the  root  Y^ymats^  to  press 
or  squeeze  out,  in  general  separatej  or  from  »WBto,  fnistehy 
a  drink,  or  a  banquet.  See  Esther  v,  4 ;  vii,  2,  8  ;  Dan.  i,  10  ; 
Ezra  iii,  7.  Since  this  word  was  used  to  designcUe  unlewoened 
hready  and  might  with  equal  appropriateness  have  been  applied 
to  the  wine,  if  there  was  iJie  same  restriction  to  the  loiney  it 
seenis  to  me  that  it  would  haA)e  been  so  applied.* 

r  y(^yi'>^y  as  Dr.  Lees  admits,  ("  Preliminary  Dissertation,*') 
"  was  also  applied  to  every  species  oi  fermented  grape  juice ; " 
but  adds :  "  Yayiriy  then,  being  accepted  as  a  general  term,  it 
would  follow  that  we  should  expect,  as  time  went  on,  that 
specific  terms  would  be  adopted  to  designate  special  kinds  or 
states  of  wine,  and  this  is  exactly  what  we  find  to  be  the  case 
in  the  later  books."  Just  so,  but  in  a  case  of  such  vital  impor- 
tance the  divine  sanction  in  the  sacrificial  oflEerings  would  be 
most  carefully  guarded  if  Dr.  Lees'  position  was  tenable,  in- 
stead of  which  yayin  and  sheTcar  are  used  interchangeably  in 
the  wording  of  the  divine  command  instituting  the  sacrifice. 
Gesenius,  in  defining  H!,  yo^yi^y  says :  1.  WinCy  so  called  from 
\i%  fermenting y  effervescing;  as  ^»n,  chemery  from  "^Dn,  cha- 
mar.  2.  Meton.,  of  cause  for  effect,  wine  for  drunkenness^ 
intoxication.  Gen.  ix,  24 ;  1  Sam.  i,  14 ;  xxv,  37.  Parkhurst 
says :  n3\  to  presSy  squeezCy  oppresSy  depresSy  (see  root  W  with 
mutable  n,)  as  a  P,  winCy  which  is  made  by  squeezing  the 
grapes,  the  expressed  juice  of  grapes,  (to  be  understood  as  wine, 
as  in  fourteen  quoted  languages.)  Davidson  says :  T!,  yciyi^y 
from  IVj  yavany  root  not  used  ;  to  which  is  ascribed  the  signifi- 
cation of  heat  and  fermentation. 

Leigh  says  of  its  Chaldee  equivalent,  (in  Critica  Sacra,)  "ipn, 
chamary  TurhiduSy  lutulenticSy  turhatuSy  conturhatuSy  commo- 
tuSy  commixtuSy  confusus  fuit.  (Wild,  confused,  disordered, 
thick,  turbid,  muddy,  confused,  disturbed,  excited,  intermin- 
gled, poured  together,  confounded,  bewildered.) 

Clement  C.  Moore  derives  f!  from  np;,  yanahy  to  press,  as 
Castell,  who  says :  C,  vinumy  a  n^^,  torpuity  (to  grow  numb, 

*  According  to  Maimonides  and  all  the  Rabbins,  **  the  juice  of  fruits  does  not 
leaven,  but  purifies,  and  the  ^eheroaet^  itself  was  made  of  the  palm-tree  branches, 
or  of  raisins,  or  other  like  berries ;  which  they  stamped,  and  put  vhuyar  thereto,*' 
etc.    See  Maimonides  on  leaven,  s.  ii. 


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1881.]  Ths  ElemenU  of  the  Lord 's  Sujpper.  707 

become  torpid  or  st/wp^fied^)  ortum  a  nr,  ohtorpuUy  aorrmolentus 
fuit,  qnod  torpidos  vinum  largius  justo  haustum  facit  et  som- 
nolentos.  (Benumbs,  stupefies,  makes  sleepy,  because  larger 
draughts  of  wine  than  suitable  or  "proper  stupefy  the  drinkers 
and  make  them  slumber.)  Michaelis,  in  Comment.,  says :  *  njj, 
yanahy  torpuit,  enervavit,  oppressit,  perdidit.  Verbum  in  op- 
promendi^  irt^uriceqiujB,  ac  violentioB  significatione  notissimum, 
quod  Syris  prorsus  periit,  habent  Arabes  sub  Lf^  ^ ,  torpuit, 
unde  vino  nomen  ductum  esse,  supra  sub  H!  conjecimus.  Ab 
quomodo  huic  Hebraica  verbi  Hi^n  in  Hiphil  notis,  fluxerit,  non 
satis  liguet ;  conjecturse  licentia  se  detur,  conferenda  quarta 
Arabum  conjugatio,  in  qua  i^-J  5  I ,  est,  debilitcwity  defatiga- 
vity  unde  dicta  oppressio,  etc.  •• 

Buxtorf  says :  f  H!,  vinum.  Vinum  laetificat  cor  hominis, 
Psa.  civ,  15  ;  vino  errant,  les.  xxviii,  7 ;  vinum  convivii  ipso- 
rum,  Dan.  i,  16 ;  bibe  animo  hilari  vinum  tuum,  Eccles.  ix,  7. 

Simonis  says :  ^  DJ,  rad,  inusit,  cujus  nullum  in  dialectis  vestig- 
ium sed  videtur  inde,  RJ  et  p!  orriri,  quemadmodum  "ion  et  "ipn 
(ipn)  ex  uno  fonte  profluent ;  which  root,  namely,  yavan,  iv, 
Gesenius  says,  means  to  boil  up,  to  be  in  a  ferment. 

n^  vinum,  §  Gen.  xix,  32-34 ;  Lev.  x,  9 ;  Num.  vi,  3,  etc. 
Metonym.  de  crapvla.  Gen.  ix,  24 ;  1  Sam.  i,  14,  etc.,  etc. 

Gibbs  says :  [  H^j  y^i'i^ :  intoxication,  and  Arius  Montan.,  in 
Sac.  Ajpp.,  of  T\y,  sicut  vinum  inehrians,  a  P,  id  est  vinum.  ^ 

*  "  It  stupefies,  enervates,  oppresses,  destroys.  A  word  which  especially  has  the 
signification  of  oppressing,  doing  violence,  and  working  injury,  which  the  Syrians 
generally  render  to  destroy^  and  the  Arabs  have  interpreted  by  the  word  wanehy 
to  stupefy^  whence  the  word  mtie  is  to  be  derived,  as  we  have  remarked  under  the 
word  yayin.  Although  the  meaning  of  the  word  *  honah  *  in  Hiphil  is  not  suffi- 
ciently clear  in  itself,  by  a  comparison  with  the  fourth  Arabic  conjugation,  the 
word  Ooneh  is  found,  which  signifies  *  it  has  debilitated,  it  has  weariedy^  whence 
the  word  oppression." 

f  Tayifij  **wine  which  delights  the  heart  of  man."  Psa.  civ,  16.  "They  erred 
by  wine."  Isa.  xxviii,  7.  "  The  wine  of  their  feasts,"  or,  as  in  our  version,  "  the 
wine  that  they  should  drink."  Dan.  1,  16.  "  Drink  thy  wine  with  a  merry  heart." 
Eccl.  ix,  7. 

I  Yavan,  root  unused,  of  which  there  is  no  trace  in  the  language ;  ("  a  common 
thing  in  Hebrew  lexicography,")  but  evidently  the  source  whence  yayin  and  yaven 
arise  in  the  same  manner  as  khomer  and  khemer  flow  from  the  one  source,  khamar. 

§  Yayin,  wine,  by  metonymy,  concerning  drunkenness. 

I  Yanak,  as  wine  that  makes  drunk,  that  is,  yayin,  or  wine. 

IT  Pliny  says :  "  De  vino :  Fervet  vinum  cum  ex  musto  in  vinum  transit"  The 
vine  boils  up  when  it  passes  from  must  into  wine. 


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708  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

Having  thus  briefly  examined  the  authorities  at  hand  in  ref- 
erence to  yayin^*  let  us  see  what  is  said  about  ehekar. 

In  the  consideration  of  the  word  "OB^,  Dr.  Lees,  in  his  "Pre- 
liminary Dissertation,"  in  trying  to  maintain  the  definition  he 
gives,  " %acch(hrvne  drink^^  quotes  himself,  because,  I  suppose, 
there  was  nobody  else  to  quote,  and  intimates  that  Dr.  Fuerst 
is  the  only  lexicographer  to  combat  on  his  position.  Gesenioa 
says :  "  "tDK^,  ahekar^  temetum^  strong  drink^  any  intoxiccUing 
liquor,  whether  wine,  (Num.  xxviii,  7,)  or  an  intoxicating  drink 
resembling  wine,  prepared  or  distilled  from  barley,  from  honey, 

or  from  dates.    Arab.    *|Aaw,  eikkar^  wine  prepared  from 

dried  grapes  and  dates."  Parkhurst  says,  "  intoxicating  or  w- 
ehriating  liquor  in  general,  sicera.  It  is  once  used  for  wine^ 
(Num.  xxviii,  7 ;  comp.  Exod.  xxix,  40,)  but  most  commonly  for 
a7iy  inebriating  liquor  beside  wine.  So  AqvMay  SymmachuSy 
and  Tkeodotion  render  it  in  Isa.  xxviii,  7,  by  methusma  fie- 
^vcfm.  Lev.x,9;  Num.vi,3;  andalfreq.  Jeromeym EpiM. ad 
Nepotixmmn  de  vita  Clericorum^  and  in  Isa.  xxviii,  1,  informs 
us  that  in  Hebrew  any  inebriating  liquor  is  called  siceraP 
Davidson  says  :  Shekar^  strong^  intoxicating  drinky  from  "O^. 
1.  To  drink  to  the  fully  drink  to  hilarity,  2.  To  be  intoxicated  : 
Metaph.,  to  be  giddy,  Bi.  and  Hiph.,  to  make  drunken,  Hith. 
p.,  to  act  like  one  drunkenP  Leigh,  in  Critica  Sacra,f  says : 
"  "vpS^j  Sicera  omnis  potus  inebrians  vel  sitim  expleus  etiam  vi- 
num.  Sed  quando  vino  jemgitur  notat  vinum  factitium  ex  po- 
rn is  aut  aliis  fructibus :  aut  etiam  hordeo.  Lev.  x,  9.  Shekar 
is  all  manner  of  strong  drink  which  will  make  drunken.  The 
Greek  turneth  it  wine,  Psa.  Ixviii,  15,  and  Prov.  xxxi,  4." 
Castell  says:  J  ^^ Sicera  inebrians  potvSy  vid.  Chald.,  Lev.  x,  9, 
etc.,  et  vinum  vetuSy  vid.  Onkelos,  Jonathan.  Num.  vi,  3; 
cap.  xxviii,  7 ;  Dent,  xiv,  26  ;  Aben.  Esr.  i ;  Eeg.  xvi,  9 ;  Syr. 
Cum.  Eccl.  xxxi,  28  ;  Syr.  St.  Luc.  v,  39,  etc.,  etc."  Michaelis 
says :  §  "Jam  atiam  locis  Mosaicis  qu8B  ^'^  et  Tt  conjungunt,  ut 

*So  Avernarius,  Oalasius,  Hasselbauer,  Cocceius,  Stockius,  Castell,  Schindler.  etc 

f  Sicera,  all  intoxicating  drinks,  either  satisfying  thirst  or  wine,  but  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  this  wine  comprehends  all  factitious  wines  from  fruits  grown  on  trees 
and  other  fruits,  and  likewise  that  from  grain. 

X  "  Sicera  is  an  inebriating  drink,  etc.,  and  old  wine.** 

§  "  Now  likewise  in  the  places  in  the  books  of  Moses  in  which  tthekar  and 
yayin  are  joined  together,  as  in  Lev,  x,  9 ;  Num.  vi,  8,  is  to  be  understood  with 


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1881 J  The  Elements  of  the  Lord  h  Supper.  709 

Lev.  Xj  9 ;  Num.  vi,  3.  Cerevieiam  cogitnndum  esse  vix  du- 
bitim,  quid  enim  veri  similins  quam  Mosen  a  potai  inehriante 
interdicturum  populo  in  -^gypto  cerevisisB  adsueto,  hanc  sub 
13?^  intellexisse.  Accedit  quod  ita  intellexerunt  Kabbini." 
Buxtorf  says,*  "'9?^)  inetynatwuni^  vnebricuns  potus^  qui  Greecis^ 
hinc  vocatus  tjiicipa,  Latinis,  dcera?^  "  Aben  Esra  scribit  senter, 
xiv,  e&&ei  potumfortem  factitium,  ex  melle  et  dactylis,  aut  tro- 
tico  et  hordeo."  Gibbs  has,  Sheka/r^  strong  or  intoxicating 
drink ^  Moore,  ei/rong  drink^  strong  wine;  and  Anus  Mon- 
tanus  saySjt  "-£15  ah  inebriando  vinum  13^  sechar  vacatur  In- 
ebriatiuum  :  Isaise  v,  11.  Tha/rg.^  Vinum  yetus,  etc..  Lev.  x,  8, 
ubi  "138^  comprehendit  quicquid  inebriate  praster  vinumP 
Verily,  Dr.  Fuerst  stands  in  a  goodly  company.  I  know  of  no 
lexicographer  who  differs  from  these  definitions  in  the  main. 
Tirosh  now  remains  to  be  examined. 

Dr.  Lees  says  that  "  B^'i^n,  tirosh^  is  not  ^  wine '  at  all,  but 
*  the  fruit  of  the  vineyard '  in  its  natural  condition,"  namely^ 
grapes.  Grapes  could  not  he  drunk  at  the  paschal  supper^  so 
Dr.  Lees  would  vote  tirosh  out  altogether.  But,  in  order  to 
hold  his  position,  he  says  that  "  nothing  but  a  foregone  con- 
clusion, fostered  by  the  mistranslation  of  ancient  and  modem 
versions — versions  which  traditionally  sustain  and  deceive  each 
other— could  have  hindered  scholars  from  perceiving  the  true 
sense  of  this  word.  Neither  versions  nor  lexicons,  however^ 
have  been  consistent."  It  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  this 
word  should  be  considered  in  reference  to  the  paschal  supper, 
but  if  tirosh  meant  the  vintage  of  the  current  year,  it  might 
have  been,  and  perhaps  partially  was,  used  in  these  solemnities. 
Yayin,  apparently,  covers  the  whole  ground,  as  tirosh  was 
yayin  and  yayin  might  be,  and  frequently  was,  shekar.  In 
other  words,  the  vintage  of  the  current  year  was  wine^  and 

scarcely  a  doubt,  the  liquor  of  cereals,  such  as  ale,  beer,  because  the  command  was 
Similar  to  the  interdiction  placed  by  Moses  upon  an  inloxicating  drink  made  of 
cereals,  to  which  the  people  in  Egypt  were  accustomed,  which  was  known  by  the 
term  shekar.    Moreover,  this  was  so  understood  by  the  Rabbms." 

*  "  ShekaVy  that  which  makes  drunk,  an  intoxicating  drink,  which  the  Greeks 
call  sikera^  and  the  Latins  tieera,  Aben  Ezra  writes,  Dent,  xiy,  that  it  is  a  strong 
factitious  drink  made  from  honey  and  raisins,  or  wheat  and  barley." 

f  "And  from  intoxicating  wine,  sechar  is  called  that  which  inebriates.  Isa.  v,  11. 
Targum,  *  old  wine,'  and  Ley.  x,  8,  where  shekar  comprehends  whatever  intoxicates 
beside  wine." 


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I  710  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Eeview.  [October, 

I  vdne  was  strong  drink.    This  seems  to  be  sufficiently  clear, 


but  the  maintainance  of  this  is  not  necessary  to  my  position, 
which  is  that  the  wines  in  common  use  in  Judea  could  and  did 
intoxicate,  and  that  such  wines  were  used  for  libations  at  the 
altar  of  sacrilices  with  the  sanction  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and, 
in  all  probability,  were  used  in  the  paschal  solemnities  and  at 
the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  But  let  us  consider  what 
these  recalcitrant  scholars  say  of  tiroah. 

Gesenius  says :  "  cn*!^]!,  tirosh^  (*•»  Bh^,)  new  wine^  so  called  {i,e.y 
tirosh)  because  it  gets  ^possession  of  the  brainy  and  inebriates^ 
— Com.  Syr.  Meritho.  Chald.  nn^D,  merathy  id,  Hosea  iv,  11, 
etc.,  etc.  (All  the  passages  go  to  show  that  tirosh  is  Tiew  wine 
of  the  first  year,  the  wine  crop  or  vintage  of  the  season  ;  and 
hence  it  is  mostly  coupled  with  wine  and  oil  as  a  product  of 
the  land.  That  it  was  regarded  as  intoxicating  is  shown  by 
Ilosea  iv,  11,  as  above.) 

Parkliui-st  says :  "  New  wine,  so  called  (namely,  tirosh)  from 
its  strongly  intoxicating  quality,  by  which  it  does,  as  it  were, 
take  possession  of  a  man,  and  drive  him  out  of  himself,  accord- 
ing to  that  of  Hosea  iv,  11.  Corap.  the  following  verse  and 
Isa.  xxviii,  7,  and  observe  that  in  the  text  just  cited  from  Ho- 
sea, LXX  render  ti/rosh  by  fjsdvaiMy  methvsmay  drunkenness; 
so  Vulgate,  by  ebrietasP  Davidson  likewise  derives  tirosh  from 
Ch^,  with  same  signification.  Leigh  says :  *  "  Tirosh^  mustunby 
sic  dictum  quod  potum  hominem  facilime  possideat  et  occupat 
mentemque,  e  rect4  su4  sede  expellat."  Castell  says :  "  Tirosh^ 
rrmstuniy  Num.  xviii,  12.  Liquor  uvarum  primum  expressus : 
quod  mentem  hominis facile possidet.  Sanhedr.  LXX,  1 ;  Isma, 
Ixxvi,  2."  Simonissays:  ^^Tiroshymvstum.  Gen.  xxvii,  28,37; 
Num.  xviii,  12 ;  Deut.  xxviii,  51 ;  Hosea  ii,  11 ;  Jes.  Ixv,  8. 
Syr.  merithoy  sic  dictum,  quod  se  possessorem  hominis  facit, 
ejus  cerebrum  occupamdoj  ut  ille  non  amplius  sui  compos  sit, 
sec.  illud,  Hosea  iv,  11,  etc.,  etc."  Buxtorf  says :  ^^Tirosh^  mus- 
turriy  sed  dictum,  quod  potem,  h/yminem  fa^Uime  possideat  et 

*  "  Tirosh,  mustum,  so  called,  because  it  most  easily  seizes  and  occupies  the 
mind  of  man,  and  expels  it  from  its  rightful  throne.  Castell  says :  '  The  liquor 
first  expressed  from  the  grape  which  easily  possesses  the  mind  of  men.*  Simonis 
says :  *  Tirosh,  mustum.  Syriac  meritho,  so  called,  because  it  takes  possession  of 
man,  seizing  his  brain,  so  that  he  is  not  fully  of  sound  mind.*  Buxtorf  says .  *  Ti- 
rosh, must,  so  called,  because  it  is  a  drink  which  most  easily  seizes  and  holds  men, 
and  expels  reason  from  her  rightful  throne.*  ** 


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1881.]  Ths  Elemmts  of  tJie  Lord^s  Supper.  711 

occupetj  mentemqiie  e  recta  aica  aede  expeUcU.^^    But  it  is  need- 
less to  multiply  authorities  on  this  point. 

The  use  of  mixed  wine  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  by 
Pope  Alexander  I.  It  was  expressly  enacted  in  the  twelfth 
century  by  Clement  III.  As  early  as  the  third  century  a  sect 
called  the  Aquarii  refused  to  offer  any  thing  but  water  at  the 
Eucharist,  (Epiph.  et  Theod.,  likewise  Bingham,  Orig.  EccL,  bk. 
XV,  chap,  xi,  §  7.)  The  Manichseans  also  abstained  wholly  from 
•wine.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  these  were  strongly  opposed 
by  the  teachers  of  all  other  parties.  Pope  Gelasius  I.,  of  the 
fifth  century,  called  their  practice  "  grwnde  aacrilegium.^'*  In 
M'Clintock  &  Strong's  "  Encyclopedia  "  the  following  observa- 
tions are  made  on  this  subject :  "  The  question  as  to  whether 
the  wine  originally  used  in  the  Lord's  Supper  was  fermented 
or  not  would  seem  to  be  a  futile  one  in  view  of  the  fact, 
1.  That  the  unfermented  juice  of  the  grape  can  hardly  with 
propriety  be  called  wmeKi  all.  2.  That  fermented  wine  is  of 
almost  universal  use  in  the  East ;  and,  3.  That  it  has  invariably 
been  employed  for  this  purpose  in  the  Church  of  all  ages  and 
countries.  But  for  the  excessive  zeal  of  certain  modern  well- 
meaning  reformers,  the  idea  that  our  Lord  used  any  other  would 
hardly  have  gained  the  least  currency."  Pococke  says,  in  his 
"  Travels  in  Egypt,'*  art.  "  The  Religion  of  the  Copts  :"  "  In 
the  Catholic  Churches  they  must  use  wine,  but  in  the  others 
they  use  what  they  call  zebib  .  .  .  Zebib  is  a  sort  of  raisin 
wine.  They  put  five  rotolas  of  new  grapes  to  five  of  water,  or 
more  grapes  are  used  if  they  are  older.  It  is  left  to  steep  seven 
days  in  winter  and  four  in  summer.  The  deacons  strain  it 
through  two  bags,  one  after  another,  to  make  it  fine.  This 
keeps  seven  years,  and  tastes  like  a  sweet  wine  that  is  turned  a 
little  sour.  They  keep  the  zebib  in  a  jar,  and  cover  it  closely  so 
that  no  wind  can  come  to  it."  According  to  the  canons  of  the 
Coptic  Church  no  other  wine  but  the  clear  unadulterated  juice 
of  the  grape  can  be  used  for  the  Eucharist.  So  particular  are 
they  on  this  point  that  they  will  permit  none  to  prepare  it  but 
the  ministers  of  the  altar.  The  grapes  are  picked  with  great 
care,  are  bruised  between  the  hands  instead  of  being  trodden 
under  foot,  and  no  one  is  permitted  to  touch  them  until  the 
altar  wine  has  been  set  aside.  (See  Eenaudot,  vol.  i,  pp.  176, 
177.)    The  Copts  will  not  celebrate  the  sacrament  with  wine 


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712  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

which  has  been  purchased  in  a  store,  for  the  reason  that  it  may 
not  be  pure.  {Ibid.)  The  impure  compounds  which  some- 
times find  their  way  to  our  sacramental  tables  through  the  care- 
lessness of  the  oflScials  whose  duty  it  is  to  procure  the  wine  for 
that  service  are  a  sad  commentary  upon  the  estimation  in  which 
that  holy  ordinance  is  held. 

I  will  now  briefly  consider  the  bread  to  be  used.  Lord  King, 
in  his  treatise  on  "  The  Primitive  Church,"  says  :  "  In  some 
places,  as  in  France  and  Africa,  the  communicants  first  made 
their  offerings,  presenting,  according  to  their  ability,  bread  or 
wine^  or  the  like,  as  the  first-fruits  of  their  increase."  "  It 
being  our  duty,"  as  Iren»us  writes,  "  to  offer  unto  God  the  first- 
fruits  of  his  creatures,  as  Moses  saith,  *  Thou  shalt  not  appear 
empty  before  the  Lord.'  "  "  Not  as  if  God  wanted  these  things, 
but  to  show  our  f niitfulness  and  gratitude  unto  him."  Where- 
fore Cyprian  thus  severely  blamed  the  rich  matrons  for  their 
scanty  oblation.  "  Thou  art  rich  and  wealthy,"  saith  he,  "  and 
dost  thou  think  duly  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  when  thou 
ref usest  to  give  ?  Thou  who  comest  to  the  sacrament  without 
'  a  sacrifice,  what  part  canst  thou  have  from  the  sacrifice  which 
the  poor  offer  up  ? "  These  offerings  were  employed  to  the 
relfef  of  the  poor  and  other  uses  of  the  Church  ;  and  it  seems 
probahle  that  a  sufficient  qv/juntity  of  that  bread  and  wine  was 
preservted  to  the  Bishop^  or  to  him  that  offi^ciated^  to  be  employed 
for  the  sacramental  elements^  Perhaps  no  question  has  given 
rise  to  warmer  dispute  than  that  which  touches  the  use  of  160/0* 
ened  or  unlean)ened  bread  in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. Cardinal  Bona  tells  us  that  the  use  of  leavened  and  un- 
leavened bread  was  common  in  the  Latin  Church  until  the  be- 
ginning of  the  tenth  century,  when  unleavened  bread  became  ob- 
ligatory on  all.  According  to  the  discipline  of  that  Church  the 
bread  must  be  made  of  (panis  triticeus)  wheat,  must  be  unleav- 
ened, must  be  mixed  with  water,  must  be  baked,  not  stewed, 
fried,  or  boiled.  It  is  commonly  held  in  that  Church  that 
when  the  Ebionite  heretics  taught  that  the  precepts  of  the 
ancient  law  were  binding  upon  Christian  people,  and  that,  in 
consequence,  the  Eucharist  could  not  be  celebrated  at  all  un- 
less the  bread  our  Lord  used,  namely,  urdeavened.  were  em- 
ployed, the  Church  also  sanctioned  the  use  of  leavened  bread 
to  confound  this  teaching,  and  that  this  remained  in  iorce  until 


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1881.1      •      The  MeramU  of  the  Ixyrd's  Supper.  713 

all  traces  of  the  Ebionites  had  died  away.  This  statement  has 
for  its  supporters  several  eminent  theologians,  among  whom 
are  Alexander  of  Hales,  Duns  Scotus,  Bonaventure,  Thomas 
Aquinas,  etc.  (See  Card.  Bona,  Rer,  Liturg.^  lib.  i,  cap.  xxiii, 
Kozma,  238  ;  Neale,  "  Holy  Eastern  Church ; "  "  On  tlie  Con- 
troversy Concerning  the  Azyones,"  vol.  ii.)  If  we  consider 
the  Lord's  Supper  as  part  of  the  Passover,  unleavened  bread 
was  certainly  used ;  if  as  a  common  meal  preceding  it,  then 
leavened  bread  was  employed.  The  Latin  Church  holds  to  the  . 
one  view,  the  Greek  to  the  other ;  but  both  hold  that  the  use 
of  either  is  more  a  matter  of  discipline  than  dogma.  The  an- 
cient Hebrews  had  several  ways  of  baking  bread.  They  often 
baked  it  under  the  ashesj  so  Abraham  served  the  three  angels. 
OteiL  xviii,  6.  Huggoth  signifies  loaves,  much  like  our  broad, 
thin  cakes,  which  are  baked  under  the  ashes,  or  upon  round 
copper  plates,  or  in  pans  or  stoves  made  for  the  purpose.  The 
Hebrews,  at  their  departure  out  of  Egypt,  made  some  of  these 
unleavened  loaves  for  their  journey.  Exodus  xii,  39.  Busbe- 
quius,  "  Constantinop.,"  p.  36,  says,  that  in  Bulgaria  this  sort  of 
loaves  is  still  very  common.  They  are  there  called  hugacea. 
As  soon  as  they  see  a  guest  coming  the  women  immediately 
make  these  unleavened  loaves,  which  are  baked  under  the  ashes. 
The  Hebrews  and  other  Eastern  people  have  an  oven  which 
they  call  taa/aour^  like  a  large  pitcher  of  gray  stone,  open  at  the 
top,  in  which  they  build  a  fire.  When  it  is  well  heated  they 
mix  the  flour  with  water  until  it  is  made  into  a  paste,  which  they 
apply  to  the  outside  of  the  oven,  which  bakes  it  in  an  instant, 
and  the  bread  is  removed  in  thin,  fine  wafers.  A  third  sort  of 
bread  used  among  the  people  of  the  East  is  baked  in  a  great 
pitcher  half  full  of  flint  stones,  on  which  they  cast  the  paste  in 
the  form  of  little  flat  cakes.  This  bread  is  white  and  smells 
well,  but  is  good  only  for  the  day  on  which  it  is  baked  unless 
there  be  leaven  mingled  with  it  to  preserve  it  longer.  This  is 
the  most  common  way  in  Palestine.  As  the  Hebrews  generally 
made  their  bread  very  thin  and  in  the  form  of  little  flat  cakes 
or  wafers,  they  did  not  cut  it  with  a  knife,  but  broke  it ;  which 
gave  rise  to  that  expression  so  usual  in  Scripture  of  hreaking 
hread^  to  signify  eating,  sitting  down  to  table,  making  a  meal. 
And  so,  in  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist,  our  Saviour  broke 
the  bread  which  he  had  blessed.     In  the  Latin  Church  the  bread 

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Y14  Methodist  QuaHerly  Heview.  [October, 

is  baked  between  heated  irons,  npon  which  is  stamped  the  cru- 
cifixion, Agmis  dei^  or  a  simple  cross.  The  instrument  used 
for  this  purpose  somewhat  resembles  a  large  forceps  in  appear- 
ance. It  has  two  long  handles,  and  at  its  extremiti^  is  a  pair 
of  circular  heads,  one  overlapping  the  other.  After  this  in- 
strument has  been  sufficiently  heated  in  the  fire,  a  little  la/rd  or 
butter  is  rubbed  over  its  surface  to  keep  the  paste  from  adher- 
ing. A  thin  coating  of  this  paste  is  then  spread  over  the  sur- 
face of  the  under  disk,  and,  the  upper  one  being  allowed  to  rest 
on  it  a  moment  or  two,  it  is  taken  out  perfectly  baked.  The 
irons  are  then  separated,  and  the  bread  is  taken  out  and  trimmed 
for  use.  The  Greek  Church  is  very  particular  about  the  fabri- 
cation of  the  sacramental  bread.  Tl^ey  use  leavened  bread. 
The  flour  must  always  be  kept  in  the  church,  where  is  also  the 
oven  in  which  it  is  baked.  During  the  process  of  making  the 
bread  a  constant  chanting  of  psalms  is  kept  up.  The  bread  must 
be  new^freshj  and  pure^  nor  must  a  female  knead  it  or  bake  it. 
The  Syrian  bread,  called  xatha^  is  made  of  the  finest  and  purest 
flour,  and  is  tempered  with  water,  oil  of  olives,  salt,  and  leaven. 
The  preparation  of  it  is  carried  on  within  the  church  by  a  priest 
or  deacon.  The  bread  used  by  the  Greeks  is  peculiar.  It  is 
leavened,  in  form  is  round,  with  a  square  projection  in  the  cen- 
ter, which  is  cut  off  with  a  lance  prepared  for  the  purpose. 
When  the  priest  inserts  the  lance  on  the  right  side,  he  says, 
"  He  was  led  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter ; "  on  the  left,  "  And 
as  a  blameless  lamb  dumb  before  his  shearers,  he  opened  not 
his  mouth."  In  the  upper  part,  he  says,  "  In  his  humiliation 
his  judgment  was  taken  away  ; "  in  the  lower,  "  And  who  shall 
declare  his  generation  ?"  The  deacon  each  time  says,  "  Let  us 
make  our  supplications  to  the  Lord."  {Martens  de  Antiq. 
jEccI.  Sit.) 

The  most  probable  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  instituted  at  the  paschal  solemnities,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  proper  materials  to  be  used  in  its  celebration  are 
those  which  were  used  at  those  solemnities,  namely,  unleavened 
bread  and  wine,  not  hermetically  sealed  inspissated  grape  juice, 
but  genuine  wine  mingled  with  water.  Whether  the  Supper 
was  or  was  not  instituted  at  the  paschal  feast  will  only  affect 
the  character  of  the  bread  to  be  used.  The  wine  was  that  in 
common  use,  which  liad  been  tithed  and  wag  presentable  to  the 

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1881.1  The  Elements  cf  the  Lord'* a  Supper.  715 

Lord  of  Israel.  As  Jesus  did  not  institute  merely  eating  and 
dri/nking  as  the  memorial  service,  but  hroke  the  bread  after  he 
had  blessed  ity  and  gave  to  his  disciples,  saying,- "7%w  is  my 
body,"  or  a  memorial  of  it,  and  took  "  the  cup  of  blessing " 
(1  Cor.  X,  16)  and  said,  "  2%is  is  my  blood  of  the  new  testa- 
ment," we  ought  to  be  exceedingly  careful  how  we  touch  so 
sacred  an  institution,  or  tamper  with  the  materials  of  which  is 
built  the  monument  of  our  Saviour's  death ;  especially  since  he, 
in  his  last  will  and  testament,  gave  such  explicit  directions  for 
the  perpetuation  of  his  memory. . 


Abt.  vn.— the  revised  version  of  the  new 

TESTAMENT. 

The  time  has  not  come  for  a  complete  critical  estimate  of  the 
work  of  the  Revisers  of  the  New  Testament,  which  has  so 
recently  made  its  appearance.  The  labors  of  so  many  eminent 
Christian  scholars  for  ten  and  a  half  years  cannot  be  satisfac- 
torily examined  by  any  one  in  a  few  short  months.  The  best 
that  can  at  present  be  done  by  each  individual  in  reviewing 
their  work  is  to  consider  the  general  character  of  the  revision, 
and  to  discuss  such  passages  as  he  may  have  time  and  oppor- 
tunity to  examine.  The  scholarship  of  the  Revisers  is  unques- 
tioned, their  integrity  undoubted,  and  every  inducement  was 
before  them  to  make  this  revision  of  the  New  Testament  what 
it  was  expected  to  be,  the  representative  of  the  best  scholarship 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  No  one  will  venture  to  charge  them 
with  want  of  fidelity  or  with  unseemly  haste. 

It  is  proper,  however,  that  their  work  should  be  subjected  to 
a  rigid  criticism.  The  version  which  this  is  to  succeed  has 
been  before  the  world  for  two  hundred  and  seventy  years; 
and  it  is  no  small  proof  of  its  general  excellence  that  it 
has  endured  so  long.  It  has  deeply  impressed  itself  on  the 
language,  literature,  and  life  of  all  English-speaking  people ; 
its  choicest  passages  have  been  chanted  in  music  and  recited  in 
the  ritual  of  the  Church ;  it  has  been  read  in  the  hearing  of 
the  people  with  the  most  graceful  elocution  and  with  the  most 
wonderful  effect ;  the  very  form  and  the  order  of  the  words 


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716  Methodist  Qtcarterly  Beview.  [October, 

have  fallen  on  the  ears  like  sweetest  music ;  so  that  any  change, 
howeyer  slight,  jars  upon  them  like  some  strange  discord. 

In  our  criticism  of  the  Kevised  Version,  then,  it  is  not  wise 
to  lay  too  much  stress  on  the  rhythm  of  the  Old  Version,  since 
the  familiar  language  of  that  has  formed  the  taste  of  the  pres- 
ent generation.  Its  language  in  many  places,  no  doubt,  sounded 
very  strangely  to  those  who  first  heard  it;  and  when  years 
have  made  us  f amiHar  with  the  Kevision  it  may  be  as  hard  to 
receive  another  version  as  it  is  now  to  receive  this.  Every 
change  in  a  book  so  venerable  and  sacred  must  win  its  way  by 
slow  processes  into  the  affections  and  confidence  of  the  people. 

The  Kevised  Version  comes  to  us  with  presumptions  in  its 
favor  which  caimot  be  lightly  set  aside. 

1.  It  has  long  been  conceded  that  a  revision  was  needed. 

2.  This  revision  has  been  instituted  by  competent  authority, 
and  carried  through  by  gentlemen  of  acknowledged  scholarship 
and  fidelity. 

3.  The  work  has  not  been  confined  to  any  denominatiori  of 
Christians,  but  is  the  result  of  the  united  labors  of  evangelical 
Christendom,  so  far  as  our  language  is  concerned. 

4.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  where  changes  have  been  made 
reasons  satisfactory  to  the  committee  must  have  been  offered, 
such  possibly  as  may  escape  the  observation  of  the  individual 
student,  however  scholarly. 

These  presumptions,  however,  should  not  free  the  work 
from  candid  criticism,  since,  however  well  the  work  is  done, 
it  is  but  another  step  in  the  march  toward  an  absolutely 
perfect  translation. 

All  that  could  properly  be  demanded  of  the  revisers  is  that 
their  work  should  represent  the  present  state  of  biblical  schol- 
arship. It  should  be  a  work  of  truth,  having  no  regard  to 
sectarian  opinions,  neither  inclined  to  orthodoxy  nor  hetero- 
doxy. As  pure  scholars,  their  sole  aim  must  be  to  give  to  the 
people  the  most  accurate  translation  possible. 

The  main  points  demanding  their  attention  may  be  c<Hn- 
prised  under  five  general  heads.  The  translation  should  rep- 
resent the  present  state  of,  1,  Text-Criticism;  2,  Grammaiicd 
Knowledge;  3,  Lexicography;  4,  Archosology  ;  5,  The  English 
Language. 

Other  matters  of  interest  are  mainly  coimected  with  these. 

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1881.]      The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament.         717 

The  first,  second,  and  fifth  of  these  points  will  chiefly  claim 
our  attention  in  this  paper. 

I.  Chcmges  origvriatvag  in  the  criticism  of  the  Oreek  text. — 
While  it  was  not  the  direct  aim  of  the  revisers  to  "  construct 
a  continuous  and  complete  Greek  text,"  yet  it  was  necessary 
that  they  should  substantially  do  so.  At  every  step  the  first 
questions  would  be,  "  What  did  the  evangelist  or  apostle  act- 
ually write?"  "Are  these  the  exact  words  of  the  inspired 
penman  ? "  Whenever  a  possible  change  of  text  would  require 
a  change  of  translation,  it  was  absolutely  essential  that  the  text 
should  be  settled  as  exhaustively  as  it  was  possible  to  do  it. 
This  is  the  part  of  the  work  on  which  we  think  the  greatest 
stress  of  the  revisers  should  have  been  laid.  The  uncertainty 
of  the  text  has  been  so  constantly  urged  by  objectors  to  the 
Christian  religion,  that  we  must  be  able  to  say  that  the  text 
which  is  here  translated  is  the  nearest  possible  attainment  to 
the  autographs  of  the  original  writers.  This  is  especially  im- 
portant inasmuch  as  but  few  of  those  who  are  to  read  the  book 
are  competent  to  pass  judgment  on  it  in  this  particular.  Nor 
was  it  desirable  that  they  should  be.  The  number  of  great 
textual  critics  is  not  large,  and  this  question  must,  therefore, 
be  decided  by  the  few  rather  than  by  the  many.  Nor  is  this 
statement  any  disparagement  of  the  scholarship  of  those  who 
have  not  made  such  studies  a  specialty.  It  only  means  that 
scholarship,  in  its  highest  forms,  is  not  universal ;  that,  for  ex- 
ample, the  most  capable  men  in  text-revision  might  not  be  the 
most  valuable  in  translating,  and  vice  versa. 

This  committee  had,  however,  abundant  material  ready  to 
their  hand.  The  authorities  had  been  most  carefully  collated, 
and  were  within  the  reach  of  all.  The  latest  and  best  critics 
have  left  the  results  of  their  labors.  Lachmann,  Tischendorf, 
Tregelles,  and  Alford  had  each  lived  long  enough  to  finish  edi- 
tions of  the  Greek  Testament,  valuable  not  only  because  of  the 
conclusions  they  reached,  but  especially  for  the  digest  of  mate- 
rials which  accompany  their  texts.  Thus,  if  any  members  of  the 
committee  were  not  professionals  in  this  particular  field,  they 
had  ample  basis  for  judgment,  and  might  have  been  a  check  on 
those  who  were  in  danger  of  extreme  adherence  to  technical 
textual  scholarship.  In  the  judgment,  therefore,  of  the  whole 
body  we  have  stronger  assurances  of  a  true  Greek  text  than 

Fourth  Sebies,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 47 

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718  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [October, 

we  should  have  had  in  *the  decision  of  those  alone  who  were 
chiefly  professional  text-eritics. 

We  are,  therefore,  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  text  made 
by  them,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  points  on  which  different 
translations  may  arise,  is  the  best  now  attainable;  and,  while  we 
cannot  agree  with  them  in  all  their  conclusions,  we  can  readily 
accept  their  work  in  this  regard  as  of  the  highest  value. 

The  most  advanced  advocates  of  bl purely  historical  criticism 
cannot  complain  of  this  text.  Lachmann,  who  first  attempted 
the  formation  of  a  text  solely  on  ancient  authorities,  was  not 
more  rigid  in  his  adherence  to  them  than  the  revisers.  In  the 
rigid  adherence  to  the  rule  that  the  evidence  must  be  "  decid- 
edly preponderating,"  meaning  thereby  the  documentary  evi- 
dence, we  think  they  have  sometimes  erred,  but  that  they  have 
insisted  strongly  on  the  most  ancient  authorities  no  one  can 
question.     On  the  wisdom  of  this  we  shall  speak  later. 

Dr.  Roberts,  ("  Companion  to  the  Revised  Version,")  who 
was  a  member  oif  the  committee,  gives  the  authorities  chiefly 
relied  upon,  namely :  A,  or  the  Alexandrian  MS.,  fifth  cent- 
ury ;  B,  or  the  Vatican  MS.,  fourth  centuiy ;  C,  or  the  Codex 
Ephraem,  fifth  century ;  D,  or  the  Beza  MS. ;  K,  or  the  Sina- 
itic  MS.,  fourth  century ;  of  versions,  Peshito  Syriac,  second 
century;  Old  Latin,  third  century ;  Gothic,  fourth  century; 
Coptic,  third  century ;  Armenian,  fifth  century ;  Ethiopic,  sixth 
century.  He  also  mentions  Clement  of  Rome,  first  century ; 
Justin  Martyr  and  Irenffius,  second  century ;  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, Tertullian,  Cyprian,  and  Origen,  third  century.  These  are 
the  chief  witnesses  on  which  they  relied,  and  these  must  be  the 
main  sources  of  all  true  study  of  the  New  Testament  text. 

By  observing  the  results  of  their  labors  we  can  readily  see 
that  they  have  been  largely  governed  by  these  authorities,  giv- 
ing little  weight  to  later  manuscripts,  and  that  they  have  almost 
entirely  discarded  subjective  criticism. 

Let  us  notice  some  of  the  improvements  in  which  we  think 
nearly  all  modern  scholarship  will  agree.  It  was  well  that  they 
rejected  the  passage  concerning  the  angel  who  "  troubled  the 
water."  John  v,  4.  The  putting  of  this  is  true  to  fact.  The 
marginal  note  saying,  that  "Many  ancient  .authorities  insert 
wholly  or  in  part "  this  verse  gives  a  fair  statement  of  the  evi- 
dence in  the  case,  and  while  it  asserts  the  preponderance  to  be 

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1881J     The  Bevised  Version  of  the  New  Testament.         719 

for  its  omission,  there  is  no  attempt  to  discredit  the  opinion  of 
those  who,  like  Lachmann,  an  authority  little  likely  to  err  on 
the  side  of  subjective  testimony,  retain  it.  They  declare  by 
their  note  that  its  retention  is,  in  their  view,  a  possible  reading, 
which  is  aU  that  any  one  would  now  venture  to  claim  for  it. 

In  Bom.  viii,  1,  the  omission  of  "  who  walk  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit,"  is  in  harmony  with  the  best  manu- 
script authority,  and  is  adopted  by  the  most  eminent  editors  of 
the  text.  It  is  also  demanded  by  the  line  of  argument.  In 
the  revised  text  the  verse  now  stands  as  a  universal  proposition, 
and  gives  great  force  to  the  apostle's  reasoning.  The  intro- 
duction of  the  omitted  portions  can  be  so  readily  accounted 
for  that  the  case  seems  a  very  clear  one. 

"  The  heavenly  witnesses,"  1  John  v,  7,  8,  are  so  transpa- 
rently spurious  that  their  omission  caused  no  surprise  on  the 
part  of  those  familiar  with  the  facts,  and  these  verses  have 
long  ceased  to  be  appealed  to  in  any  doctrinal  controversy. 
The  most  devoted  advocate  of  the  Trinity  would  not  have  ap- 
pealed to  this  passage  for  a  long  while  past,  so  that  it  is  wrong 
to  say,  as  some  Unitarians  have  done,  that  the  argument  for 
this  doctrine  is  impaired  by  this  omission.  This  doctrine  is  so 
inwoven  with  the  whole  New  Testament  that  the  removal  of 
no  single  passage  can  possibly  affect  it. 

These  are  simply  specimens  of  the  good  work  the  revisers 
have  done  in  removing  excrescences  from  the  sacred  text. 
There  are  some  passages,  however,  on  which  we  think  their  ac- 
tion has  not  been  so  wise.  They  have  left  some  texts  of  great 
importance  practically  undecided,  neither  giving  them  a  place 
as  alternative  readings  nor  placing  them  in  the  text,  but  putting 
them  in  an  abnormd  position  as  a  part  of  the  sacred  narrative. 
A  crucial  case  of  this  kind  is  Mark  xvi,  9-20.  We  cannot  but 
believe  that  the  mode  of  its  retention  is  unwise,  and  that, 
granting  the  conclusion  at  which  they  arrived,  it  would  have 
been  better  to  leave  it  as  it  was  in  our  Authorized  Version,  and 
to  accompany  it  with  a  marginal  explanation.  Its  removal 
from  close  connection  with  verse  8  in  a  way  to  show  that  it  is 
no  part  of  Mark's  Gospel,  and  yet  its  retention  as  gospel,  though 
by  another  author,  is  a  refinement  diflScult  to  comprehend  by 
the  ordinary  reader,  and  calculated  to  mislead  many  pious  but 
uncritical  readers. 


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720  Methodist  Qiux/rierly  Review.  [October, 

It  is,  we  think,  by  no  means  proven  that  this  is  not  a  part  of 
Mark's  Gospel.  A  look  at  any  of  the  critical  discussions  on  this 
passage  will  not  show  such  a  preponderance  of  testimony  against 
its  genuineness  as  the  committee's  action  would  indicate. 

A  brief  survey  of  the  state  of  the  evidence  on  this  much- 
disputed  passage  will  show  that  it  might  safely  have  been  left 
as  in  the  Authorized  Version.  Against  it  arQ  the  Vatican  and 
Sinaitic  manuscripts.  The  adverse  testimony  of  the  Vatican, 
however,  is  greatly  impaired  by  the  fact  that  a  column  is  left 
vacant,  as  if  there  were  something  that  needed  to  be  inserted. 
One  MS.  of  the  Itala  and  two  of  the  -^thiopic  and  the  Ar- 
menian substantially  omit  it.  Of  the  early  Fathers,  EuBebius 
is  the  only  one  now  conceded  to  be  against  it.  The  statement 
of  Dr.  Roberts,  ("  Companion,"  p.  38,)  quoted  from  TregeUes, 
that  "  Eusebius,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Victor  of  Antioch,  Seve- 
rus  of  Antioch,  Jerome,  as  well  as  other  writers,  especially 
Greeks,  testify  that  these  verses  were  not  written  by  St  Mark, 
or  are  not  fonnd  in  the  best  copies,"  does  not  properly  present 
the  case.  Burgon,  in  his  book  on  "  The  Last  Twelve  Verses 
of  the  Gospel  According  to  St.  Mark,"  has  shown  that  these 
writers  quoted  from  Eusebius,  and  that,  therefore,  their  inde- 
pendent testimony  is  worthless.  (See  "  Hammond's  Textual 
Criticism,"  p.  110.) 

The  internal  evidence  cited  against  it  arises  out  of  supposed 
contradictions,  namely,  that  verse  9  disagrees  with  Matthew 
xxviii,  1 ;  that  verses  19  and  20  are  in  opposition  to  the  Ascen- 
sion on  the  fortieth  day ;  that  the  style  is  manifestly  not 
Mark's,  since  it  contains  a  number  of  words  and  phrases  not 
elsewhere  used  by  him.  Among  the  editors  Tischendorf  and 
Meyer  omit  it,  while  TregeUes,  Alford,  and  Westcott  and  Hort 
inser  it  after  a  separation,  or  in  brackets,  showing  doubts  of 
its  genuineness. 

In  its  favor  are  almost  all  the  great  manuscripts,  both  un- 
cial and  cursive,  including  the  Alexandrian  and  the  Codex 
Ephraem  of  the  uncials ;  33,  the  "  Queen  of  the  Cursives ; " 
and  the  Old  Latin  except  k.,  Syriac,  Memphitic,  Gothic,  and 
Georgian  versions.  Justin  Martyr,  Irenaeus,  and  Hippolytus 
approve  its  admission.  The  internal  evidence  is  mainly 
in  its  favor.  It  is  not  likely  that  these  statements,  appar- 
ently contradictory  to  the  others,  would  have  been  inserted 


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1881J      The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament.         721 

by  any  writer  who  was  manufacturing  an  explanatory  addi- 
tion. The  whole  section  is  a  unit,  and  necessary  to  the  com- 
pletion of  the  narrative.  We  cannot  conceive  of  the  Gospel 
of  Mark  closing  with  the  eighth  verse.  This  passage  is  de- 
fended by  such  critical  scholars  as.  Lachmann,  Wordsworth, 
Ebrard,  Lange,  Scrivener.  Scrivener  closes  his  review  of  the 
evidence  with  these  words :  "All  opposition  to  the  authenticity 
of  the  paragraph  resolves  itself  into  the  allegations  of  Euse- 
bius  and  the  testimony  of  K  B.  Let  us  accord  to  them  the 
weight  which  is  their  due ;  but  against  their  verdict  we  can 
appeal  to  the  reading  of  Irenseus  and  of  both  the  elder  Syriac 
translations  in  the  second  century,  of  nearly  all  other  versions, 
and  of  all  extant  manuscripts  excepting  two.''  The  argument 
against  its  being  Mark's,  because  of  its  style,  has  been  urged 
against  too  many  writings  acknowledged  to  be  genuine,  to 
afford  proof  for  its  rejection.  Such  being  the  testimony  in 
this  passage,  we  think  the  committee,  in  view  of  the  conserv- 
ative spirit  in  which  they  were  pledged  to  act,  would  not  only 
have  been  justified  in  leaving  this  passage  untouched,  but  were 
required  to  do  so.  No  sufficiently  strong  preponderating  evi- 
dence to  warrant  a  change  is  here  apparent.  In  separating  the 
passage  from  the  rest  of  the  Gospel  they  have,  in  fact,  weak- 
ened its  authority.  We  again  assert  that  the  truth  would 
have  been  better  served  by  a  marginal  explanatory  note. 

The  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  in  John  vii,  63, 
to  viii,  11,  is  differently  treated.  It  is  broadly  distinguished 
from  the  rest,  and  placed  in  brackets.  Dr.  Roberts  says  that  tho 
"  right  conclusion  probably  is,  that  it  is  no  part  of  St.  John's  Gos- 
pel, and  yet  is  a  perfectly  true  narrative  which  has  descended 
to  us  from  the  apostolic  age."  The  brackets,  then,  mean  that 
it  does  not  belong  to  John's  Gospel,  but  is  a  true  narrative. 
The  conclusion  that  the  passage  is  not  a  part  of  John's  Gos- 
pel is  not  fully  established  when  such  scholars  as  Mill,  Michae- 
lis,  Bengel,  Ebrard,  Stier,  and  others  retain  and  defend  it  as 
genuine.  Even  Alford,  with  whose  text  the  Revisers  agree, 
says :  "After  all,  the  most  weighty  argument  against  the  passage 
is  found  in  its  entire  diversity  from  the  style  of  narrative  of 
our  Evangelist."  If  this  is  the  most  weighty  argument  against 
it,  both  he  and  the  Revisers  might  well  have  retained  it  in  the 
text.     The  requirements  of  criticism  would  have  been  met  by 

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722  Methodist  Qucvrterly  Beview.  [October, 

leaving  it,  as  in  the  anthorized  version,  with  an  explanatory 
note  stating  that  "  many  believe  it  to  be  a  true  narrative,  but 
not  a  part  of  John's  Gospel." 

Romans  v,  1,  presents  a  case  in  which  the  value  of  internal 
evidence  has  been  too  entirely  overlooked.  The  Anthorized 
Version  reads,  "  Therefore  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have 
(exofiev)  peace  with  Gk)d."  The  Revised  Version  reads, "  Being 
therefore  justified  by  faith,  let  tisha/ve{ix^fjiev)  peace  with  God." 

It  is  at  once  admitted  that  the  hortatory  form  has  the  sup- 
port of  the  chief  uncials,  cursives,  and  versions ;  so  that,  if  the 
decision  were  made  solely  on  external  evidence  this  is  the  un- 
doubted reading  of  the  text.  Scrivener  gives,  in  favor  of  the 
indicative,  "  K'  B*  F  G  (in  spite  of  the  contrary  testimony  of 
f.  g.,  their  respective  Latin  versions,)  P,  the  majority  of  the 
cursive  manuscripts,  Epiphanius,  Cyril,  and  the  Slavonic.  The 
later  Syriac  seems  to  combine  both  readings." 

We  have  in  this  an  acknowledged  case  for  the  discussion  of 
the  admissibility  of  internal  evidence.  While  we  admit  that 
its  employment  is  exceedingly  dangerous,  it  does  not  thereby 
follow  that  it  is  to  be  set  aside  altogether,  and  here  seems  a 
proper  place  for  its  use.  Notwithstanding  the  weight  of  ex- 
ternal evidence  for  the  subjunctive,  there  is,  nevertheless,  suf- 
ficient authority  in  favor  of  the  indicative  to  prevent  a  rash 
rejection  of  it 

In  the  first  place,  cursive  manuscripts  may,  although  later  in 
date,  represent  earlier  texts  than  the  most  ancient  uncials.  They 
may  be  copies  of  some  that  have  passed  away  and  of  which  we 
have  no  trace.  In  the  next  place,  the  manuscripts  may  be 
valuable  for  the  notes  of  the  corrector.  While  the  corrector, 
in  his  attempt  to  make  the  meaning  more  clear,  has  often 
changed  the  text  for  the  worse,  it  is  nevertheless  possible  that 
his  corrections  may  represent  a  removal  of  errors.  With  the 
acknowledged  difficulty  of  copying  any  manuscript  accurately, 
we  may  well  pause  before  we  give  the  sole  importance  always 
to  the  first  hand. 

In  the  text  before  us  both  K  B  have  Ixofiev  by  the  hands  of 
correctors,  and  this  fact,  together  with  the  very  great  difficulty 
of  reconciling  the  subjunctive  with  the  course  of  the  argu- 
ment, has  led  some  of  the  most  eminent  critics  to  vary  in  their 
conclusions. 


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1881.1     The  Bevised  Version  of  the  New  Testcmmt         723 

Alford,  who  reads  ixu^uv^  in  his  note  shows  the  ahnost 
overpowering  influence  of  internal  evidence  in  favor  of  ixofiev^ 
against  which  he  straggled.  His  language  is :  ^^  It  is  impossible 
to  resist  the  strong  manuscript  authority  for  the  reading  ix^f^^ 
in  this  verse.  For,  indeed,  this  may  well  be  cited  as  the  crucial 
instance  of  overpowering  diplomatic  authority  compelling  us 
to  adopt  a  reading  against  which  our  subjective  feelings  rebel. 
Every  internal  consideration  tends  to  impugn  it." 

How  very  near  Alford  came,  however,  to  the  retention  of 
the  indicative  will  appear  by  quoting  from  his  "  Prolegomena  to 
the  New  Testament,"  where,  after  saying  that  the  "consideration 
of  the  context  is  the  very  last  that  should  be  allowed  by  a  critic 
to  be  present  to  his  mind  as  an  element  of  his  judgment,"  he 
adds :  "  I  do  not  say  that  in  some  extreme  cases  it  may  not 
have  to  be  introduced,  as  perhaps  (but  I  should  now  speak 
doubtfully  even  in  this  case)  in  Rom.  v,  I,  where  tliere  are  so 
many  confusing  considerations  arising  from  the  habits  of  the 
manuscripts." 

On  the  other  hand,  Meyer,  in  his  "  Critical  Notes "  on  this 
passage,  (Moore's  Translation,)  yields  to  the  internal  evidence, 
and  retains  the  indicative.  His  capacity,  both  as  a  Greek  schol- 
ar and  critic,  is  beyond  question,  and  his  conclusion  is  that  of 
one  of  the  most  independent  inquirers.  After  quoting  the 
authorities  in  favor  of  the  subjunctive,  he  says :  "  But  this 
reading,  (the  subjunctive,)  though  very  strongly  attested,  yields 
a  sense  that  is  here  utterly  unsuitable ;  because  the  writer  now 
entera  a  new  and  important  doctrinal  topic j  and  an  exhortation 
at  the  very  outset,  especially  regarding  a  subject  not  yet  ex- 
pressly spoken  of,  would  at  this  stage  be  out  of  place." 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  Tischendorf,  over  whom 
manuscript  authority  had  such  great  influence  as  against  in- 
ternal evidence,  favored  the  indicative  until  the  finding  of  the 
Sinaitic  manuscript.  In  his  seventh  edition  we  have  ix^fiev. 
Lachmani),  too,  who  is  the  most  uncompromising  adherent 
to  early  evidence,  hesitates  to  accept  the  subjunctive,  and 
places  ixt^fiev  in  the  margin.  Westcott  retains  ixofiev  as  a  mar- 
ginal reading.  We  maintain,  therefore,  with  Scrivener,  that 
the  itdciem^  w  for  o,  so  conunon  in  the  early  manuscripts,  may 
at  a  very  early  period  have  led  to  the  insertion  of  w,  and 
thus  it  became  incorporated  in  many  of  the  most  ancient  of 


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724  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [October, 

tliem ;  and  that  in  tliis  case  the  strong  internal  evidence  must 
outweigh  the  preponderance  of  the  external.  We  do  not  thmk 
the  revisers  have  done  justice  to  the  Authorized  reading  or  to 
its  evidence  in  simply  saying  in  the  margin,  "  Some  authorities 
read  we  hameP  We  think  they  should  have  retained  we  ham^ 
and  have  said  in  the  margin,  "  Strong  manuscript  authority 
supports  let  us  ha/ve.'^^  The  American  Conmiittee  (see  Appen- 
dix to  the  Revised  Version)  retain  the  indicative,  with  a  mar- 
ginal reading  similar  to  the  one  we  have  indicated.  As  the 
American  Committee  was  full  as  likely  to  make  changes,  where 
the  evidence  was  "  decidedly  preponderating,"  as  the  English 
Committee,  their  conclusion  goes  to  show  that  the  insertion  of 
the  subjunctive  in  the  text  was  not  required  by  the  evidence. 

The  rule  of  text  criticism,  ProcUvi  lectioni  prcBstat  ardua^ 
is  in  danger  of  being  overpressed.  In  the  case  before  us  the 
indicative  is  the  easier  and  more  natural  reading,  and  while 
the  above  rule  must  be  generally  accepted,  cases  may  arise  in 
which,  as  in  this  one  and  the  one  immediately  to  follow,  it  is 
the  wiser  course  to  set  it  aside. 

In  1  Timothy  iii,  16,  for  the  clause,  "  God  was  manifest  in 
the  flesh,"  the  Revised  Version  reads,  "He  who  was  mani- 
fested in  the  flesh."  The  word  deog^  God^  in  the  Authorized 
Version  again  gives  way  to  the  testimony  of  manuscripts,  and 
we  have  6c,  translated  Re  who^  in  its  place.  Even  Scrivener, 
the  most  conservative  of  modern  text-critics,  surrenders  the 
Authorized  Version.  If  it  were  granted,  as  many  believe, 
that  the  Alexandrian  manuscript  reads  Qtoq^  then  the  internal 
evidence,  arising  out  of  the  strange  grammatical  structure 
which  the  introduction  of  hq  gives  to  the  Revised  Version, 
would  be  a  suflicient  reason  for  retaining  the  text  as  it  was, 
and  inserting  a  marginal  note,  stating  that,  "  very  strong  man- 
uscript authority  reads,  who  instead  of  Qod.  If,  however, 
this  be  accepted,  the  relative  being  without  any  immediate  an- 
tecedent, the  implied  one  is  God,  and  no  such  doctrinal  change 
is  wrought  by  the  substitution  of  5f  as  some  imagine. 

The  Revisers  have  introduced  some  changes  not  called  for 
by  their  own  rule,  such  as  Mark  xv,  45,  where  the  new  text 
inserts  Trrwjua  for  <Tc5/[xa,  and  translates,  "  he  granted  the  corp^ 
to  Joseph."  Their  rule  is,  that  the  question  of  text  should 
only  be  raised  when  the  translation  would  be  affected  by  the 


Digitized  by  VjOOQIC 


1881.]      The  Beviaed  Version  of  the  New  Testament         725 

change.  Certainly,  while  the  new  translation  on  this  text  more 
correctly  renders  the  text  which  they  have  adopted,  no  impor- 
tant change  in  meaning  is  thereby  made  to  the  Authorized  read- 
ing. It  is  better,  however,  to  have  the  right  text  than  the 
wrong  one,  and  in  this  case  they  have  done  wisely  in  stretch- 
ing to  its  utmost  their  own  rule.  Of  the  translation  itself  we 
shall  speak  hereafter. 

These  are  some  of  the  objections  which,  we  think,  might  be 
justly  raised  to  the  Greek  text,  but  they  are  so  few  in  com- 
parison with  the  great  improvements  which  have  been  made 
in  this  regard,  that  we  believe  this  text,  as  revised  by  the 
Committee,  must  now  be  received  as  the  Textus  Hecepttcs  for 
students  of  the  Greek  Testament.  The  Greek  text,  as  accepted 
by  the  Revisers,  has  been  published  at  Oxford,  England,  after 
notes  made  during  the  progress  of  revision  by  Rev.  F.  H.  Scriv- 
ener, LL.D.,  under  the  editorial  supervision  of  the  Rev.  Arch- 
deacon Palmer,  of  Oxford,  and  is  the  only  Greek  text  corre- 
sponding to  the  Revision  of  1881  now  accessible.  It  is  to  this 
text  reference  is  made  in  this  paper.  All  the  other  Greek 
Testament  texts  now  before  the  public  are  the  work  of  individ- 
ual editors.  This  text  must  take  a  high  rank,  as  the  result  of 
the  joint  labors  of  the  best  modern  text-critics  with  the  con- 
clusions of  these  scholars  before  them. 

II.  Chanffes  arising  out  of  conformity  to  the  present  state 
of  gra/mma^ical  "knowledge. 

Like  text-criticism,  the  advance  in  the  knowledge  of  New 
Testament  grammar  has  of  late  been  very  great.  The  great 
works  of  Winer,  Buttmann,  and  Thomas  Sheldon  Green,  have 
given  an  impulse  to  the  study  which  must  be  felt  in  both 
the  translation  and  the  interpretation  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  grammatical  commentaries  of  Meyer  and  Ellicott  have 
given  a  further  impulse  in  the  same  direction.  So  far  as  the 
translation  is  concerned  this  advance  has  been  most  manifest  in 
the  case  of  the  Greek  article  and  of  the  tenses. 

The  accurate  comprehension  of  the  force  of  the  Greek  article 
is  not  easy,  and  many  passages  have  been  made  obscure  by  the 
failure  of  the  translator  to  understand  its  significance.  No  com- 
plete rules  on  the  subject  have  yet  been  given,  but  it  has  been  well 
observed  that  its  insertion  or  omission  has  always  a  significance. 
Sometimes  the  article  is  omitted  where  at  first  view  it  would 


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726  Methodist  Qiux/rierly  Heview.  [October, 

most  naturally  appear  necesBary,  as  in  the  English  phrase,  "  He 
has  gone  to  town,"  meaning  some  particular  town  with  which 
we  are  acquainted.  Again,  we  say,  "  He  has  gone  to  the  city," 
with  a  similar  significance.  These  differences  of  expression 
may  arise  out  of  the  rhythm  of  the  sentence,  or  from  use. 
Mr.  Thomas  Sheldon  Green  has  most  thoroughly  grasped  the 
idea  of  the  article.  His  language  is,  "  The  article  is  prefixed 
to  a  word,  or  combination  of  words,  when  there  is  intended  to  be 
conveyed  thereby,  in  the  particular  instance,  an  idea  in  some 
degree  familiarized  to  the  mind ;  it  points  to  a  previous  famil- 
iarity, real  or  presumed."  He  regards  the  article  as  a  sign  of 
identification,  and  "  closely  and  consequently,  but  not  primari- 
ly, connected  with  definiteness."  (Green's  Grammar,  pp.  6, 9.) 
This  view  throws  light  on  many  passages  otherwise  obscure, 
and  shows  the  necessity  for  the  proper  translation  of  the  arti- 
cle. We  place  the  two  translations  of  the  first  part  of  1  Tim. 
i,  15  together.  Authorized :  "  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation."  Revised :  "  Faithful  is  the  say- 
ing, and  worthy  of  all  acceptation."  The  article  with  "  say- 
ing," "  the  saying,"  refers  to  that  one  "just  recorded,  touching 
the  mercy  and  grace  so  singularly  bestowed."  The  translators 
have  here,  by  their  literalness,  added  both,  to  the  force  and 
to  the  dignity  of  the  passage,  and  have  given  it  a  connection 
with  the  context  not  apparent  in  the  Authorized  Version. 

The  instances  in  which  the  sense  has  been  greatly  improved 
by  the  translation  of  the  article  are  too  numerous  to  be  recited 
at  length.  The  rendering  of  "the  Christ"  very  frequently  in 
the  Gospels  instead  of  Christ ;  "  he  looked  for  the  city  which 
hath  foundations"  instead  of  a  city;  the  prophet  instead  of 
that  prophet.  These,  among  many  instances,  will  occur  even  to 
the  most  cursory  reader  of  the  Revised  Version.  A  good  illos- 
tration  is  John  iii,  10,  "  Art  thou  the  teacher  of  Israel,  [i.  e,,  the 
teacher  well  known,]  and  understandest  not  these  things?"  in- 
stead of  the  Authorized  "Art  thou  a  master  of  Israel,  and 
knowest  not  these  things?" 

A  text  which  in  the  Greek  clearly  shows  the  force  of  the 
article  is  Col.  iii,  5,  "  Mortify  therefore  your  members,"  etc 
In  the  Authorized  Version  there  is  no  article  before  any  of  the 
words,  but  in  the  Greek  text  the  article  is  employed  before  the 
last  noun,  nXeovexla.     The  article  before  this  last  noun  marks 


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1881.]     The  ReoUed  Version  of  the  New  Testament.         Y27 

it  as  a  ^^  notorious  immorality,  espedally  to  be  avoided,"  which, 
in  the  Revised  Version,  is  expressed  by  ^Hhe  which  is  idol- 
atry," but  which  would  have  been  better  brought  out  by  "  the 
covetousness  which  is  idolatry."  (Winer's  Grammar,  Thayer's 
Edition,  p.  117.) 

There  are,  however,  some  cases  of  the  translation,  or  omis- 
sion to  translate  the  article,  which  are  difficult  to  account  for, 
and  are  quite  important  because  of  their  exegetical  significance. 

With  the  word  vd^io^^  in  Romaus  and  Galatians,  the  absence 
or  presence  of  the  article  has  much  to  do  with  the  meaning, 
and  their  decision  in  regard  to  it  cannot  be  received  as  final. 
The  general  rule  in  regard  to  v6fioq  is,  that  with  the  article  it 
means  the  Mosaic  law,  and  without  it,  law  in  general,  although 
often  inclusive  of  a  reference  to  the  Mosaic  law.  The  revisers 
have  manifestly  appreciated  the  difficulty,  as  shown  by  their 
marginal  notes. 

Alford,  Ellicott,  Meyer,  and  Conybeare  and  Howson  agree 
with  the  revisers,  namely,  the  almost  indifferent  use  of  v6/zof  and 
6  vdfio^y  while  Lightfoot,  Thomas  Sheldon  Green,  Middleton, 
Vaughan,  and  others  recognize  a  broad  distinction  between  the 
two.  As  the  revisers  have  proposed  the  translation  of  the  ar- 
ticle with  precision,  a  review  of  their  work  can  only  be  seen  by 
placing  the  text  which  they  have  translated  and  tlie  Revision 
side  by  side,  and  then  tracing  the  peculiarities  of  translation. 
The  passages  are  selected  from  Romans  and  Galatians.  The 
italics  are  our  own,  and  are  merely  used  to  call  attention  to  the 
point  on  which  we  make  our  comparison.  The  woijd  appears 
with  and  without  the  article  very  frequently. 

Rom.  ii,  12-18 ;  28-27. 

'Oaoi  yhp  av6fjujf  ffAaproVf  6v6fiof  Kcd         For  as  manj  as  have  sinned  without 

iinoXovvTai'  kcu  boot,  h  voiu^  fjfuipTov^  Si  a  law  shall  also  perish  without  law :  and 

vofiov  Kpidrjaovrai-   oh  yap  ol  aKpoaral  as  many  as  have  sinned  wuirr /ato  shall 

vdfiov  dUaioL  napa  r^  6^^^  dXX'  ol  not-  be  judged  6y  Una  ;  for  not  the  hearers 

j/rat   Toi)   vb\koy   diKanjOijoovTar    utov  of  a  law  are  just  before  God,  but  the 

yap  JtSvff  Ta  (uj  vofiov  Ixovra  dvoei  r^  doers  of  a  kno  shall  be  justified:  for 

Tov  vdfwv  noiCHJiv^  obroi  v6fiov  fof  l;f(WTef  when  Gentiles  which  have  no  law  do  by 

iavToig  elffi  vofio^'  olnvec  ktrdeUvwfrai  rb  nature  the  things  of  the  law,  these,  hav- 

hpyov  rod  v6fiov  ypanrhv  h>  rale  xapSlaic  ing  no  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves ; 

ahruv^  avfifiaprvpovaijc  ovtuv  r^f  oxrvei-  in  that  they  shew  the  work  of  the  law 

difoeuCi  K<d  fura^  d^rfXctv  rCnt  XoyuTfiuv  written  in  their  hearts,  their  conscience 

KarrfyopovvTuv  ^  koI  dnoXoyovfiivuv^  Iv  bearing   witness   therewith,   and   their 

illiipqi  ore  Kpivel  6  6e6f  rd  Kpvirra  tuv  thoughts  one  with  another  accusing  or 

LvQptjnuv  Kara  rb  tiniyyiXidv  ftov  6ia  else  excusing  them;  in  the  day  when 

*iriaov  Xpurrov,  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men,  ac- 
cording to  my  gospel,  by  Jesus  Christ. 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


728 


Methodist  Quarterly  Beview. 


[October, 


E2  (5^  <Tu  ^lovSaiog  iirovo//cift,  koI  hra- 
vanavy  v6ft(^,  Koi  Kavxdaai  iv  Qetp^  kcu 
yiPuOKeic  TO  di'A.v(ia,  km  SoKifM^eic  ra 
diai^povTa^  Kartjxovi^evoc  M  tov  v6/iov, 

"Of  h  vofKj  /cot;taaox,  6iu  lijg  napaf^d- 
aeuc  TOV  voilov  tov  Qeby  uTtfxu^eig;  Tb 
yap  bvofia  tov  Qeov  <Ja'  vfrng  (3^aa<^ful' 
T(u  kv  Tolc  Jtdveat,  KaOu)C  yiypanToi,  ne- 
piTofiff  fuv  yap  u^eAct,  kuv  vofiov  irpuaayc' 
lav  ^  irapofiaTrig  vofiov  ^f,  ij^  ttepiTOfdj 
aov  &Kpni3uaTia  yiyovev.  iav  ovv  i  iutpo- 
pvaria  ra  diKoiufiara  tov  vdftov  ^^aay^ 
ovxi  i  uKpo(ivoTla  avTod  eif  irepiTOftijv 
Tioyiadrfaeratj  Koi  npivel  ^  kx  ^vcTfwc  ok* 
polivoTla  TOV  vdfiov  reXoikja  oh  tov  di^ 
ypdfifuiTos  Kol  irepiTOft^  napafiaTJiv  vd- 

flOVt 


Rom.  ii 

OlSoftev  Sk  6Tt  baa  6  vdftoc  Xiyti,  rote 
kv  T<j  vofUf)  AaXcx,  tva  ndv  ardpa  ^payy^ 
KCU  {/irodiKo^  yivjfTai  ndc  6  KdafMc  t^ 
6e^*  diOTi  k^  Jtpyctv  vdpov  ov  diKaidtSTj' 
aerai  ndaa  adp^  kvdinov  airov'  6id  yap 
vdftov  iniyvuaig  dpapTiac.  vwi  <5e  X^P*C 
v6pov  ducaioavvrf  Qeov  ire^vipi^Toif  fiap- 
rvpovptvri   inb  tov   vdpov  koi  tuv  npo- 

^TUV. 


But  if  thou  bearest  the  iiame  of  a  Jew, 
and  restest  upon  the  law^  [marg.  a  lam^ 
and  gloriest  in  God,  and  knowest  his  will, 
and  approvest  the  things  that  are  excel- 
lent, being  instructed  out  of  the  law. 

Thou  who  gloriest  in  Uu  law^  through 
thy  transgression  of  the  law  dishonour- 
est  thou  God?  For  the  name  of  God  U 
blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles  because 
of  you,  even  as  it  is  written.  Fordr- 
cumcision  indeed  profiteth,  if  thou  be  & 
doer  of  the  law:  but  if  thou  be  a  trans- 
gressor  of  the  lata,  thy  circumcision  is  be- 
come  uncircumcisiou.  If  therefore  the 
uncircumcision  keep  the  ordinances  of 
the  IcnOf  shall  not  his  uncircumcision  be 
reckoned  for  circumcision?  and  shall  not 
the  uncircumcision  which  is  by  natui^ 
if  it  fulfiU  the  law,  judge  thee,  who  with 
the  letter  and  circumcision  art  a  tr»n*- 
gressor  of  the  law  / 

i,  19-21. 

Now  we  know  that  what  things  soever 
the  law  saith,  it  speaketh  to  them  that 
are  under  the  law;  that  every  mouth 
may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may 
be  brought  under  the  judgement  of  God: 
because  by  the  works  of  Uu  late  shall  no 
flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight :  for  thrwffh 
the  law  Cometh  the  knowledge  of  sin. 
But  now  apart  from  the  law  a  righteous- 
ness of  God  hath  been  manifested,  being 
witnessed  by  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

iii,18. 

For  if  the  inheritance  is  of  t^  ^i  i^ 
is  no  more  of  promise. 


Gal. 
El  yap  kx  v6fwv  ^  K^tfpovofiiOj  obxtn 
k^  kvayyeJda^. 

GaL  iv,  4,  6. 
^"E^ankareLktv  6  Qeb(  tov  vlbv  oirou,  ye-         God  sent  forth  his  Son,  bom  of  a  woo- 
vopevov  kK  ywcuKd^^  yevofievov  vnb  vdpov^     an,  bom  under  the  law,  that  he  might  r*- 
Iva  roi}^  virb  vdpov  k^ayopday,  tva  Trpf     deem  them  which  were  under  Mtf/a»,  that 
vlodeolav  dnoXdfiu/iev,  we  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons. 

Gal  iv,  21. 
Atyeri  pot,  ol  iJiro  vdpov  diXovrec  elvai.         Tell  me,  ye  that  desire  to  be  under 
TOV  vofiov  ohK  dKoiere ;  the  law,  do  ye  not  hear  the  law  f 

GaL  vi,  18. 
0^  ydp  ol  neoiTeftvo/uvoi  airroi  v6pov         For  not  even  they  who  receive  ci^ 
ipvXuaaovoiv  cumcision  do  themselves  keep  the  law. 

The  above  passages  afford  ample  scope  to  study  the  trans- 
lation of  the  article  in  relation  to  the  word  law.  Our  atten- 
tion is  first  arrested  by  the  apparent  desire  of  the  revisers 
to  translate  the  article  in  accordance  with  the  Greek.  ^^ 
Rom.  ii,  12,  the  word  vdfwg  is  in  the  Greek,  in  every  case, 
without  the  article,  and  it  is  translated  accordingly,  whereas 


Digitized  by  VjOOQIC 


1881.]      The  lievised  Version  of  the  New  TestcrmerU.         729 

our  Authorized  Version  reads  the  law.  In  verse  13  the  first 
word  Icm  in  the  Greek  wants  the  article,  and  the  second  has 
the  article.  Yet  the  revisers  translate  both  words  without  the 
article.  The  omission  of  the  article  in  the  last  clause  of  that 
verse,  when  it  is  preserved  in  their  own  Greek  text,  seems  un- 
accountable. It  is  possible  that  the  retention  of  the  second 
article  in  the  Greek  text  is  an  error.  The  American  Commit- 
tee read  "  the  law  "  for  "  a  law "  in  this  verse.  In  the  17th 
verse  there  is  no  article  in  the  text,  but  they  have  inserted  it, 
though  with  a  marginal  note  omitting  it.  In  the  25th  verse  it 
is  translated  the  law,  although  the  article  is  not  in  the  text. 
The  last  word  of  verse  27  is  without  the  article,  though  it  is 
written  the  law  in  the  Revision. 

Eom.  iii,  20,  is  a  very  important  passage,  rendering  its  accu- 
rate translation  worthy  of  careful  study.  The  Revision  inserts 
the  article  in  both  cases  before  IoajOj  whereas  no  article  is  found 
in  the  Greek.  Rom.  iii,  21 :  the  first  law  is  without  article 
and  the  last  has  it,  though  both  are  translated  the  law. 

All  the  passages  cited  from  Galatians  are  translated  as  if 
they  had  the  article.  In  Gal.  iv,  21,  we  find  that  the  translat- 
ors refuse  to  recognize  any  distinction  between  law  and  the 
law  J  translating  both  as  if  having  the  article. 

This  seems  to  be  an  anomaly  in  translation  as  compared  with 
their  own  rule  of  uniformity.  It  appears  reasonable  that  here 
as  elsewhere  the  words  ought  to  have  been  translated  uniform- 
ly, as  in  the  Greek  text,  with  a  marginal  explanation  stating  the 
general  facts  of  the  case. 

It  does  not  seem  supposable  that  so  careful  a  writer  as  Paul 
would  in  such  a  succession  of  instances  use  such  di  important 
word  so  indiscriminately.  We  can  hardly  imagine  that  hear 
ers  of  a  la/w  and  doers  of  a  law  should  be  represented,  the 
former  without  the  article  and  the  latter  with  it.  It  is  hard 
to  believe  that  v6\u^  and  tw  v6[u^  mean  exactly  the  same  thing. 
If  such  be  the  case,  would  it  not  be  better,  as  a  matter  of  trans- 
lation, to  give  the  word  after  the  Greek  original  in  every  case, 
and  leave  the  meaning  to  be  decided  by  the  reader  rather  than 
by  the  translator  ?  The  omission  or  insertion  of  the  article,  as 
done  by  the  revisers  in  this  case,  cannot  carry  with  it  full  con- 
viction, however  plausible  the  exegetical  reasons  may  be  which 
seem  to  require  it 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


730  MetKod/ist  QuaHerly  Review.  [October, 

Justice  to  the  Revision  requires  the  statement  that  the  use 
of  vofiog^  especially  in  Romans  and  Galatians,  is  a  vexed  ques- 
tion  with  grammarians  and  commentators,  but  the  final  result^ 
we  think,  must  uphold  the  apostle's  discriminations. 

Green  ("  Grammar  of  New  Testament,"  p.  80)  remarts : 

Whenever  the  word  v6\io^y  in  the  New  Testament,  has  the  article 
prefixed  without  reference  to  the  context,  the  term  must  then  be 
used  to  signify  the  Mosaic  law.  At  the  same  tune  this  is  a  case 
in  which,  as  the  effect  of  familiar  currency,  the  article  might  drop 
away,  and  the  anarthrous  term  itself  come  to  have  a  convem- 
tional  meaning,  and  pass,  as  it  were,  into  a  proper  noun.  Wheth- 
er, however,  this  license  is  to  be  recognized  in  the  language  of 
St.  Paul  is  a  point  well  worthy  of  consideration,  and  not  to  be 
disregarded,  because  such  usage  is  possible.  .  .  .  There  are 
certain  places  where,  though  the  word  is  anarthrous,  the  Mosaic 
law,  ana  that  alone,  evidently  was  present  to  the  mind  of  the 
writer  ;  but  still  an  effect  of  the  absence  of  the  article  is  clearly 
discernible,  namely,  a  greater  prominence  of  the  internal  force  of 
the  word,  a  suggesting  of  the  attributes  of  law  rather  than  the 
law ;  and,  besides  this,  by  means  of  the  unrestricted  term  the 
proposition  is  given  with  a  broader  and  more  imposing  cast  .  .  . 
it  is  reasonable,  then,  whenever  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  the 
term  v6\u)^  is  anarthrous,  though  the  Mosaic  law  must  have  been 
present  to  the  mind  of  the  writer,  to  recomize  a  resulting  effect, 
such  as  has  been  here  exemplified  in  particular  instances,  and  to 
attribute  it  to  design. 

It  seems  clear,  in  harmony  with  the  main  thought  of  this 
accurate  scholar,  that  there  was  in  the  mind  of  Paul  a  distinc- 
tion, resulting  from  the  absence  of  the  article,  which  is  oblit- 
erated by  its  insertion  in  English.  In  conformity  with  this 
view  he  translates  GaL  ii,  19,  "  For  I  through  Ioajo  died  to 
la/Wj^  omitting  the  article  whidi  the  revisers  insert  in  the  text, 
though  they  also  omit  it  in  the  margin. 

He  makes  similar  remarks  on  the  distinction  as  shown  in 
Gal.  ii,  16,  21 ;  iii,  18 ;  and  Rom.  iii,  28.  In  these  cases  the 
revisers  insert  the  article,  irrespective  of  its  absence  in  most  of 
them  in  the  original. 

The  translation  of  the  tenses  has  been  greatly  improved  in 
the  Revision.  It  is  surprising  how  little  discrimination  was 
made  in  our  Authorized  Version,  especially  between  the  aorist 
and  the  perfect.  The  aorist  is  also  frequently  translated  as  a 
present,  greatly  to  the  confusion  of  the  sense.  There  is  no 
clearer  view  of  the  change  which  arises  out  of  the  more  exact 

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1881.]      The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament         731 

rendering  of  tliis  tense  than  is  given  in  Rom.  vi,  1-11.  The 
Kevisere  most  accurately  render  this  great  passage,  and  thus 
throw  new  and  beautiful  light  upon  it.  We  give  their  trans- 
lation entire : 

What  shall  we  say  then  ?  Shall  we  continue  in  sin,  that  grace 
may  abound  ?  God  forbid.  We  who  died  to  sin,  how  sh^l  we 
any  longer  live  therein  ?  Or  are  ye  ignorant  that  all  we  who 
were  baptized  into  Christ  Jesus  were  baptized  into  his  death  ? 
We  were  buried  therefore  with  him  through  baptism  into  death  : 
that  like  as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  through  the  glory 
of  the  Father,  so  we  also  might  walk  in  newness  of  life.  For  if 
we  have  become  united  with  him  by  the  likeness  of  his  death, 
we  shall  be  also  by  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection  ;  knowing  this, 
that  our  old  man  was  crucified  with  him,  that  the  body  of  sin 
might  be  done  away,  that  so  we  should  no  longer  be  in  bondage  to 
sin ;  for  he  that  hath  died  is  justified  from  sin.  But  if  we  died 
with  Christ,  we  believe  that  we  shall  also  live  with  him;  knowing 
that  Christ  being  raised  from  the  dead  dieth  no  more  ;  death  no 
more  hath  dominion  over  him.  For  the  death  that  he  died, 
he  died  xinto  sin  once :  but  the  life  that  he  liveth,  he  liveth 
unto  God. 

Here  they  have  translated  every  verb  in  its  true  aoristic 
sense,  whereas  the  Authorized  Version  employs  the  present. 
Whether  the  aorist  should  ever  be  translated  as  a  present  is  a 
question  still  undecided,  although  evidently  the  translators 
have  regarded  it  as  possible,  and  have  acted  accordingly. 

Some  of  these  variations  of  translation  of  tliis  tense, 
however,  are  somewhat  remarkable,  and  are  legitimate  sub- 
jects of  criticism.  They  are,  in  some  instances,  of  great 
significance,  and  cannot  be  lightly  passed  over.  The  aorist 
IjfiapTov  is  translated  sinned  in  Rom.  v,  12,  whereas  in  Rom. 
ii,  12,  and  iii,  23,  the  same  word  is  translated  have  sinned. 
The  use  of  this  aorist  for  the  perfect  is  denied  by  Winer,  the 
most  eminent  of  New  Testament  grammarians,  and  while  it  is 
allowed  by  Buttmann,  is  not  established  with  certainty.  There 
are  some  cases  in  which,  when  the  term  is  definitely  fixed  by 
the  circumstances  or  context,  tenses  in  all  languages  are  used 
somewhat  indifferently  to  give  variety  or  force  to  the  expres- 
sion. In  such  cases  no  special  complications  can  arise,  and  no 
criticism  is  called  for.  The  case  of  Rom.  v,  12,  is  more  im- 
portant. The  Authorized  Version  reads,  "  Death  passed  upon 
all  men,  for  that  all  ha/ve  sirmed.^^    The  Revised  Version  reads. 

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T32  Methodist  Qtuirterly  Review.  [October, 

"  Death  passed  nnto  all  men,  for  that  all  sinned,^^  This  pas- 
sage is  so  similar,  both  in  construction  and  thought,  to  Kom. 
iii,  22,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  same  term  and 
word  should  in  one  case  be  translated  ha/oe  sinned^  and  in  the 
other  sinned.  Dr.  Whedon  (Commentary  on  Komans)  on 
this  passage  gives,  with  great  force  and  clearness,  an  aoristic 
sense  to  it,  which  is  recognized  both  in  classical  and  in  New 
Testament  usage,  namely,  that  in  both  cases  it  is  a  gnomic 
aorist.  His  language  is  :  "  The  aorist  or  past  tense,  here  used 
of  the  word  sinned,  does  in  this  epistle  often  imply  a  general 
certain  fact  or  state  of  facts.  So  it  is  used  in  Eom.  iii,  23 ; 
ix,  22,  23 ;  viii,  29,  30."  This  force  of  the  aorist  is  recognized 
by  the  revisers  in  their  translation  of  1  Pet  i,  25,  "  The  grasB 
withereth,  and  the  flower  f  alleth,"  where  both  verbs  in  the  orig- 
inal are  in  the  aorist  tense. 

Inasmuch  as  the  gnomic  is  an  established  Greek  usage,  and 
the  aorist  for  the  perfect  is  questioned  by  many  grammarians, 
the  better  way  for  the  revisers  would  have  been  to  have  trans- 
lated the  aorist  with  uniform  strictness,  or  to  have  left  the 
Authorized  Version  unchanged  in  this  respect.  The  American 
Committee  suggest  the  marginal  reading  sinned  in  Rom.  ii,  13, 
and  iii,  23. 

III.  Changes  arising  out  of  the  present  state  of  the  English 
Umgua^e  and  of  the  more  exact  knowledge  of  the  rneaning  of 
the  original. 

In  this  may  properly  be  included  both  archaeology  and  lexi- 
cography. These  subjects  are  sp  broad  that  we  can  do  little 
more  than  refer  to  them. 

With  regard  to  the  removal  of  archaisms  they  have  done 
well,  and  have  ceased  at  the  proper  point.  In  this  regard  the 
conservatism  of  the  committee  has  rendered  good  service  in 
retaining  all  the  old  words  which  involve  no  misapprehension 
of  the  sense.  The  quaintness  of  the  style  is  one  of  the  great 
beauties  of  the  Old  Version,  and  it  should  only  be  removed 
when  necessary  to  make  clear  the  meaning 

It  would  be  a  superfluous  task  to  notice  the  many  improve- 
ments in  translation  and  in  punctuation.  Mark  ix,  22,  23  is  a 
case  in  point :  "  And  oft-times  it  hath  cast  him  both  into  the 
fire  and  into  the  waters,  to  destroy  him  :  but  if  thou  canst  do 
any  thing,  have  compassion  on  us,  and  help  us.    And  Jesns 

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1881.]      The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament         733 

said  nnto  him,  If  thou  canst  I  All  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth." 

Again,  how  richly  they  have  brought  out  the  meaning  of 
2  Cor.  ii,  14.  The  Authorized  Version  reads,  "Now thanks  be 
unto  God,  which  always  causeth  us  to  triumph  in  Christ.''  The 
Revised  reads,  "  But  thanks  be  unto  God,  which  always  lead- 
eth  us  in  triumph  in  Christ."  It  is  the  thanks  of  the  great 
apostle  to  Christ,  who  has  subjected  him,  that  is  here  brought 
into  view.  In  many,  very  many  passages,  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion will  form  a  most  valuable  commentary. 

There  are  some  changes,  however,  the  reasons  for  which  are 
not  so  apparent.  In  Heb.  i,  1,  the  Revision  reads,  "  God,  hav- 
ing of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets  by 
divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners."  The  changed  mean- 
ings of  the  words  IIoAvficpof  Kxd  UoXyrpdroygy  by  divers  portions 
and  in  divers  manners^  are  strictly  accurate,  but  the  change 
of  the  order  of  the  words,  placing  them  out  of  the  position 
they  occupy  in  the  Greek,  is  neither  fortified  by  Greek 
usage  nor  by  the  antithesis  required  in  the  sense.  There 
seems  to  be  a  double  antithesis,  but  the  chief  one,  which 
is  that  between  the  divers  portions  and  divers  manners  of  the 
old  revelation  and  the  singleness  of  the  revelation  in  Christ,  is 
obscured  by  the  change.  The  Geneva,  the  Rheims,  and  the 
Authorized  all  agree  in  placing  these  words  among  the  earliest 
in  the  sentence,  and  none  of  the  versions  make  such  a  transfer 
of  them  as  is  found  in  this  Revision. 

A  very  remarkable  case  of  explanatory  translation  is  found 
in  2  Tim.  ii,  26 :  ml  dvavTfiJHooiv  iic  rrjg  rov  6ia06Xov  nayldog 
i^cjypflfjievoi  im*  avrov  el^  rb  iiceivov  SiXijfia.  The  Authorized 
Version  reads,  "  And  that  they  may  recover  themselves  out  of 
the  snare  of  the  devil,  who  are  taken  captive  by  him  at  his 
will."  The  Revision  has  it,  "  And  they  may  recover  them- 
selves out  of  the  snare  of  the  devil,  having  been  taken  cap- 
tive by  the  Lord's  servant  unto  the  will  of  God."  "  The 
Lord's  servant"  is  not  in  the  Greek  at  all,  nor  is  the  word 
"God"  in  the  Greek,  as  is  admitted  in  the  margin.  This 
is  not,  therefore,  a  revised  translation,  but  a  paraphrase,  which, 
whether  correct  or  not,  should  have  no  place  in  an  attempt  at 
literal  translation.  The  Authorized  Version  is  more  exact  as 
a  representation  of  the  Greek,  and  should  have  been  retained. 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIII.— 48 


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734  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [October, 

In  James  i,  17,  "Neither  shadow  of  turrdn^"  «»  ^«  ^ 
viid  reads.  "Neither  shadow  that  is  cast  by  tunung.  J^ 
G^t^  which  this  is  a  translation  is,  rporn^  dnooK^ 
fjZu^Jysfuidow  of  turning.    The  exact  nature  of  the 
LSivrS^  WbTa  question ;  but  in  nuJdng  it  a  subjective 
tm.e  Z  r^undii  it  to  mean  oast  hy  tu^rr^,  they  have 
SnrbJ;o^dthesphereof  translators.  The  same  remark  is  ap- 
Ewe'tTthe  claL  in  iie  Lord's  Prayer  "Dehver  us  from 
fhTevil  om^'    They  have  inserted  on^  without  authorization, 
'a^d, Trl^ctive  of'what  it  means,  i1»  ^r^- ^ -"^^^ 
sar^      AUo,  in  Hebrews  iii,  2,  5,  and  6,  m  which  the  words 
hS'lm^e  occur,  they  have  in  each  ^  pl^ced  m  the  ni^ 
an  explanatory  note  saying,  « that  is,  Qod^s  W"    The  only 
explanations  caUed  for  in  the  margin  were  such  as  were  neces- 
sary to  explain  the  translation. 

The  matter  of  punctuation  is  very  important,  and  because 
of  the  absence  of  marks  of  punctuation  in  the  most  ancient 
manuscripts,  required  great  care  on  the  part  of  the  rev^m 
An  mstance  in  point,  showing  the  difficulty,  is  found  m  Eom. 
ix,  5.  Our  Authorized  Translation  reads :  "  Whose  are  the 
fathers,  and  of  whom  as  concerning  the  flesh  Christ  came,  who 
is  over  all,  God  blessed  forever.    Amen." 

The  Revision  reads :  "  Whose  are  the  fathers,  and  of  whom 
is  Christ  as  concerning  the  flesh,  *who  is  over  all,  God  blessed 
forever.    Amen."    To  which  the  revisers  add  in  the  margin: 
"*Some  modern  interpreters  place  a  full  stop  after  flesh,  and 
translate.  He  who  is  Ood  <mr  aU  he  {is)  Messed  foreoer ;  or, 
He  who  is  (mer  aU  is  Ood,  Uessed  foreoer.    Others  punctuate, 
fl^esh,  who  is  (xoer  M.     Ood  le  {is)  blessed  forever."     It  will 
at  once  appear  how  delicate  and  difficult  is  the  work  of  trans- 
lation when  so  many  ways  of  punctuation  are  possible.    They 
have  wisely  adhered  to  the  old  method,  and  have  very  good 
grounds  for  their  preference.     This  part  of  the  revisers'  work 
has  been  done  vnth  great  care,  and  will  be  found  to  throw 
much  light  upon  the  sacred  page.    The  absence  of  pnnctnar 
tion  marks  in  the  most  ancient  manuscripts  makes  this  part  of 
the  work  of  revision  partake  of  the  nature  of  a  commentary; 
but  this  is  unavoidable,  and  the  concurrent  judgment  of  so 
many  scholars  as  to  what  the  punctuation  ought  to  be  carries 
with  it  great  weight. 

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1881.]      The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament         735 

A  point  on  which  the  revisers  have  insisted  with  much 
emphasis,  is  uniformity  of  translation,  that  is,  the  employment 
of  the  same  English  word  for  the  same  Greek  word,  whenever 
it  is  exegetically  possible  to  do  so.  The  principle  is  a  good 
one,  and  has  cleared  up  many  passages  to  the  ordinary  reader. 
That  this  should  be  the  case  with  all  words  where  no  essential 
difference  in  meaning  would  arise,  seems  highly  proper.  It  is  a 
rule,  however,  which  requires  great  care  and  skill  in  its  exercise. 
We  are  scarcely  aware  how  frequently,  even  in  English,  we  use 
the  same  word  in  close  contextual  connection,  with  different 
shades  of  meaning  which  are  at  once  apparent  to  the  reader. 
The  same  is  true  in  Greek,  and  in  such  caaes  the  skill  of  the 
translator  is  taxed  to  the  utmost.  A  word  that  in  itself  has  a  dis- 
tinct meaning  has  an  entirely  different  meaning  in  its  relations 
to  an  entire  sentence. .  This  is  often  seen  in  the  difference  be- 
tween the  word  given  in  a  translation  and  the  same  word  as 
employed  in  the  same  commentary.  Bishop  Ellicott,  the  Chair- 
man of  the  English  Committee  of  the  New  Testament  Revis- 
ion, makes  the  following  remarks  in  regard  to  the  translations 
in  connection  with  some  of  his  own  commentaries.  His  lan- 
guage is,  (Preface*to  Philippians,  page  ix :) 

I  have  more  than  once  had  my  attention  called  to  passages  in 
former  commentaries,  where  the  translation  in  the  notes  has  not 
appeared  in  perfect  unison  with  that  in  the  Revised  Version. 
[JBus  own  translation  accompanying  his  Commentary.]  In 
most  instances  these  seeming  discrepancies  have  arisen  from 
the  fact  thdt  the  fixed  principles  on  which  I  venture  to  revise 
the  Authorized  Version  do  not  always  admit  of  exact  identity 
of  language  in  the  version  and  in  the  note.  In  a  word,  the  trans- 
lation in  the  note  presents  what  has  been  considered  the  most 
exact  rendering  of  the  words  taken  per  se  ;  the  Revised  Version 
preserves  that  renderiuff  as  far  as  is  compatible  with  the  fee 
operisy  the  context,  the  idioms  of  our  language,  or,  lastly,  that 
grace  and  archaic  tone  of  our  admirable  version  which,  even  in 
a  revised  form  of  it,  desimed  only /or  ths  closet,  it  seemed  a  kind 
of  sacrilege  to  displace  for  the  possibly  more  precise,  yet  often 
really  less  expressive,  phraseology  of  modem  diction.  Needlessly 
to  divorce  the  original  and  that  version  with  which  our  ears  are 
so  familiar,  and  often  our  highest  associations  and  purest  sympa- 
thies so  intimately  bound,  is  an  ill-considered  course,  which, 
more  than  any  thing  else,  may  tend  to  foster  an  unyoked  spirit 
of  scriptural  study  and  translation,  alike  unfilial  and  presumpt- 
uous, and  to  which  a  modem  reviser  mav  hereafter  bitterly 
repent  to  have  lent  his  example  or  his  contributions. 


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736  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

Irhis  language  of  this  diBtinguished  scholar  has  in  it  the  spirit 
of  the  true  translator. 

The  Revisers'  doctrine  of  conseqv^nce^  however,  that  is, 
changes  in  translation,  arising  out  of  some  former  alteration, 
may  easily  be  carried  too  far,  and  in  some  cases  has  injured 
rather  than  helped  the  sense. 

There  are  instances  in  which  they  have  not  made  the  trans- 
lation of  the  same  word  uniform,  even  when  no  confusion 
could  arise  out  of  such  uniformity.  In  Mark  xv,  45,  they  have, 
in  accordance  with  the  best  manuscript  authority,  changed  oH^m 
to  TTTwfia,  and  translated  the  latter  by  the  English  word  corpse. 
This  translation  occurs  with  Matt,  xiv,  12,  and  Mark  vi,  29. 
In  Matt,  xxiv,  28,  the  same  word  is  translated  carcase^  and  in 
Eev.  xi,  8,  dead  bodies^  with  the  word  oa/rcase  in  the  margin. 
The  Greek  word  in  each  case  is  the  same.  The  Revisers'  diB- 
tinction  is  between  the  human  body,  which  they  translate 
corpse^  and  the  body  of  an  animal,  which  they  call  both  dead 
hody  and  carcase.  Would  it  not  have  been  as  well. to  give  one 
name  for  all,  and  thus  have  complete  uniformity,  namely,  in 
every  case  translate  TrTWjiia  by  dead  hody  t 

That  this  doctrine  of  consequence  may* easily  lead  astray 
is  seen  in  Matt,  xvi,  26,  "  For  what  shall  a  man  be  profited, 
if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  forfeit  liis  life  ?  or  what 
shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  life  ?"  The  margin  for  life 
reads  soul.  The  meaning  of  that  passage  in  the  Revision  is  quite 
different  from  the  impression  made  upon  us  by  the.Authorized 
Version :  "  For  what  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  ex- 
change for  his  soul  ? "  V'^^j  according  to  the  translation,  is  not 
soulj  but,  as  Alford  says,  "  life  in  the  highest  sense."  Yet  they 
allow  a  marginal  reading,  soul.  Also  they  had  previously  trans- 
lated the  same  word  by  soul.  In  Matt,  x,  28,  the  Revised  trans- 
lation retains  the  word  soul  for  ^xi-  I*  reads  :  "And  be  not 
afraid  of  them  which  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able  to  kill  the 
soul :  but  rather  fear  him  which  is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and 
body  in  hell."  The  comparison  of  this  verse  with  Matt,  xvi,  26, 
shows  that  in  the  latter  case,  in  order  to  preserve  a  uniform 
translation  of  the  same  word,  they  have  adopted  a  reading 
which  weakens  the  force  of  the  passage,  confining  to  a  pure 
eaii;hly  life  that  which  we  believe  to  refer  to  the  spiritual  and 

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1881.]      The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament         737 

immortal  nature.  The  loss  of  our  merely  earthly  life  is  not 
treated  of  in  Scriptm*e  as  a  great  calamity.  In  both  of  these 
cases  there  is  no  gain,  either  in  sense  or  force,  in  the  changes 
made  in  the  Kevision. 

The  subject  of  prepositions  is  extremely  important,  and  has 
been  handled  by  the  revisers  with  much  care.  They  have,  how- 
ever, contrary  to  their  own  doctrine  of  consequence^  made  some 
unnecessary  changes  in  the  rendering  of  the  same  word.  The 
preposition  vrrep  is  one  of  frequent  use,  especially  by  the  Apostle 
Paul.  We  do  not  raise  the  question  of  the  meaning  of  the  word, 
but  of  the  uniformity  of  translation.  Whether  in  Pauline  usage 
it  is  equivalent  to  avn  is  not  pertinent  to  our  present  inquiry. 
imig  is  employed  in  Paul's  Epistles  over  one  hundred  times, 
while  avTi  is  used  but  seven  times.  In  the  Gospels,  1  Corin- 
thians, Galatians,  Romans,  it  is  in  almost  every  case  translated 
for;  whereas  in  Phil,  i,  4,  7,  29 ;  Col.  i,  7;  and  many  places  in 
2  Corinthians,  the  same  word  is  translated  in  iehalf  of  Why 
for  is  employed  in  Eomans,  Galatians  and  1  Corinthians,  and 
in  behalf  ofm2  Corinthians  and  Philippians,  does  not  appear. 
For  is  susceptible  of  two  meanings,  and  may,  therefore,  prop- 
erly represent  the  uncertainty  in  the  minds  of  many  in  regard 
to  its  exact  force  in  some  passages  of  great  doctrinal  signifi- 
cance. But  why  change  iromfor  to  in  hehaJfof  in  cases  where 
no  interest  either  of  translation  or  of  exegesis  seems  to  requii*e 
it?  Here  the  doctrine  of  consequence  is  apparently  violated 
without  any  reason  for  it.  This  seems  to  be  the  case  where  the 
rule,  the  "  same  word  for  the  same  thing,"  except  in  cases  of 
decided  exegetical  necessity,  would  appear  to  be  strictly  in  or- 
der and  has  been  unnecessarily  violated.  That  the  word/br  as 
equivalent  to.  vrrep  in  Romans  is  not  out  of  order  in  Philip- 
pians, is  shown  by  the  translation  of  so  scholarly  a  man  as 
Bishop  Ellicott,  above  referred  to,  a  member  of  the  English 
Committee.  He  translates  vtrep  for  in  Phil,  i,  4,  whereas  in 
verse  19  he  adheres  to  the  Authorized  in  hehaZf  of 

In  their  translation .  they  should  have  put  the  more  pro- 
nounced Hebraisms  in  modem  English,  that  is,  in  every  case 
where  the  sense  is  affected  thereby.  A  more  idiomatic  English 
rendering  of  Luke  xxii,  15,  might  have  increased  its  force  to 
the  English  reader,  "And  he  said  unto  them.  With  desire  I 
ha/ve  desired  to  eat  this  passover  with  you  before  I  suffer." 

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738  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

The  phrase,  with  desire  I  home  desired^  is  a  translation  of 
imBv\uq,  inedvfjLTfcay  a  recognized  Hebraism,  corresponding  to 
the  iniinitive  absolute  joined  to  the  finite  verb,  as  r«nnniD, 
(Septuagint,  davdro)  iirndaveia^e^)  to  die^  thou  shatt  diSy  or  them 
shalt  surely  die,  in  Gen.  ii,  17.  The  sense  of  this  verse  in 
Luke  is,  "/  earnestly  desired  to  eat  this  passover  with  you 
before  I  suffer,"  a  meaning  which  is  not  at  first  apparent  to 
the  reader  of  either  the  Authorized  or  the  Revised  Version. 

These  are  some  considerations  in  regard  to  this  great  work 
which  have  been  suggested  by  a  general  perusal  of  parts  of  its 
contents.  As  we  have  looked  at  it  more  and  more  the  con- 
viction has  gained  in  force  that  this  is  a  great  advance  in  the 
accurate  presentation  of  the  meaning  of  the  original,  and  that 
in  many  cases,  as  already  suggested,  where  no  reason  for  the 
change  appears  to  us,  some  reason  must  have  appeared  to  those 
to  whom  the  work  was  intrusted. 

The  reverent  student  of  the  Bible  will  not  trouble  himself 
too  much  with  the  effect  this  Revision  will  have  on  the  current 
theological  doctrines.  Of  one  thing  we  are  well  assured :  no 
vital  doctrine  has  been  affected  to  its  injury  by  this  work. 
The  Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  atonement,  regenera- 
tion and  sanctification  by  faith,  the  eternity  of  rerwards  and 
punishments,  stand  out  none  the  less  clearly  in  the  Revision 
of  1881  than  in  that  of  1611.  In  any  case,  whatever  theology 
is  contained  in  the  Bible  must  be  accepted ;  whatever  cannot 
be  maintained  and  proved  out  of  the  holy  Scriptures  is  not 
necessary  to  salvation. 

In  the  case  of  the  New  Testament  the  wise  men  have  once 
again  brought  their  treasures  and  laid  them  at  the  feet  of 
Christ  in  reverent  homage  to  him  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord 
of  lords ;  and  in  translating  to  men  the  revelation  of  his  life 
and  teachings  they  have  won  for  themselves  the  heartfelt 
thanks  of  the  generations  that  are  to  come.  Honored,  thrice 
honored,  are  these  Christian  scholars,  who  have  thus  been  per- 
mitted to  share  the  toil  of  opening  to  the  millions  of  the 
English-speaking  world  the  rich  treasures  of  divine  wisdom. 


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1881.]  Synapsis  of  the  QuarterUee.  739 


abt.  vin.— synopsis  of  the  quarterlies  and  others  op 

THE  HIQHER  PERIODICALa 
Americcm  Reviews. 

BiBUOTHKCA  Sacra,  July,  1881.  (Andover.) — 1.  Old  Catholicism ;  by  Rev.  Frank  H. 
Foster.  2.  The  Know-Nothing  Position  in  Religion ;  by  Prof.  James  T.  Bixby. 
8.  Does  the  New  Testament  Warrant  the  Hope  of  a  Probation  Beyond  the 
Grave  ?  by  Prof.  R.  D.  G.  Bobbins.  4.  Exegesis  of  Matthew  i,  1 ;  by  Rev. 
Charles  C.  Starbuck.  6.  A  Christian  Sabbath  in  the  New  Dispensation :  Bib- 
lical and  Patristical  Evidence ;  by  Rev.  William  De  Loss  Love,  D.D.  6.  The 
New  Testament  Revision ;  by  Rev.  Frederic  Gardiner,  D.D.  7.  Polyglot  Bibles 
in  the  "  John  Carter  Brown  Library ; "  by  Rev.  J.  C.  Stockbridge,  D.D. 

Naw  Enolander,  July,  1881.  (New  Haven.) — 1.  The^fThoughts  of  the  Emperor 
Marcus  Aurelius ;  by  Prof.  R  B.  Richardson.  2.  The  Authority  of  Faith ;  by 
Rev.  Geo.  B.  Stevens.  8.  Concerning  Sacred  Music,  Ancient  and  Modem ;  by 
Rev.  G.  H.  Griffin.  4.  The  Philosophy  of  Value ;  by  Prof.  J.  B.  Clark.  5.  The 
Indo-European  Family — ^its  Subdivisions ;  by  Prof.  J.  H.  Wright.  6.  llore  Light 
upon  Maryland  Toleration ;  by  President  Magoun.  7.  The  Progress  of  Liberty 
of  Conscience  in  Christendom ;  by  Rev.  E.  Woodward  Brown.  8.  The  Consti- 
tution of  Yale  College ;  by  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon,  D.D. 

September.— 1.  Professor  David  Paige  Smith,  M.D. :  a  Memorial  Discourse ;  by 
President  Porter.  2.  The  Minority  in  the  Mother  Country,  1774 ;  by  Rev.  T. 
Harwood  Pattison,  D.D.  8.  Moses  and  his  Wife ;  by  Rev.  Moses  C.  Welch. 
4.  Old  and  New  Calvhiism ;  by  Rev.  John  M.  Williams.  5.  Our  National  Name : 
What  Does  it  Mean?  by  Charles  H.  J.  Douglass.  6.  College  and  University: 
President  Carter's  Inaugural  Address  ;  by  Rev.  Edward  B.  Coe,  D.D.  7.  Does 
Psyche  "fly  out  of  the  Window?"  by  Rev.  S.  B.  Goodenow.  8.  Psychical 
Mechanics :  Address  of  Dr.  Gustavo  Glogau,  of  University  of  Zurich,  Switzer- 
land ;  translated  by  Rev.  John  B.  Chase. 

Princeton  Review,  July,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Continental  and  Island  Life ; 
by  John  W.  Dawson,  LLD.  2.  English  Poetry  in  the  Eighteenth  Century ;  by 
Principal  John  D.  Shairp,  D.C.L.  3.  The  Historical  Proofs  of  Christianity; 
by  Prof.  George  P.  Fisher,  D.D.,  LL.D.  4.  Philosophical  Results  of  a  De- 
nial of  Miracles ;  by  President  John  Bascom.  6.  Late  American  Statesmen ; 
by  Francis  Wharton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  6.  Anthropomorphism;  by  M.  Stuart 
Phelps,  Ph.D. 

September. — 1.  Assassination  and  the  Spoils  System ;  by  Dorman  B.  Eaton,  Esq. 
2.  The  Prospective  Civilization  of  Africa;  by  Canon  George  RawUnson.  8.  The 
Subjective  Theory  of  Inspiration ;  by  Prof.  Charies  Elliott,  D.D.  4.  Our  Pub- 
lic Debts ;  by  Robert  P.  Porter,  Esq.  6.  The  Historical  Proofs  of  Christianity; 
by  George  P.  Fisher,  D.D.,  LL.D.  6.  On  Certain  Abuses  in  Language ;  by  Ed- 
ward  A.  Freeman,  D.C.L 

Presbyterian  Review,  July,  1881.  (New  York.)— 1.  The  Plan  of  the  New  Bible 
Revision ;  by  the  Rev.  Talbot  W.  Chambers,  D.D.  2.  Henry  Boynton  Smith ; 
by  Prof.  Zephaniah  M.  Humphrey,  D.D.  8.  The  Grounds  and  Methods  of  the 
Temperance  Reform  ;  by  Prof.  John  W.  Mears,  D.D.  4.  The  Ethical  Element 
in  our  Earlier  Literature;  by  Prof.  Theodore  W.  Hunt,  Ph.D.  5.  Critical 
Theories  of  the  Sacre^  Scriptures  in  Relation  to  their  Inspiration;  by  Prof. 
Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.    6.  Notes  and  Notices. 

"  The  Presbyterian  Eeview,"  conducted  by  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge 
and  Charles  A.  Briggs  as  chief  editors,  with  five  learned  gen- 
tlemen as  associates,  comes  to  ns  freighted  with  the  learning  and 
ability  which  we  should  expect  from  the  great  denomination  it 


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740  Methodist  Qua/rterly  Review.  [October, 

represents.    It  is  not  the  name  of  Hodge  alone  that  impreflB- 
ively  reminds  ns  of  the  "  Princeton"  as  it  once  was. 

The  article  on  the  New  Bible  Revision^  by  Dr.  Chambers, 
one  of  the  revisers,  expresses  a  favorable  judgment  of  the  work : 

The  deviations  from  the  texttxa  receptus  are  very  many,  aver- 
aging in  the  gospels  five  in  every  eight  verses,  (although  of 
course  many  of  these  are  very  slight,)  while  in  the  Acts  one  of 
the  revisers  says  there  are  sixteen  hundred,  the  most  of  which, 
however,  do  not  appear  in  the  Revision.  The  work,  then,  may 
be  fairly  considered  as  exhibiting  a  faithful  application  of  the 
principles  of  biblical  criticism  :  and  the  result  shown  in  its  pages 
proves  afresh  the  ignorance  and  the  stupidity  of  the  clamor 
which  enemies  of  the  truth  have  made  about  the  various  readinjrs, 
as  if  they  impeached  the  authority  of  the  sacred  text.  ...  The 
book  is  more  intelligible  to  the  unlearned  reader,  and  yet  pre- 
serves the  antique  flavor  which  so  well  befits  its  age  and  charac- 
ter. Of  course  there  are  many  who  will  object  to  the  continned 
use  of  which  to  denote  persons,  and  be  in  the  sense  of  "  are,"  but 
this,  after  all,  is  a  matter  of  taste,  since  the  archaisms  do  not 
mislead  any  body,  and  children  do  not  read  the  Bible  in  order  to 
learn  modem  grammar.  On  the  other  hand,  some  have  denounced 
the  changes  which  have  been  made  as  "  frivolous  and  capricious." 
It  is  certain  that  this  charge  cannot  be  sustained.  Caprice  has 
had  no  hand  in  any  thing  that  has  been  done.  The  character  of 
the  revisers  is  suflicient  evidence  of  this.  They  had  a  reason  for 
whatever  they  inserted  or  omitted.  The  reason  may  have  been 
insufficient,  but  in  their  view  it  was  well  grounded  and  adequate. 
—Pp.  4V1,  4V3. 

Eight  pages  of  fine  print  are  devoted  to  a  survey  of  the 
doings  of  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  1881,  written  by 
Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge.  We  note  the  two  topics  Vaccmt  Churches 
and  Unemployed  Ministers  and  Terriperance. 

The  deplorable  facts  as  to  failure  of  our  Church,  as  at  present 
administered,  to  distribute  advantageously  the  ministerial  force 
at  her  disposal,  is  clearly  exhibited  by  the  committee  in  the  fol- 
lowing table  : 

gtAtca.                                                    M^-  WHhoQt  Vacant 

^,  ''*"'^"'                                                     isters.  charge.  ehorcUei 

New  York 998  6»  89 

New  Jersey 866  16  26 

Pennsylvania 858  82  166 

Ohio 604  82  106 

Indiana 186  16  84 

niinois 401  42  136 

Missouri 180  19  62 

Kansas 181  20  43 

Colorado 37  6  12 

Utah 12  0  0 

California 122  7  40 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QtiwrterUes.  741 

This  condition  they  attribute  to  three  causes :  (1)  Want  of 
adequate  supnort  for  the  ministry  ;  (2)  A  lack  of  consecration  on 
the  part  of  the  ministry  to  its  work ;  (3)  A  want  of  system  in 
bringing  those  who  are  willing  and  able  to  work  and  the 
vacant  Churches  together. — P.  684. 

A  plan  was  formed  for  remedying  this  evil  by  organic  action. 

On  the  subject  of  temperance  there  was  appointed  a  perma- 
nent committee,  with  its  center  at  New  York,  consisting  of 
seven  ministers  and  seven  elders.  Some  objection  was  raised 
against  this  movement,  as  forming  a  precedent  for  "  an  endless 
series  of  other  reformatory  agencies."  But  the  Assembly  wisely 
viewed  intemperance  as  such  a  specialty  as  to  relieve  this  organ- 
ization froni  being  a  precedent.  We  then  have  the  following 
two  paragraphs,  for  which  Dr.  H.  seems  to  be  personal  sponsor  : 

The  great  danger  lies  in  the  practical  matter  of  the  use  of  real 
wine  ^that  is,  fermented  iuice  of  the  grape)  at  the  Lord's  Supper, 
This  Assembly  decided  that  its  predecessors  "  had  always  recog- 
nized the  right  of  each  Church  Session  to  decide  what  is  bread 
and  what  is  wine."  This  appears  to  be  an  extreme  concession,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  th6  traditions  of  the  fathers,  the  concensus 
of  the  Churches,  the  history  of  the  past,  the  scholarship  of  the 
present,  the  testimony  of  travelers  and  missionaries,  stand  as  one 
unbroken  wall  in  testimony  to  the  fact  that  to  become  wine  it  is 
necessary  that  the  juice  of  the  grape  should  be  fermented.  This 
is  so  true  that  any  real  or  apparent  testimony  to  the  contrary  is 
received  only  as  a  puzzle  of  eccentricity  or  of  accident. 

Yet  there  need  oe  no  danger  until  the  use  of  unfermented 
fruit-iuice  is  erected  into  a  moral  principle.  If  a  man  who  knows 
that  Christ  used  the  fermented  juice  of  the  grape  in  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Last  Supper,  to  symbolize  his  atoning  blood,  yet  de- 
clares that  it  is  immoral  for  us  to  do  so,  he  is  evidently  guilty  of 
an  unsurpassed  blasphemy.  But  the  great  mass  of  competent 
scholars  know  that  Christ  did  so.  Those  brethren,  therefore, 
who  press  this  question  as  a  moral  one  threaten  not  only  to  op- 
press the  consciences  of  their  brethren,  but  to  introduce  an  oc- 
casion of  schism  far  deeper  and  broader  than  any  mere  difference 
of  doctrine  or  Church  government,  or  of  sacramental  mode  or 
vutue.  As  for  the  rest,  if  this  question  of  Biblb  wines  were 
once  settled  we  ought  to  be  all  one.  Every  Christian  must  be  a 
sincere  temperance  man,  and  in  this  age  the  great  mass  of  us  are 
ready,  in  all  social  relations,  to  advocate  the  practice  of  total 
abstinence  on  the  ground  of  Christian  expedSency,  which  of 
course  carries  with  the  obligation  of  Christian  duty.— P.  586. 

All  that  seems  to  us  extremely  perpendicular  and  positive 
phraseology.    If  Dr.  Hodge  knows  that  "  competent  scholars 

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743  Meihodid  Qv^arterly  Bemew.  [October, 

know  that  Chriflt  used  the  fermented  juice  of  the  grape  in 
the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  that  of  course  settles 
the  question  ;  but  Dr.  Hodge  scarcely  knows  that  "  competent 
scholars  know  "  so ;  and  that  they  "  know  "  so  is,  mayhap,  not 
a  fact.  Says  "  M'Clintock  &  Strong's  Cyclopedia,"  noticed  on 
another  page,  "  There  is  no  positive  proof  that  the  fluid  used 
by  our  Lord  in  instituting  the  sacred  communion  was  alco- 
holic." Now,  if  there  is  "no  positive  proof,"  there  can  be 
no  positive  knowledge,  and  even  competent  scholars  cannot 
"  know  "  it.  We  doubt  not  that  an  intense  repugnance  to  the 
use  of  a  dishonest  exegesis  to  attain  a  reformatory  end  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  these  very  positive  assertions  of  questionable 
opinions.  And  surely  the  attainment  of  an  ethical  end  by  an 
tmethical  process  is  to  be  most  peremptorily  rejected.  Yet  the 
overstrained  fear  of  such  a  dishonesty  may  destroy  the  mental 
balance,  and  lead  to  as  fearful  a  moral  disaster  on  the  other 
side.  We  think  these  venerated  men  ought  to  feel  some  mis- 
givings, ought  to  deal  in  gentler  statements,  when  they  find 
themselves  intensely  maintaining  the  absolute  duty  of  poison 
m  the  communion  cup.  So  startling  a  position  should  give 
pause,  and  leave  a  most  serious  query  whether  their  reasonings 
are  not  terribly  invalidated  by  their  results— amounting  to  veiy 
near  a  reductio  ad  ahaurdum.  And  we  may  further  hint  that 
any  assumption  to  read  out  of  the  guild  of  scholarship  any 
questioner  of  these  assertions  will  be  no  success. 

American  Oathouc  Quarterly  Review,  July,  1881.  (Philadelphia.)—!.  The 
Soul  and  Evolution  ;  by  St.  George  Mivart,  F.R.S.,  etc.  2.  CathoUc  ColonittUoo 
in  the  West ;  by  William  J.  Onahan.  8.  Richard  Craahaw ;  by  Joseph  A.  Ao- 
Ian.  M  D  Ph  D.  4.  The  Latest  of  the  Revisions ;  by  Very  Rev.  James  A. 
Corconui,'*D.D.  6.  The  Irish  Land  Bill;  by  M.  F.  Sullivan.  6.  What  Kight 
has  the  Federal  Government  to  Mismanage  the  Indians  ;  by  John  Gilmary  Shei, 
LL.D.    1.  Biology ;  or,  The  Principle  of  Life ;  by  Rev.  Thos.  Hughes,  S.  J. 

The  article  on  Catholic  Colonization  in  the  West  indicates 
a  new  departure  for  the  Catholic  immigrants  into  our  country. 
While  other  races  and  religious  denominations  pass  our  great 
cities  and  lay  their  proprietorship  upon  the  large  landed  areas 
of  our  West,  the  Irish  Catholics  fill  the  tenement  houses  of  New 
York.  They  are  the  victims  of  the  saloon  and  the  caucus; 
they  become  impoverished  and  demoralized,  and  stand  as  the 
most  terrible  indictment  against  Catholicism  in  the  whole  field 
of  controversy.      The  whole  country  views  them  as  "the 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  QuaHerUes.  743 

slums''  of  the  city  and  dregs  of  the  country,  and  exclaim, 
"  And  this,  forsooth,  is  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ! ''  While 
this  sad  repute  of  her  immigrants  remains  Catholicism  will 
find  that  her  immigration  is  her  only  source  of  increase.  It  is 
at  a  terrible  cost  that  she  plays  subservient  to  our  lowest  dem- 
agogism  and  purloins  money  from  our  public  funds,  through 
Vhe  fingers  of  our  party  "Bosses,"  to  build  cathedrals.  No 
conversions  from  Protestantism  can  take  place  ;  and  when  the 
foreign  fountain  is  exhausted  the  stream  is  dry  and  the  lake  to 
which  it  flowed  becomes  stagnant  and  putrid. 

But  let  her  spread  her.  Ireland  in  the  broad  West,  and  indus- 
try, republicanism,  and  piety  may  make  them  a  beauty  and  a 
power.  We  have  no  fear  of  them.  Time  and  events  can  mu- 
tate the  immutable  and  correct  the  infallible.  The  pastorate 
of  the  Pope  will  first  become  solely  spiritual  and  then  nominaL 
The  inducements  to  maintain  transubstantiation  and  priestly 
substitution  will  cease.  And  then  there  will  be  a  splendid 
residue  of  truth,  history,  and  piety  in  Catholicism  which  we  all 
can  admire  and  love  when  her  present  over-lofty  claims  shall 
be  duly  lowered.  At  present  she  is  still  Romcm  Catholic; 
when  she  drops  her  Roman  traits  and  becomes  purely  Catholic 
she  will  form  a  concordant  part  of  what  is  truly  the  Catholic 
Church  of  Christ. 

The  article  on  The  Latest  of  the  Eevisions,  by  the  learned 
and  able  editor.  Dr.  Corcoran,  is  rather  preparatory  to  a  second 
article,  and  so  is  a  survey  of  the  past  revisions.  That  survey, 
we  are  sorry  to  say,  is  written  in  the  bitterest  style  of  old  par- 
tisanships, suited  by  him  to  his  own  audience,  but  little  fitted 
to  stand  the  criticism  of  a  broader  and  less  partisan  public. 
Not  that  the  charges  of  partisan  translating  of  the  Bible  are  in 
all  cases  untenable,  especially  in  the  case  of  Beza.  But,  with 
the  learned  Doctor,  all  on  the  Protestant  side  is  black,  and  all 
on  the  other  side  seems  spotless  white.  He  well  knows  what 
criticisms  can  be  passed  upon  the  Rhemish  version,  both  text 
and  notes.  And  his  candid  acknowledgments  of  the  excellence 
of  the  latest  revision  admit  that  as  the  mists  of  partisanship  are 
dispersed  Protestantism  rejoices  in  the  attainment  of  purer 
truth.  Would  that  we  could  say  the  same  of  Eomanism  1 
Very  soon  then  might  Bomanism  disappear,  and  Catholicism 
be  the  noble  remainder. 


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744  Methodist  QuaHerly  Review.  [October, 

* 
Omitting  the  extended  remarks  upon  the  early  English  veN 
sions,  much  of  which  is  good  only  for  its  intended  audience, 
we  quote  the  following  statement  of  the  three  steps  by  which 
Protestantism  secured  its  independence  of  the  domination  of 
Eome : 

First,  they  began  by  clamoring  for  toleration,  or  what  would 
now  be  called  religious  liberty.  When,  by  fair  means  or  foul, 
they  had  secured  this,  their  next  cry  was  for  religious  supremacy. 
Successful  in  this,  as  they  were  too  often,  by  tumult,  rebellion, 
and  crime,  the  third  effort  was  to  procure  the  extermination  of 
the  adherents  of  the  old  creed.  This  third  step  was  common  to 
all  countries,  whether  the  Reformation  had  grown  upward  from 
the  people  or  downward  from  the  throne. — ^P.  483, 

Leaving  out  the  opprobrious  phrases  here  as  elsewhere  in- 
terpolated through  nearly  the  whole  article,  Dr.  Corcoran's 
three  steps  may  thus  be  restated  :  First,  the  Romanists  denied 
the  Protestants'  right  to  their  own  religious  opinions,  and 
claimed  the  right,  and  exercised  it,  to  crush  it  out  by  force  and 
bloodshed ;  while  the  Protestants  asserted  the  rights  of  relig- 
ious liberty  and  maintained  them  in  battle.  Thus  far  the  Ro- 
manists were  cruel  despots  and  the  Protestants  the  assertere  of 
the  rights  of  man.  Second,  the  Protestants  aimed  at  "su- 
premacy ; "  that  is,  they  found  they  could  secure  their  religious 
freedom  against  their  assailants  only  by  conquering  them  and 
compelling  them  to  keep  the  peace.  We  submit  they  were  and 
are  right  in  both  these  steps,  and  the  Romanists  wrong. 
Third,  they  aimed  at  the  "  extermination  "  of  those  who  pur- 
posed to  exterminate  them.  Protestants  have  rightly  destroyed 
their  inveterate  destroyers.  Nevertheless,  that  in  this  great 
contest  of  three  centuries  for  religious  freedom  the  Protestants 
have  never  overstepped  their  own  principles  and  become  assail- 
ants unnecessarily,  need  not  be  affirmed.  But  the  great  whole 
of  the  history  is  that  Romanism  has  permanently  aimed  to 
crush  out  religious  freedom  and  Protestantism  to  maintain  it 
Hence,  when  Dr.  Corcoran  scatters  through  his  learned  "  Quar- 
terly "  his  complaints  of  the  "  persecution  of  Catholics,"  we 
may  remind  him  that  such  utterance  will  only  do  for  his  own 
limited  audience ;  to  all  outsiders  it  reads  like  most  prepos- 
terous gush  ;  like  the  whine  of  a  highwayman  "  persecuted ' 
from  his  bloody  attempt  to  murder  and  rob  you  of  your  dearest 


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1881.]  Sj/nopsia  of  the  Quarterlies.  745 

rights.  How  gladly  would  we  be  able  to  say  that  this  denial 
of  the  right  of  private  opinion,  and  this  affirmation  of  Eomish 
right  to  crush  it  out  by  force  and  bloodshed  when  Eome  has 
the  power,  was  renounced  by  Romanists  in  our  America.  But 
it  is  still  held,  and  not  exercised  only  for  womt  of  power.  The 
very  terms  of  the  learned  Doctor's  own  statement  of  the  three 
%tep8  show  that  his  whole  soul  is  in  favor  of  the  crushers. 
That  Protestants  should  claim  religious  freedom,  that  they 
should,  rather  than  be  enslaved,  prefer  to  attain  the  supremacy, 
nay,  that  they  should  even  exterminate  their  exterminators,  is 
in  the  Doctor's  view  a  very  great  impertinence  on  the  part  of 
Protestants.  That  such  views  as  his  could  be  boldly  uttered  in 
this  our  free  Protestant  America  displays  great  sincerity  and 
heroism.  We  wait  for  his  next  article,  hoping  to  profit  by 
some  acute  criticisms  on  the  Inew  version  from  his  stand-point. 

North  American  Rktikw,  July,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Present  Aspects  of  the 
Indian  Problem ;  by  Carl  Schurz.  2.  The  Religious  Conflicts  of  the  Age ;  by 
A  Yankee  Farmer.  8.  The  Power  of  Public  Plunder ;  by  James  Parton.  4.  The 
Ck>mmon  Sense  of  Taxation ;  by  Henry  George.  4.  The  Cost  of  Cruelty ;  by 
Henry  Bergh.    6.  A  Study  of  Tennyson ;  by  Richard  Henry  Stoddard. 

August. — 1.  The  Ohristian  Religion ;  by  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  Jeremiah  S.  Black. 
2.  Obstacles  to  Annexation ;  by  Frederic  G.  Mather.  8.  Crime  and  Punishment 
in  New  York ;  by  Rev.  Dr.  Howard  Crosby.  4.  A  Militia  for  the  Sea  ;  by  John 
Roach.  5.  Astronomical  Obseryatories ;  by  Prof.  Simon  Newcomb.  6.  The 
Public  Lands  of  the  United  States  ;  by  Thomas  Donaldson. 

September.— 1.  The  Church,  the  State,  and  the  School ;  by  Prof.  W.  T.  Harris. 
2.  Natural  Ethics ;  by  M.  J.  Savage.  8.  The  Monroe  Declaration ;  John  A.  Kas- 
son.  4.  Shall  Church  Property  be  Taxed  ? ;  by  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale.  6.  Jewish 
Ostracism  in  America;  by  Nina  Morals.  6.  The  Decay  of  New  England 
Thought;  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Ward;  7.  Ghost-Seeing;  by  Prof.  F.  H.  Hedge. 
8.  Factitious  History ;  by  Rossiter  Johnson. 

The  article  on  Natural  Ethics,  by  M.  J.  Savage,  is  simply  a 
flippant  specific  chapter  from  what  we  call  the  great  Brutalistic 
Philosophy.  The  writer  begins,  as  is  usual  with  his  class,  tcf 
pour  forth  a  jubilate  over  the  approaching  downfall  of  Chris- 
tianity. He  tells,  with  a  very  self-confident  magniloquence, 
about  the  growing  disbelief  of  the  Bible  as  an  infallibility ; 
that  "the  best  conscience  of  the  age"  rejects  the  God  of 
the  Bible,  etc.,  etc.  The  coterie  of  mutual  admirers  who 
chant  this  sort  of  triteness,  we  have  little  doubt,  are  perfectly 
sincere,  and  still  less  doubt  are  most  egregious  simpletons. 
They  are  ignorant  of  the  plainest  historic  and  statistical  facts 
of  the  past  and  present  in  regard  to  the  actual  power,  growth, 
and  gigantic  advances  of  the  Bible  Christianity  of  to-day. 


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Y46  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

They  know  nothing  of  the  millions  annually  poured  forfli 
by  Christian  liberality  every  year.  They  see  nothing  of  the 
rapid  multiplication  of  Chrifltian  churches,  colleges,  and  theo- 
logical schools  in  this,  and  growingly  in  every  other  land  of  the 
habitable  globe.  They  overlook  the  vast  associate  agencies  of 
Christianity,  translating  the  Bible  and  its  attendant  literature 
into  every  language,  and  scattering  its  copies  in  every  land.  Bib- 
lical literature,  they  are  unaware,  has  never  before  builded  such 
libraries  of  commentary,  travels,  researches,  and  developments 
as  at  this  hour.  They  never  count  the  missionaries  that  are 
going  forth,  forming  Churches  in  India,  in  China,  Japan,  and 
winning  the  isles  of  the  sea  to  Christ.  They  have  not  dreamed, 
what  is  true,  that  Christianity,  in  all  her  past  history,  never 
increased  so  rapidly,  going  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer  so 
triumphantly,  as  during  the  last  seventy  years.  They  take  no 
cognizance  of  the  statistical  fact  that  evangelical  Christianity 
shows  a  more  rapid  increase  than  our  national  population. 
Does  the  wonderful  sensation,  religious,  literary,  commereiaL 
and  popular,  over  the  appearance  of  the  new  version  of  the 
New  Testament  indicate  that  the  Bible  is  growing  obsolete! 
Some  years  since  a  New  York  meeting  called  to  honor  Mr. 
Tyndall  as  a  scientist  seemed  to  indicate  that  infidelity  was 
mounting  the  ascendant ;  but  in  a  few  brief  days  an  mfidel 
convention  assembled  in  the  same  city  and  the  orators  therein 
were  left  to  mouth  their  blasphemies  to  each  other  and  to 
empty  benches.  And  perhaps  no  assemblage  ever  caused  such 
a  week  of  moral  excitement  in  this  city  as  the  Evangelical  Al- 
liance about  the  same  period.  When  we  contemplate  the 
earnest  and  stupendous  movements  now  being  made  by  Chris- 
*tianity  and  then  turn  to  see  these  flatulent  vaporers,  sitting  on 
their  cushions  like  a  true  "  rump  parliament"  and  declaiming 
about  the  downfall  of  Christianity,  we  are  strongly  reminded 
of  Thersites  in  Homer  railing  at  the  chiefs  and  armies  of 
Greece,  and  think  it  time  for  some  Ulysses  to  lay  due  castiga- 
tion  upon  their  effervescences. 

Never  has  Christian  literature  been  so  immense,  so  bold,  so 
learned  and  triumphant  as  now.  Infidek  find  their  attacks  not 
shunned,  but  promptly  met  and  routed.  Look  at  the  immense 
library  of  Christian  literature  poured  out  by  the  Clarkes  of 
Edinburgh.    Notice  our  own  powerful  "  Book  Concern,"  the 

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jggl  ]  Synopsis  of  the  Qua/rterliea.  747 

Bible  House,  and  the  many  religions  publishing  houses  of 
America.  Who  can  count  the  issues  of  religious  newspapers  t 
Con  the  pages  of  our  synopsis,  and  see  what  a  list  of  religious 
Quarterlies.  And  we  hang  out  our  colors  boldly,  while  anti. 
christianity  inserts  itself  under  euphemistic  cover.  We  have 
"  Christian  Advocates,"  but  no  bold  "  Infidel  Advocate  ; ''  we 
have  "  Wesleyan  Journals,"  but  no  "  Tom  Paine  Journals,"  no 
"  Voltaire  Intelligencers."  Our  Christian  Quarterlies  are  not 
ashamed  of  even  their  denominational  names,  but  are  "  The 
Methodist  Quarterly  Eeview,"  "The  Presbyterian  Quarterly 
Review,"  "  The  Baptist  Review,"  etc  But  Mr.  Savage  does 
not  record  his  boasts  and  doctrinal  brutalisms  in  "  The  Brutal-  . 
istic  Review,"  nor  have  we  any  above-board  "  Atheist  Quarter- 
ly" or  "Agnostic  Magazine." 

Mr.  Savage  rejects  the  supernatural  and  transcendent ;  hold- 
ing that  all  living,  intellectual,  and  moral  nature  emerges  by 
heredity  from  below,  and  nothing  comes  to  man  from  above. 
We  are  evolved  from  brute  nature,  and  are  nothing  but  more 
complexly  brute  ourselves.  The  human  race  is  a  jointnstock 
menagerie,  and  ethics  is  nothing  more  than  a  calculation  of 
joint-stock  interest.  This  calculation  simply  concerns  our 
comfortable  condition.  It  is  developed  in  man,  the  more  com- 
plex brute,  from  the  nature  of  the  simpler  brute.  It  is  the 
same  in  kind  but  more  "  specialized  "  in  degree.  The  hedge- 
hog and  the  hyena  rule  themselves  by  the  same  ethics  as  the 
homo.  The  brutes  are  as  real,  but  less  developed,  philosophers. 
Mr.  S.  knows  no  immortality.  Man,  like  his  fellow  brute,  ex- 
hales all  the  soul  he  has  with  his  final  breath.  And  so  we  have 
an  exposition,  after  the  latest  and  most  improved  pattern,  of 
the  true,  orthodox,  elevated,  ennobling,  all-conquering  Bbutal- 
iSTio  Philosophy. 

Uniyirsalist  Quabtbrlt,  July,  1881.  (Boston.) — 1.  Origin,  History,  and  Doc- 
trines of  the  Ancient  Jewish  Sects ;  by  Rev.  0.  D.  Miller.  2.  A  Study  of  Amer- 
ican Archseology — Process  of  Inyestigation ;  by  Rot.  J.  P.  MacLean.  8.  The 
New  Orthodoxy ;  by  A,  C.  Barry,  D.D.  4.  PauPs  Gospel ;  by  Rev.  J.  Smith 
Bodge.  6.  The  Sacrifice  of  Christ;  by  Rev.  S.  S.  Hebberd.  6.  Science  and 
Art  in  Relation  to  Plant  Life ;  Rev.  S.  H.  M'CoUester.  7.  The  Gospel  for  all 
the  World ;  by  J.  G.  Adams,  D.D. 

The  " XJniversalist  Quarterly"  evinces  its  repugnance  to  ne» 
ology  by  its  cool  reception  of  Robertson  Smith's  Lectures, 
and  its  opposition  to  the  materialism  of  Maudsley  and  H^mt 

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748  Methodist  Quwrterly  Review.  [October, 

mond,  by  narrating  authentic  facts  showing  that  mind  does  often 
perceive  beyond  the  reach  of  the  physical  instrumentalities 
of  the  senses.  It  furnishes,  as  illustration,  the  autobiographic 
account  given  by  the  eminent  Grerman  scientist,  litterateur, 
and  preacher,  Heinrich  Zschokke,  of  his  own  frequent  mental 
perception,  when  he  met  a  stranger,  of  the  most  vivid  and  accu- 
rate scenes  and  doings  of  the  person's  past  life.  People  came 
to  him  invested  with  their  own  antecedents ;  which  seems  much 
like  an  imticipation  of  that  recognition  of  each  other  in  the 
resurrection  state  which  we  have  described  in  our  note  on 
1  Cor.  XV,  44.  The  editor  also  narrates  the  perception  by  Swe- 
denborg,  when  in  Gottenbui^,  of  a  fire  at  that  moment  taking 
place  in  Stockholm,  three  hundred  miles  distant,  attested  (in  a 
letter  given  in  full)  as  being  beyond  all  question  by  the  eminent 
German  philosopher  Kant.  Both  these  narratives  are  facts,  and 
facts  that  materialistic  pseudo-science  cannot  explain. 

We  said,  in  a  former  Quarterly,  that  such  indubitable  fects 
are  constantly  occurring,  often  suppressed,  but  often  published 
and  intentionally  forgotten.  They  are  appearing  every  now 
and  then,  uncontradicted  and  inexplicable,  in  the  daily  news- 
papers. Here  is  one  from  the  "  London  Dafly  News,"  in  re- 
gard to  the  celebrated  Assyriologist  George  Smith,  and  his 
friend,  Dr.  Delitzsch : 

Mr.  Smith,  the  Assyriologist,  died  at  Aleppo  on  the  19th  of 
August,  at  or  about  the  hour  of  six  in  the  afternoon.  On  the 
same  day,  and  between  three  quarters  of  an  hour  and  an  hour 
later,  a  friend  and  f eUow-worker  of  Mr.  Smith's  TDr.  Delitzsch) 
was  going  to  the  house  of  a  third  person,  the  autnor  of  the  ac- 
count of  the  labors  of  the  departed  scholar  which  appeared  in  a 
weekly  contemporary,  (the  "  Academy.")  In  the  course  of  his 
walk  Dr.  Delitzsch  passed  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  house  in 
which  Mr.  Smith  lived  when  in  London,  and  suddenly  heard  his 
own  name  uttered  aloud  in  a  "  most  piercing  cry,"  which  thrilled 
him  to  the  marrow.  The  fact  impressed  him  so  stronffly  that  he 
looked  at  his  watch,  noted  the  hour,  and,  although  he  did  not 
mention  the  cireumstance  at  the  time,  recorded  it  in  his  note- 
book. In  this  particular  case,  as  it  is  reported,  the  skeptic  can 
scarcely  make  much  use  of  the  fact  that  Dr.  Delitzsch  did  not 
mention  his  experience  to  any  one  at  the  time  it  happened.  The 
record  in  his  note-book  would  be  amply  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
liveliness  of  the  impression.  Criticism  would  be  better  employed 
in  discovering  the  possibility  of  a  suggestion  of  Mr.  Smith  to 
Dr.  Delitzsch's  mind.     He  was  at  the  moment  "  passing  the  end 

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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  749 

of  Crogsland  road  in  which  Mr.  George  Smith  lived.*'  He  was, 
however,  not  thinking  of  him,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  . 
an  unconscious  suggestion  of  the  brain,  caused  by  the  law  of  the 
association  of  ideas,  could  take  the  shape  of  a  seeming  cry,  not 
of  his  friend's  name,  but  of  his  own,  so  piercing  as  to  thrill  him 
to  the  marrow. 

The  following  we  take  from  the  "  New  York  Times : " 

Singular  Incident  connected  with  Bishop  Lee's  Death. 

A  private  letter  from  Davenport,  Iowa,  received  in  Boston, 
contains  the  following :  "  We  have  been  very  anxious  the  Ijwt 
two  weeks  over  the  illness  of  Bishop  Lee,  which  terminated  in 
his  death  on  Saturday  morning.  Tlie  whole  community  is  sad- 
dened by  the  event.  Some  two  months  ago  he  got  up  in  ihe 
night  and  took  a  bath,  and  on  returning  to  his  room  he  made  a 
mistake  and  stepped  off  a  long  flight  of  stairs,  and  landed  at  the 
foot  with  a  tremendous  crash,  as  he  was  very  heavy,  weighing 
over  twro  hundred  pounds.  It  aroused  the  whole  family,  and 
Mrs.  Lee  and  Carrie  sprang  from  their  beds,  and,  lighting  each  a 
candle,  went  to  see  what  had  happened,  and  found  the  Bishop 
lying  on  the  floor  of  the  entry.  He  got  up,  however,  without 
aid,  and  seemed  to  hav^e  received  no  injury  except  a  few  slight 
bruises,  though  his  right  hand  was  a  little  lamed.  Mr.  H.  and 
myself  called  on  him  two  days  after,  and  while  telling  us  the 
circumstance  of  the  fall  he  mentioned  this  coincidence  :  He  had 
a  letter  in  his  hand,  which  he  had  just  received  from  his  son 
Henry,  living  at  Kansas  City.  His  son  wrote  :  *  Are  you  well  ? 
for  last  ni^ht  I  had  a  dream  that  troubles  me.  I  heard  a  crash, 
and,  standing  up,  said  to  my  wife,  "  Did  you  hear  that  crash  ? " 
I  dreamed  that  father  had  a  fall  and  was  dead.  I  got  up  and 
looked  at  my  watch,  and  it  was  2  o'clock.  I  coUld  not  sleep 
again,  so  vivid  was  the  di*eam.'  And  it  made  him  anxious  to 
hear  from  home.  The  Bishop  said  he  was  not  superstitious,  but 
he  thought  it  remarkable  that  Henry  should  have  had  the  dream 
at  the  very  hour  of  the  same  night  that  the  accident  occurred. 
The  difference  in  the  time  there  and  here  is  just  fifteen  minutes, 
and  it  was  2:15  by  his  watch,  making  it  at  the  same  moment.  It 
was  as  if  he  had  actually  heard  the  fall.  And  the  fall  finallv 
caused  the  Bishop's  death.  His  hand  became  intensely  painful, 
and  grangrene  set  in,  which,  after  two  weeks  of  suffering,  ter- 
minated his  life." 

Now,  it  cannot  be  conceived  that  a  fire  at  Stockholm  pictured 
itself  on  the  retina  of  Swedenborg  at  Gottenburg,  or  that  a 
sound  from  Asia,  by  atmospheric  vibration,  touched  the  tym- 
panum of  Delitzsch  at  London.  Nor  could  a  special  air-wave 
go  from  Davenport  to  Kansas  City  to  strike  on  Henry's  ear- 
drum.    Without  the  material  organ  the  mind  must  have  seen 

Fourth  Series,  Vou  XXXHI. — 49 

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760  Methodist  Qitwrterly  Review.  [October, 

and  heard.  And  the  idea  seems  to  suggest  itself  that  the  or- 
ganism is  as  much  a  limitation  upon  the  far-reaching  powers 
of  the  soul  as  an  instrument  of  its  ordinary  action.  And  such 
facts  are  so  numerous  that  "  criticism "  cannot  be  allowed  to 
palm  upon  them  any  sham  interpretations. 

This  "  Quarterly"  tells  us  that  fifty  years  ago  the  "evangel- 
ical "  pulpits  proclaimed  "  that  the  heathen  generally  would  be 
given  over  to  the  devil  and  eternal  torments.''  Such  has  never 
been  the  doctrine  of  Methodism  nor  the  teaching  of  her  pul- 
pits. The  old  Arminians  of  Holland  rejected  it ;  Wesley  and 
Fletcher  and  all  our  standards  repudiate  it.  The  doctrine  of 
Dr.  Fowler,  quoted  by  this  "  Quarterly,"  is  at  variance  widi 
our  Methodist  standards. 

Quarterly  Ritiiw  of  thi  Hithodist  EpiaooFAL  Church,  South,  July,  1881. 
(Nashville,  Tenn.)— 1.  The  Genesis  of  Infidelity ;  by  Geo.  T.  Gould,  D.D.  2.  The 
Benson  Family :  Father  and  Son ;  by  George  J.  Stevenson,  M.A.  8.  CarlTle's 
Reminiscences ;  by  President  A.  B.  Stark.  4.  The  Sabbath ;  by  Rev.  E.  O.Fri- 
erson.  6.  The  Memorial  Volume;  by  J.  B.  Wardlaw,  Jun.,  M.A.  6.  Holiness 
and  Sin— New  Theory  Noticed;  by  T.  N.  Ralston,  D.D.  7.  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odism. 8.  Prophecy:  its  Interpretation  and  Uses;  by  Henry  Cowles,  D.D. 
9.  May  Women  Preach  ?  10.  The  Revised  Version  of  the  English  New  Tegu- 
ment.    11.  The  Church  Corrupted;  by  Rev.  John  Arroitage. 

The  Quarterly  of  our  Southern  sister  Church  is  always  a  wel- 
comed visitor  at  our  table.  We  note  with  pleasure  that  the 
names  of  the  contributors  appear  with  the  articles,  so  that  we 
may  in  due  time  learn  who  form  the  literary  republic  of 
Southern  Methodism.  Our  own  Quarterly  usually  preeente 
some  contribution  from  the  ablest  pens  of  the  South.  The 
articles  of  the  Southern  are  rather  too  short  for  the  full  un- 
folding of  a  topic  for  which  a  Quarterly  exists.  The  editorial, 
beside  the  book  notices,  has  a  multifarious  miscelkny  of  liter- 
ary  matters,  where  high  literary  dignity  sometimes  drops,  per- 
haps, into  a  too  colloquial  phraseology. 

The  editor,  who  is  himself  a  commentator,  has  taken  a  great 
interest  in  the  Kevised  Version,  especially  in  the  matter  of  a 
correct  text.  His  critical  judgment  indicates  that  if  the  Re- 
vision Committee  were  now  to  be  selected  he  would  be  the 
proper  representative  of  our  Church  South,  in  the  work.  His 
judgment  of  the  Revision,  as  a  substitute  for  the  Old  Version, 
is  adverse : 

We  repeat  the  caveat  which  we  gave  in  April,  as  a  careful 
examination  of  the  R  V.  satisfies  us  that  the  English-speaking 


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1881.]  SyTwpsu  of  the  Qicarterlies.  751 

Churches  will  never  adopt  it  "  to  be  read  in  Churches"  till  it  is 
subjected  to  a  more  earful  revision. — ^P.  494. 

He  imputes  to  our  last  Quarterly  a  twit  and  a  Jhng  at  "  the 
illiteracy  of  the  South,"  and  advises  us  to  read  Dr.  Haygood. 
But  twit  and  fling  are  below  the  level  of  our  Quarterly,  and 
the  very  words  are  below  the  normal  level  of  its  vocabulary. 
It  has  uttered  in  the  past  many  rebukes  and  criticisms,  but 
always  in  a  serious  and  earnest  style,  worthy  of  the  dignity  of 
the  subject,  and  solely  with  a  view  not  to  malign,  but  to  pro- 
duce a  reformatory  effect.  It  is  unjust  in  Dr.  Summers  to  im- 
pute to  us  any  desire  to  depreciate,  offend,  or  wrong  the  South. 

By  this  time  he  knows  that  we  have  read  Dr.  H.  with  high 
approval,  and  have  noted  the  contrast  between  Macon  and 
Nashville.  When  the  South  takes  firm  and  active  stand  on 
Dr.  Haygood's  platform  the  echoes  of  rebuke  from  the  North 
will  be  gladly  silent,  and  the  waves  of  approval  and  congratu- 
lation will  roll  southward.  And  here  we  record  our  pleasure 
at  the  magnificent  success  of  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Teachers'  Association  at  Atlanta ;  at  the  noble  lead  given  by 
the  eloquent  Governor  Colquit,  of  Georgia,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  that  distinguished  Southern  educator,  Dr.  G.  J.  Orr, 
as  President  of  the  National  Association.  And  the  "  Atlanta 
Exposition"  will  open  before  our  eyes  a  vista  of  the  new, 
free,  industrial,  prosperous  South,  over  which  the  Southerner's 
gratification  cannot  be  higher  than  ours.  Many  of  the  people 
of  our  South  have  been  asking  compensation  for  their  slaves. 
The  South  will  receive  it,  a  hundred  and  a  thousand  fold,  in 
that  grand  prosperity  which  the  abolition  of  slavery  has  inau- 
gurated, and  which  never  could  have  existed  under  the  old  iron 
system.  She  would  have  had  it,  a  hundred  and  a  thousand  fold, 
long  ere  this,  had  she  struck  for  freedom  when  Garrison  first 
rang  the  "  fire-bell  in  the  night"  of  "  immediate  emancipation." 
That  terrible  bell-ringer  was  the  South's  truest  friend.  Such 
is  the  romance  of  our  history  ! 

And  another  flash  of  that  romance  has  just  crossed  our  na- 
tional sky  in  the  assassination  of  our  President.  How  has  the 
whole  nation's  heart  melted  by  his  apparently  dying  bed !  One 
great  national  sympathy  has  fused  all  hearts  into  oneness  :  and 
we  are  again,  as  in  the  olden  time,  and  better,  one  people  as  one 
man.     Such  immediacy,  spontaneity,  and  unanimity  of  feeling 

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752  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

were  poured  from  the  South  as  from  the  North ;  and  we  have 
all  one  loyal  heart  for  our  common  Great  Republic.  Sectional 
confidence  is  being  restored,  and  our  Southern  brethren  will 
yet  find  and  feel  that  it  was  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  we  cher- 
ished hatred  in  our  hearts.  By  the  light  of  this  flash  of  the 
assassin's  pistol  all  eyes  have  been  able  to  see  the  simplicity  and 
the  grandeur,  the  goodness  and  the  greatness,  of  our  President's 
nature  ;  and,  as  a  great  sufferer,  he  has  achieved  more  than  the 
greatest  of  exploits  could  have  wrought. 

Baptist  Review,  July,  August,  September,  1881.  (Cincinnati.) — 1.  The  Natural 
Headship  of  Adam ;  by  Rev.  Philip  S.  Moxom.  2.  The  Apocalypse — \\a  Author- 
ship and  its  Date ;  by  D.  W.  Phillips,  D.D.  8.  The  Baptism  of  Fire ;  by  Rev. 
C.  E.  Smith.  4.  The  Moral  and  Spiritual  Elements  of  the  Atonement ;  bj  Rev. 
George  B.  Stevens.  6.  The  Mother  of  God;  by  C.  E.  W.  Dobbs,  D.D.  6.  A 
Study  of  the  Inquisition ;  by  Rev.  J.  C.  Femald.  7.  The  Place  of  Preaching  in 
the  Plan  of  God ;  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Taylor.  8.  Fasting  as  a  Religious  Exercise — its 
Place  and  Purpose ;  by  Rev.  P.  A.  Nordell 

The  article  on  the  Natural  Headship  of  Adam  is  an  able  re.futa- 
tion  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  "  hereditary  guilt,"  in  the 
sense  of  a  direct  lineal  damnation  of  those  bom  of  Adam.  This 
doctrine  is  thus  stated :  "  Adam's  sin  entailed  guilt  and  penal- 
ty. It  entailed  guilt  and  penalty  for  himself ;  but  as  he  was 
the  race,  his  sin  entailed  guilt  and  penalty  for  the  race." 

We  may  here  note  that  Mr.  "Wesley  excluded  this  doctrine 
of  "hereditary  guilt"  from  our  Twenty-five  Articles.  From 
the  Ninth  Article  of  the  Church  of  England  his  own  hand 
erased  the  words,  (in  regard  to  original  sin,)  aio),  therefore, 

IN  EVERY  PERSON  THAT  IS   BORN  INTO  THE  WORLD  IT  DESEBVETH 

God's  wrath  and  damnation. 

The  doctrine,  then,  of  a  bom  desert  of  wratli  and  damnation 
is  not  Wesleyan.  He  struck  the  doctrine  out,  and,  if  we  are 
herein  Wesleyan,  we  strike  it  out  also.  This  does  not  deny 
the  doctrine  of  what  is  called  Original  Sin ;  nor  of  the  sinward 
tendency  of  the  natural  man ;  nor  the  contrariety  between  the 
purity  of  God  and  this  sinwardness  of  man.  It  does  deny  its 
responsibility ;  its  desert  of  wrath  and  damnation.  "  Here- 
ditary guilt "  in  the  sense  of  desert  of  wrath  and  damnation,  is 
expressly  excluded  from  our  "Wesleyan  Theology  by  Wesley's 
latest  authority.  As  Dr.  Fisk  well  affirms,  man  is  never  re- 
sponsible for  his  hereditary  "fault"  until  he  has  made  it  his 
own  by  personal  actual  sin ;  and  that  saves  our  theology  from 
the  doctrine  of  "  infant  damnation." 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  753 

The  article  on  the  Atonement  denies  the  "  commercial  view ;" 
denies  that  "  punishment "  was  transferred  to  Christ ;  affirms 
that  Christ's  sufferings  satisfied  "  the  righteous  element  in  di- 
vine love;"  and  that  it  "testifies  to  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  pro- 
claims the  righteousness  of  God  in  its  punishment." 


English  Reviews. 

British  aito  Foreign  Evangelical  Review,  July,  1881.  (London.) — 1.  Recent  At- 
tacks on  Calvinism ;  by  Rev.  R.  M'Cheyne  Edgar.  2.  The  Christian  Ministry 
Not  a  Priesthood ;  by  Rev.  John  Kelly.  3.  Culdee  Colonies  in  the  North  and 
West ;  by  Rev.  John  Campbell.  4.  A  Great  Doxology.  5.  The  Liberal  Theol- 
ogy; by  Sup.-Lic.  Gust.  Kreibig.  6.  Presbyterian  Consolidation  in  Canada; 
by  Rev.  Robert  Campbell,  M.A.  7.  The  Reasonableness  of  Faith ;  by  Prin- 
cipal Shairp.     8.  Inspiration ;  by  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  and  Prof.  B.  B.  Warfield. 

Indian  .Evangelical  Review,  July,  188L  (Calcutta.) — 1.  The  Sunday-School  in 
India ;  by  Rev.  T.  J.  Scott,  D.D.  2.  List  of  Important  Scriptural  Terms,  with 
proposed  Renderings  in  Bengali.  3.  The  Primacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome ;  by 
the  editor.  4.  Historical  Sketches  of  Primary  Education  in  the  Madras  Pres- 
idency ;  by  Rev.  James  Cooling.  6.  The  Great  Commission,  Matt,  xxviii,  19  ;  by 
Rev.  D.  Downie.     6.  India's  Immediate  Conversion ;  by  a  Young  Missionary. 

7.  Santal  Kherwarism  in  Chutia  Nagpore  and  Santal  Pergannas ;  by  Rev.  A. 
Campbell.  8.  Modem  Spiritualism:  Its  Claims  and  Pretensions;  by  an  En- 
glish Medical  Missionary. 

Westminster  Review,  July,  1881.  (New  York.) — 1.  Characteristics  of  Aristotle. 
2.  Island  Life.  8.  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  Life  of  George  the  Fourth.  4.  The  Sugar 
Bounties  Question.  5.  The  Development  of  Religion.  6.  George  Eliot:  her 
Life  and  Writings. 

London  Quarterly  Review,  July,  1881.  (New  York.)^l.  Madame  de  StaSl :  A 
Study  of  her  Life  and   Times.    2.  Sir   Richard  *  Templets  "India  in   1880." 

8.  Earthquakes,  their  Cause  and  Origin.  4.  Thomas  Aquinas  and  the  Vatican. 
6.  Walks  in  England.  6.  Florence.  7.  Schliemann*s  "Ilios."  8.  Radical 
History  and  Tory  Government     9.  English  Trade  and  Foreign  Competition. 

London  Quarterly  Review,  July,  1881.  (London.) — 1.  Lord  Clyde  and  the  In- 
dian Mutiny.  2.  Japanese  Laureates.  3.  The  Hampden  of  Holland,  4.  De- 
generation. 6.  The  Italian  and  Scotic  Missions  to  Northumbria.  6.  The  Rights 
of  Hindu  Women.  7.  Prehistoric  Europe  and  Man.  7.  The  Wesleyan  Hym- 
nology ;  Recent  Criticism.     9.  The  Revised  Version. 

The  article  of  Degeneration  calls  our  attention  to  the  fact  that 
genetic  evolution  has  been  mistaken  in  affirming  that  all  de- 
velopment is  upward  and  never  downward.  There  is  in  nature, 
under  the  proper  conditions,  degeneration  as  well  as  exalta- 
tion,   jhe  conditions  of  this  degeneration  are  given  as  three : 

1.  Parasitism  is  a  very  general  cause  of  degeneration.  "Any- 
new  set  of  conditions  occurring  to  an  animal  which  render  its 
food  and  safety  very  easily  attained,  seem  to  lead,  as  a  rule,  to 
degeneration.  .  .  •     The  habit  of  parasitism  clearly  acts  upon 


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754  Methodist  Qamterly  Beview,  [October, 

animal  organization  in  this  way.  Let  the  parasitic  life  once  be 
secured,  and  away  go  legs,  jaws,  eyes,  and  ears  ;  the  active, 
highlv-gifted  crab,  insect,  or  annelid  may  become  a  mere  sae, 
absorbing  nourishment  and  laying  eggs.^  2.  Fixity  or  immo- 
bility is  another  reason,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  the  barnacle. 
3.  Another  cause  of  the  degeneration  of  animal  forms  is  dis- 
tinguished as  vegetative  nutrition,  "Let  us  suppose  a  race  of 
animals  fitted  and  accustomed  to  catch  their  food,  and  having  a 
variety  of  organs  to  help  them  in  this  chase— suppose  such  ani- 
mals suddenly  to  acquire  the  power  of  feeding  on  the  carbonic 
acid  dissolved  in  the  water  around  them,  just  as  green  plants  da 
This  would  lead  to  a  degeneration  ;  they  would  cease  to  hunt 
their  food,  and  would  bask  in  the  sunlight,  taking  food  in  by  the 
whole  surface,  as  plants  do  by  their  leaves.  Certain  small  flat 
worms,  by  name  Convoluta,  of  a  bright  green  color,  appear  to 
be  in  this  condition.  Their  green  color  is  known  to  be  the  same 
substance  as  leaf -green  ;  and  Mr.  Patrick  Geddes  has  recently 
sho^^Ti  that  by  the  aid  of  this  green  substance  they  feed  on  car- 
bonic acid,  making  starch  from  it  as  plants  do.  As  a  conse- 
quence, we  find  that  their  stomachs  and  intestines,  as  well  as  their 
locomotive  organs,  become  simplified^  since  they  are  but  little 
wanted."— Pp.  868,  864. 

Now  these  three  conditions  upon  inspection  will,  we  think, 
be  found  reducible  to  one,  mdctwity^  or  rather  the  cessation 
of  the  need  of  activity  for  satisfied  existence.  The  hardships 
of  life  requiring  exertion  for  existence  are  the  sources  of  im- 
provement, progress,  elevation.  All  nature,  perhaps,  mpst 
thus  work  to  obtain  ascendency  in  the  scale  of  being. 

Applying  tliis  to  the  races  of  mankind,  it  is  said  that  the  law 
of  human  progress  and  regress  is  explained.  Hardships  train  a 
people  to  action,  and  the  ascendency  or  even  supremacy  is  there- 
by attained.  But  the  repose  of  victory  is  the  fatal  beginning  of 
decay.  Prof.  Lankester  maintains,  however,  that  science  is  for 
the  human  race  the  source  of  safety.  Men  know  the  cavses  of 
decline^  and  thence  are  able  to  avoid  them.  Hence,  for  our  race, 
at  its  present  summit  of  advancement,  the  course  of  ascending 
progress  is  a  plain,  clear,  maintainable  line.  To  this  our  re- 
viewer demurs. 

He  denies  that  the  knowledge  is  likely  to  secure  the  requisite 
action.  Will  a  people  at  the  summit  of  prosperous  easc^subjecfc 
themselves  to  the  hardships  of  their  earlier  adversity  ?  The  very 
nature  of  their  enjoyment  secures  that  enervation  which  is  the 
very  exhaicstion  of  the  j>ower  of  energetic  action.  And  hence 
he  concludes  that  the  true  safeguard  lies  in  the  transc^ident 

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1881.1  Synopsis  of  the  QtwHerliea.  Y55 

element  of  our  spiritual  nature.  The  value  of  that  element 
we  readily  concede  ;  but  our  spiritual  elevation  must  not  be  of 
the  Simon  Stylites  order,  for  that  produced  degeneration. 

The  source  of  elevation,  the  proof  against  degeneration,  let 
us  call  at/Uetism,  It  is  the  vigorous  training  of  our  whole 
nature  to  its  highest  tension,  physical,  mental,  moral.  Now  is 
it  necessary,  in  order  to  this  athletic  training,  to  reproduce  the 
hardships  of  barbarian  or  semi-civilized  life  ?  May  not  action 
be  as  attainable,  and  as  fully  motived,  by  the  desire  of  higher 
ascendencies  as  by  the  lower?  May  not  each  new  level  of 
life  become  platform  for  further  arduous  exertion  for  a  still 
higher  step  of  the  terrace  i  That  lower  stage  was  but  one  of 
the  lower  platforms  of  the  terrace.  Where  is  the  topmost 
plane  that  leaves  no  incitement  for  the  higher  ? 

Both  Moses  and  Darwin  declare  for  an  ascending  evolution. 
According  to  both  ascending  progress  is  the  law,  degeneration 
is  the  limited  exception.  And  the  degeneration  tends  to  de- 
struction, and  so  the  ascent  becomes  cleaner  and  more  positive. 
The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  gives  us  the  ascending  steps. 
Assuming,  as  we  do,  the  immutability  of  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween species,  large  on  any  view  may  be  the  area  of  mutability 
within  the  boundary  of  a  given  species.  We  know  what  varie- 
ties are  included  within  the  limits  of  humanity.  We  are  not 
convinced  that  any  lower  species  has  crossed  the  line  up  into 
humanity  ;  we  do  not  believe  that  man  on  earth  will  ever  cross 
the  upper  line  and  rise  above  humanity.  But  as  our  Genesis 
pictures  the  process  by  which  man  attained  his  supremacy  at 
the  head  of  creation,  so  our  Apocalypse  tells  us  of  man's  grad- 
ual attainment  of  the  height  of  his  own  terrene  nature,  and 
then  the  sudden  more  than  restoration  of  his  Edenic  state. 

On  The  Revised  Version  the  verdict  of  this  Review  ac- 
cords very  much  with  our  own  expressed  opinion  : 

On  the  average,  every  verse  of  the  New  Testament  undergoes 
some  change,  and  every  change  may  be  said,  as  a  rule,  to  aim  at 
a  more  faithful  rendering  of  the  Greek.  The  reader,  as  he  goes 
on,  is  presently  arrested  by  some  unfamiliar  expression,  and  im^ 
mediately,  as  matter  of  course,  revolts  against  it.  On  second 
thoughts,  and  with  the  Greek  before  him,  he  finds  that  he  has  a 
more  exact  English  rendering  of  the  passage.  Either  the  order 
of  the  words,  or  a  new  term  introduced,  or  some  slight  omission 
corrects  the  sentence  in  an  undefinable  manner,  and  thus  gives 

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756  Methodist  Qicarterlt/  Heview.  [October, 

him — ^the  reader — the  pleasant  feeling  of  having  the  writer's 
thought  more  clearly  in  his  mind.  It  will  always — or  at  least  for 
a  long  time — ^be  matter  of  question  whether  it  would  not  have 
been  better  to  leave  hundreds  of  these  emendations  alone.  We 
should  not  be  at  all  surprised  if  these  should  long  hinder  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  book,  though,  for  ourselves,  we  think  them  most 
valuable,  and  must  vote  m  their  favor.  .  .  .  Meanwhile,  we 
venture  to  assert  that  the  present  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  in  a  thousand  instances  more  precise,  as  a  reflection  of 
the  sacred  original,  than  the  old  one,  and  that  this  fact  ought  to 
settle  the  question  of  its  success.  .  .  .  Even  supposing  the 
prognostications  of  many  to  be  fulfilled,  and  the  New  Version 
never  to  supersede  the  Old  one  in  authorized  use,  it  will  be  a 
great  advantage  that  it  was  ever  published.  It  will  prove  to  be 
one  of  the  most  useful  theological  helps  of  the  many  which  are 
constantly  pouring  from  the  press. — Pp.  480,  481. 

The  article  on  Prehistoric  Man  in  Europe  has  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  on  the  Hymn  of  the  Creation  of  Genesis  i : 

The  most  ancient  traditions  of  civilization  are  concentered 
around  that  Eastern  region  which  the  Book  of  Genesis  points  to 
as  the  cradle  of  the  race.  A  hundred  years  ago  it  could  not 
have  been  demonstrated,  as  it  can  now,  that  the  languages  spoken 
between  Iceland  and  Bengal  are  descended  from  the  same  stock. 
A  very  ingenious  article  has  lately  been  published  in  the  "  Dub- 
lin Review "  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Clifton  on  the 
first  thirty-four  verges  of  Genesis.  He  is  of  opinion  that  it  is  a 
hymn  of  ancient  Egypt  which  Moses  introduced  into  his  history. 
The  monumental  Records  and  other  authorities  quoted  by  the 
Bishop,  refer  to  the  dedication  of  each  day  of  the  week  in  sepa- 
rate worship  ;  and  he  thinks  that  the  hymn  belongs  to  the  earliest 
and  purest  period  of  the  religion  which  flourished  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nile.  Whether  the  hymn  is  due  to  such  an  origin  or  not, 
there  is  at  least  so  much  eviaence  furnished  of  a  simple,  theistic 
worship  in  Egypt  in  the  earliest  period,  confirming  other  testi- 
mony to  "  the  heaven  which  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy,"  and 
which  was  vividly  near  to  the  primitive  peoples. 

This  idea  first  appeared,  we  believe,  in  "  The  Aids  to  Faith,'* 
from  the  pen  of  Rev.  Mr.  Rorison,  and  was  favorably  noticed  by 
our  Quarterly.  Our  view  of  it,  however,  was  that  it  is  an  antedi- 
luvian hymn  inherited  from  the  Church  of  the  first-born  of  men. 
It  came  with  Abraham  from  Chaldea,  and  George  Smith's  rec- 
ords indicate  that  it  was  truly  rhythmical.  It  may  also  have 
come  down  to  and  through  Egypt  by  another  stream  of  tradi- 
tion. The  thought  has  been  beautifully  wrought  out  by  Prof. 
Cocker,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  in  his  work  on  Theism. 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  757 

Edinbdroh  RsTntw,  July,  1881.  (New  York.)— 1.  Methodism.  2.  Coesar's  Cam- 
piignfl  in  Britain.  8.  Sweden  under  Guatavus  III.  4.  The  Society  of  Antiquaries. 
5.  Japan  Revolutionized.  6.  The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament. 
7.  General  Shadwell's  Life  of  Lord  Clyde.  8.  Philippsen'a  Henri  IV.  and 
Philip  III.  9.  The  Storage  of  Electricity.  10.  Landlords  and  Tenants  in 
Ireland. 

The  article  on  Methodism  is  free  in  its  criticisms,  yet  no  way 
intentionally  nncandid.  We  give  only  its  estimates  of  the  forces 
of  Methodism : 

With  strong  confidence  in  the  accuracy  of  our  statements,  we 
compute  the  adherents  of  Methodism  at  five  millions  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Bristol  Conferences  and  fourteen  millions  with  the 
American.  The  ecclesiastical  property  in  Great  Britain  may  be 
calculated  at  eleven  millions,  and  in  America  at  eighteen  mill- 
ions sterling.  The  annual  contributions  for  purely  Methodist  pur- 
poses in  Great  Britain  amount  to  two  and  a  naif  millions  sterlmg, 
and  in  the  rest  of  Methodism  to  three  times  that  amount. — ^P.  17. 

The  judgment  upon  the  Revised  Version  is  decidedly  adverse : 

In  conclusion,  we  reiterate  our  disappointment  with  this  Re- 
vised Version  as  a  whole.  It  will  remain  a  monument  of  the 
industry  of  its  authors  and  a  treasury  of  their  opinions  and  eru- 
dition ;  but,  unless  we  are  entirely  mistaken,  until  its  English 
has  undergone  thorough  revision  it  will  not  supplant  the  Author- 
ized Version.  After  all,  the  chief  use  of  the  present  attempt  will 
be  as  a  work  of  reference  in  which  the  grammatical  niceties  of 
the  New  Testament  diction  are  treated  with  labored  fidelity.  It 
will  no  more  furnish  an  authorized  version  to  eighty  millions  of 
English-speaking  people  than  any  number  of  memoires  pour 
servir  will  give  them  a  standard  history.  The  superior  critical 
apparatus  at  the  disposal  of  our  scholars,  and  their  advanced 
scientific  knowledge  of  grammar,  seem  to  have  been  rather  im- 
pediments than  aids  ;  and  we  are  left  with  another  critical  com- 
mentary on  the  New  Testament,  but  not  with  a  new  version 
which  will  mold  our  thoughts  and  afford  a  dignified  vehicle  for 
the  great  truths  of  revelation. — P.  96. 

British  Qdarterlt  Rktikw,  July,  1S81.  (London.) — 1.  Augustodunum.  2.  Car- 
hie,  and  Mrs.  Carlyle:  A  Ten-Tears'  Reminiscence.  3.  New  Policy  of  the 
Vatican.  4.  The  Land  Difficulty  in  India.  5.  The  Revised  Version  of  the 
New  Testament.    6.  The  French  Republic 

The  decision  of  this  Quarterly  upon  the  New  Revision  is 
somewhat  dubious : 

It  is  almost  impossible,  in  a  critical  paper,  to  avoid  dwelling 
mainly  on  the  demerits  rather  than  on  the  merits  of  a  book. 
.Our  business  here  has  been  criticism  and  not  panegyric,  and  we 
have  said  little  of  numerous  improvements  made  by  the  revisers ; 
but  we  cannot  close  without  again  expressing  our  sense  of  the 
high  value  of  this  version,  which  is  an  honor  to  the  scholarship 


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758  Methodut  Quwrterly  JReview.  [October, 

of  oar  time,  and  a  gift  of  real  value  to  the  Cliristian  Church. 
The  marginal  notes  will  be  fonnd  to  be  a  mine  of  information, 
and  will  be  helpful  to  the  student  of  the  Greek  Testament  as  well 
as  to  the  English  reader.  Whether  this  Revision  becomes,  as  its 
predecessor  did,  the  New  Testament  of  England  for  a  long  pe- 
riod, or  is  soon  superseded  by  another,  we  feel  sure  that  the  En- 
glish New  Testament  will  always  continue  to  bear  many  marks 
of  the  painstaking  hand  of  the  revisers  of  1881. — P.  143. 


German  Reviews. 


Thbolooischi  Srimiiif  und  Kritikem.    (Theological  Essays  and  Reviews.)     18S1. 

Fourth  Number.  Essaifa :  1.  Betschlao,  The  Apostolic  Apothegms  and  Oor 
Four  Gospels.  2.  Zocklkr,  Dionysius  the  Carthusian,  and  his  Book  De  VenH»- 
tote  Mimdi.  Thoughts  and  Remarks:  1.  Trechsel,  Was  Servetns  with  Luther 
in  Wittenberg  ?  2.  Kraake,  Was  Luther's  Mother  a  bom  Ziegler  ?  3.  Bohl, 
Ancient  Christian  Inscriptions.  Reviews :  Godbt,  CommetUaire  sur  Vepitrt  ohx 
RomatMy  reviewed  by  Diesterbeck.  2.  Heinrici,  The  First  Epistle  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  reviewed  by  Schmidt. 

Decidedly  the  most  interesting  article  in  this  number  is  that 
by  Bohl  on  "  The  Ancient  Christian  Inscriptions."  He  com- 
mences his  treatise  by  a  generous  reference  to  the  work  in  this 
line  now  being  done  by  the  French  savants  Le  Bas  and  Wad- 
dington — the  latter  recently  minister  of  Instruction  in  France. 
The  French  government  has  kindly  sustained  these  investiga- 
tions, and  the  famous  Villemain,  while  Minister  some  forty 
years  ago,  paid  special  attention  to  this  study.  Le  Bas  traveled 
over  Greece  and  its  islands  and  Asia  Minor,  and  as  a  result  of 
his  labors  published  a  valuable  work  entitled,  Inscriptions 
Orecques  et  Lafhies.  These  inscriptions  were  printed  up  to 
the  number  1,898,  when  the  learned  and  industrious  author 
died,  and  Waddington  was  intrusted  with  the  labor  of  finishing 
the  undertaking.  He  traveled  over  the  same  ground  and  prof- 
ited by  the  researches  of  Le  Bas,  and  extended  them  on  the 
same  line.  The  result  of  his  labors  was  a  valuable  treatise  on 
iuscriptions  gathered  in  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  and  Syria.  This 
work  appears  in  numbers,  commencing  with  the  year  1870,  and 
it  is  still  in  the  course  of  publication. 

Besides  this  monumental  publication  we  may  quote  the  im- 
portant labors  of  Dr.  Wetzstein,  Consul  at  Damascus,  exten- 
sively used  by  the  reviewer,  and  those  of  Professor  Kircli- 
hoff  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Eoyal  Academy  at  Berlin.'' 


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1881.]  Synojfuis  of  the  Quarterlies.  759 

De  Vogue's  Architecture  de  la  Syrie  Centrale^  in  two  volumes,  is 
very,  learned,  as  is  also  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Graecarurriy 
by  Curtius  and  Kirchhoflf.  The  fourth  volume  of  this  publica- 
tion contains  Christian  inscriptions.  Among  the  2,841  inscrip- 
tions given  thus  far,  in  the  serial  of  Le  Bas  and  Waddington, 
are  some  which  strongly  attract  the  eyes  of  theologians.  These 
are  specially  the  ancient  Christian  inscriptions  according  to  the 
text  of  the  Septuagint  thus  transmitted  to  our  period.  These 
are  of  special  interest  from  their  contents  and  their  form. 
Their  contents  prove  to  us  the  familiarity  of  the  Christians  of 
Syria,  of  the  land  east  of  the  Jordan,  and  Arabia,  with  the  Old 
Testament  in  the  Greek  version  of  the  Septuagint,  and  this  at 
a  period  when  the  sources  of  this  knowledge  flowed  but  spar- 
ingly, namely,  from  the  fourth  to  the  seventh  century  after 
Christ.  They  seem  thus  to  fill  out  a  chasm  in  Church  history. 
With  regard  to  their  form,  these  inscriptions  present  to  us  the 
Bible  text  in  a  shape  in  which  it  appears  in  extremely  few 
manuscripts.  We  allude  to  the  form  of  the  text  of  the  Septu- 
agint from  the  fourth  to  the  seventh  century,  which  was  not 
changed  in  the  course  of  this  time,  and  now  appears  inscribed 
on  these  tables  of  stone.  The  accord  of  the  text  of  tliete  in- 
scriptions with  that  of  the  present  Codex  Vaticaivus  is  very 
patent  on  examination.  The  variations  are  quite  irrelevant 
aside  from  errors  of  orthography,  provincialisms,  and  the  arbi- 
trary changes  which  lie  in  the  nature  of  the  case. 

And  in  this  same  number  there  is  still  another  article  on 
Servetus,  discussing  the  question  of  his  presence  with  Luther  in 
Wittenberg.  This  same  Servetus  certainly  receives  a  great 
meed  of  honor  from  investigators  and  reviewers,  who  would 
seem  never  to  tire  of  reference  to  the  great  literary  hero  of 
his  period.  This  time,  however,  it  is  not  Tollin,  but  a  new 
investigator  who  dares  to  question  some  of  the  points  laid  down 
by  Tollin,  which  will  probably  give  rise  to  a  new  controversy 
of  endless  length  and  a  ransacking  of  all  the  theological  libra- 
ries of  Europe  for  authorities.  But  Trechsel  is  quite  likely  to 
have  the  sympathies  of  the  German  scholars  of  the  day,  who 
are  certainly  growing  tired  of  this  endless  stream  of  enthusiasm 
flowing  from  the  pen  of  Tollin,  which  they  would  now  gladly 
see  turning  to  some  other  subject 


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760  Metliodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

ZKiTSCHRirr  PUR  KiRCHENOESCHiCHTE.  (Joumal  for  Church  History.)  Edited  by 
Dr.  Brieoer.  Vol.  V,  No.  1.  Euayt:  1.  Steude,  On  the  Origin  of  the  Cathaii 
2.  EIeller,  On  the  History  of  the  Anabaptists,  (1538.)  3.  Budoexsieg,  John 
Henry  Newman  and  his  Share  in  the  Oxford  Movement  Critical  Rrview: 
Th.  Schott,  History  of  French  Protestantism,  Literature  of  the  Years  18V6-80. 
Ancdecta:  1.  Baethoen,  Philoxenus  on  the  Faith.  2.  Winter,  History  of 
Bishop  Ansclm  of  Hayelberg.  8.  EpiatoUs  Reformatorum  in  the  Church  libraiy 
at  Neustadt  on  Aisch,  with  a  Supplement  by  Th.  Brieoer. 

German  Church  historians  are  now  vigorously  turning  their 
attention  to  the  history  of  the  Anabaptists  among  them,  who 
for  a  while  they  had  seemed  to  forget.     Karl  Kraft,  in  a  recent 
volume  of  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Association  of  Rhenish 
Pastors,"  reminds  his  colleagues  of  the  influence  of  this  sect  in 
the  Protestant  movements  in  Switzerland,  West  Germany,  and 
the  Netherlands.      The    labors    of  Bouterwek,   of   Holland, 
brought  many  new  facts  to  light,  and  more  recently  the  Dutch 
theologian  De  Wederdoopers  and  the  German  Von  Egli  liave 
opened  up  a  new  current  in  their  accounts  of  the  Anabaptists 
during  the  period  of  the  Reformation.     And  still  there  is  more 
to  be  said  by  the  author  of  the  present  article  on  the  history 
of  this  sect  in  its  stronghold  at  Miinster.    The  Dutch  historiaD, 
Iloop-Scheffer,  declares  that  the  history  of  the  Anabaptists  of 
Holland,  during  the  Reformation,  ran  parallel  with  that  great 
movement,  and  the  same  may  be  asserted  of  certain  German 
territories.     By  the  aid  of  this  work  Anabaptist  communities 
have  b^en  discovered  where  there  was  previously  no  suspicion 
of  their  existence,  and  the  author  hints  that  Catholic  writers 
have  intentionally  ignored  the  history  of  their  existence  and 
trials.     A  persistent  effort  was  made  by  many  chroniclers  to 
represent  the  sect  as  the  quintessence  of  all  vileness  and  blas- 
phemy, and  they  did  not  in  some  quarters  recover  from  this 
base  slander  until  they  laid  aside  the  name  of  Anabaptists  and 
assumed  that  of  "  Mennonites."     In  later  years  many  of  these 
left  Germany  in  a  body  and  settled  in  the  plains  of  Southern 
Russia,  under  promise  of  protection  from  the  government 
This  pledge  has  not  been  fulfilled  to  the  satisfaction  of  these 
people,  and  they  are  now  emigrating  in  large  numbers  to  our 
own  land,  and  settling  in  colonies  in  the  north-we^t. 

The  article  on  *^  French  Protestantism  and  its  Literature  in 
the  Last  Four  Years  "  is  a  critical  and  valuable  review  of  this  in- 
teresting subject.  Some  five  years  ago,  in  this  same  Review, 
Dr.  Schott  treated  at  large  of  French  Protestantism  in  the  year 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qimrterlies.  T61 

1875,  and  then  made  a  reputation  for  thorough  and  honest  re- 
search in  this  matter,  so  that  a  continuation  of  the  subject  from 
his  pen  will  be  received  with  pleasure  by  German  scholars. 
The  article  is  quite  free  from  that  hidden  vein  of  contempt 
that  too  often  mars  all  German  criticism  of  any  thing  in 
France,  and  the  author  treats  his  French  contemporaries  as 
colleagues  and  brothers  in  the  great  Protestant  work.  He  ac- 
knowledges the  assistance  received  from  the  records  of  the 
Societe  de  Vhiatoire  du  Protesta/rhtiame  FrcmQaisy  and  quotes 
this  energetic  body  as  the  solid  center  for  the  history  of  the 
French  Protestants.  Whoever  will  study  this  interesting  the- 
sis will  find  in  its  members  friendly  assistance  and  true  coun- 
sel. By  its  annual  convocations,  its  literary  organ,  and  its  pe- 
riodical bulletin ;  by  the  library  which  it  has  established  and 
the  prizes  that  are  offered  for  valuable  essays  on  its  hundred 
subjects,  it  has  greatly  forwarded  the  good  cause  of  Protest- 
antism in  France  and  vindicated  the  honor  of  its  predecessors 
in  the  work  of  antagonism  and  resistance  to  Catholic  injustice 
and  oppression.  A  very  marked  advantage  of  this  society  is 
the  neutral  ground  that  ;t  assumes  in  the  various  minor  divi- 
sions of  the  Protestant  Church  in  France,  which  is  a  common 
bond  among  those  whose  great  interests  are  mutual.  A  valu- 
able complement  to  its  usefulness  is  the  publication  of  an 
"Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Sciences,"  under  the  direction  of 
Lichtenberger,  well  known  as  a  thorough  scholar  and  fine  critic 
—a  Frenchman,  though  bearing  a  German  cognomen.  Nine 
volumes  of  this  work  have  already  appeared  and  brought  it  to 
the  letter  H.  It  is  published  by  the  Protestant  publisher  of 
Paris,  Fishbacher.  The  geography,  ethnography,  and  statistics 
of  French  Protestantism  given  in  this  work  can  be  found  no- 
where else  in  French  publications,  because  of  the  custom  of 
French  critics  and  scholars  to  ignore  the  Protestant  element  in 
France.    Hence  its  great  usefulness. 


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762  MeihodiM  Qtcarterly  Heview.  [Octob^, 


FrefMh  Hevieios. 

RiTUi  CHRmiiTNS,  (Christian  Review.)  June,  1861.— 1.  Bridcl,  The  Pessimism 
of  Hartmann  and  the  Gospel,  (second  and  last  paper.)  2.  Rollkb,  Tolennce. 
8.  Saint-Ajidrk,  The  Arctic  Regions.  4,  Bkroer,  The  Part  of  Dogmatics  in 
Preaching.  English  Chronicle,  Miscellanea,  and  the  Monthly  Review.  Julj, 
1881.— 1.  Peter,  The  Centenary  of  Saint  Benoit  at  Mont  Caasin.  2.  SaiktI 
Akdrb,  The  Arctic  Regions,  (second  article.)  8.  Vismx,  On  August  StahL  Phil- 
osophical  Chronicle  and  Review  of  the  Month. 

As  we  opened  the  June  and  July  numbers  of  the  ^^JSevne  Chre- 
tienne  "  we  were  struck  with  the  activity  of  the  French  Protest- 
ant writers  at  present,  as  displayed  by  the  publisher's  announce- 
ment of  new  works.  Bruston,  professor  in  the  Faculty  of 
Theology  at  Montauban,  is  out  with  a  "Critical  History  of  the 
Prophetic  Literature  of  the  Hebrews;"  Sabatier,  of  the  Prot- 
estant Theological  Faculty  of  Paris,  announces  a  new  work  on 
the  Apostle  Paul;  and  Bonnet-Maury,  of  the  same  Faculty, 
gives  us  a  bulky  volume  on  "The  Origin  of  Unitary  Chris- 
tianity among  the  English,"  Kmger,  a  licentiate  in  theology, 
presents  the  Church  with  an  "  Essay  on  the  Theology  of  Isaiah  ;'* 
while  Cuvier,  a  pastor,  treats  of  the  "  Advent  of  Jesus  Christ." 
Then  we  have  the  "Words  of  Faith  and  Liberty,"  by  Bouvier, 
professor  in  the  Academy  of  Geneva,  and  the  "  Christians  of 
the  Roman  Empire,"  by  Aub6.  This  very  remarkable  activity 
on  the  part  of  all  branches  of  the  Church  workers,  and  espe- 
cially among  the  members  of  the  few  Protestant  Faculties, 
shows  us  that  the  laborers  are  comparatively  many  among  this 
small  but  chosen  and  truly  evangelical  people,  in  the  midst  of 
the  opposing  forces  of  Catholicism  and  infidelity.  And  their 
literary  labors  are  generally  of  that  practical  character  that 
makes  them  intelligible  and  attractive  to  the  lay  workers  in  the 
cause  as  well  as  to  the  professional  theologians. 

The  article  on  Tolerance  in  the  June  number  by  Roller  is 
quite  exhaustive,  and  fairly  illustrates  the  significant  history  of 
the  persecutions  endured  by  French  Protestants  in  the  course 
of  their  history.  It  was  suggested  to  the  author  in  a  very 
gratifying  way  on  hearing  this  subject  treated  as  a  thesis  by  a 
young  candidate  for  theological  orders  before  the  Protestant 
Faculty  of  Paris.  This  was  no  less  a  personage  than  the  son 
of  the  venerable  Puaux,  for  many  years  one  of  the  foremost 


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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Qiuxrterliea.  763 

of  the  combatants  in  the  ranks  of  French  Protestantism.  The 
yonng  Puaux  made  so  decided  an  impression  on  his  examiners 
that  thej  were  delighted  at  this  promise  of  a  new  worker  among 
them ;  and  the  auditors  declared  that  the  examiners  might  say, 
without  humiliation,  that  they  knew  less  than  the  candidate 
about  the  special  matter  of  which  he  treated.  The  hearers 
loudly  applauded  the  worthy  son  of  a  venerable  father,  whose 
pen  had  added  so  much  toward  exhuming  and  popularizing  the 
annals  of  the  past.  The  task  of  the  young  theologian  was  a 
sad  one  in  respect  to  his  matter,  for  it  was  quite  impossible  to 
enumerate  the  cases  of  toleration  toward  their  faith  without 
evoking  the  lugubrious  specter  of  the  great  company  of  perse- 
cutors, among  whom  the  Catholic  clergy  and  Louis  XIV.  fig- 
ured in  the  first  ranks. 

In  the  July  number  we  find  a  very  interesting  article  on 
the  History  of  Philosophy  ("  Ghron/ique  PhUosophique^^)  by 
Bridel.  Philosophy  has  been  treated  so  vainly,  and  vaguely, 
and  superficially  by  the  French  as  a  nation,  in  comparison  with 
the  labors  of  the  German  and  Scotch  scholars,  that  there  is  a 
growing  desire  to  have  the  prolific  subject  presented  to  the 
French  nation  in  a  more  solid  and  reliable  garb.  To  this  end 
the  editors  of  the  ^' Revue  Chretienne^^  have  engaged  Bridel, 
a  deep  and  thoughtful  student  in  this  line,  to  supply  for  their 
periodical  a  ^BuUetm  PMLoeophique^^  and  this  article  is  the 
first  of  a  series,  and  perhaps  of  a  regular  department.  The 
opening  page  gives  us  the  platform  of  the  author,  and  the 
sources  whence  he  expects  to  find  cognate  matter  for  his  labor. 
He  would  have  desired  to  treat,  in  commencing,  of  the  princi- 
pal features  of  the  condition  of  philosophy  in  France  from  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  but,  in  default  of  space  for  this  pur- 
pose, he  contents  himself  with  detailing  to  the  reader  the  prin- 
cipal works  in  French  that  may  serve  as  guides  and  teachers  in 
this  matter.  The  first  authority  quoted  is  Damison,  {^^Essai 
sur  Vhistoire  de  la  PhUosophie  en  Frcmce  cm  XIX*  decleP) 
This  work  is  declared  to  be  now  a  little  antiquated,  while  that 
of  Poitou  18  too  hasty,  ("Z<?^  Philosophes  Conterwporains  Fran- 
gads.^^)  The  Reviews  of  Renouvier,  in  his  '^  Annee  Philoso- 
pUique^'^  are  highly  spoken  of,  and  our  own  observations  would 
authorize  us  in  saying  that  this  author  is  rapidly  growing  in 
power  and  influence  among  the  French  Protestants.     Taine  is 


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764  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

especially  recommended  in  his  treatise  on  "Eclecticism  and  its 
Antecedents,"  while  Cousin,  of  course,  holds  a  high  place  in 
philosophical  disquisition.  But  the  highest  praise  is  given  to 
the  "  Histoire  de  la  Philosophie  en  France  an  XIX^  decU^^ 
now  in  course  of  publication  by  Ferraz,  professor  in  the  Faculty 
of  Letters  in  Lyons.  This  work  fills  an  actual  chasm,  and 
traces,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  series  of  careful  essays,  well  writ- 
ten and  happily  grouped,  a  general  and  complete  tableau  of  all 
the  philosophical  systems  that  have  appeared  in  France  since 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  Four  volumes  of  this 
work  have  already  appeared ;  the  first  devoted  to  the  study  of 
socialism,  naturalism,  and  positivism ;  and  the  second  to  the 
traditionalistic  and  ultramontane  tendencies.  The  closing  essay 
of  the  first  volume  is  dedicated  to  "semi-rationalistic  social- 
ism;" and  in  the  last  essay  of  the  second  volume  he  treats  of 
Christian  "semi-rationalism,"  as  well  as  "Gallilcan  rational- 
ism," and  other  phases  that  lead  him  to  the  spiritualistic  school 
of  thinkers,  to  whom  he  proposes  to  devote  his  third  volnme, 
while  a  fourth  will  contain  a  review  of  all  the  most  recent 
schools  now  struggling  for  recognition.  It  must  be  conceded 
that  in  endeavoring  to  present  a  harmonious  study  of  all  these 
authors  M.  Bridel  has  undertaken  a  giant  task,  and  if  his 
"  Bulletin  PKUosophique  "  continues  its  course  until  this  task 
is  finished,  the  readers  of  the  "  Reoue "  will  be  favored  with 
his  contributions  for  many  a  year  yet.  We  are  glad  to  ac- 
knowledge that  his  first  "  Bulletin  "  in  this  number  is  a  veri- 
table review  article,  and  gives  promise  of  thoughtful  and  fruit- 
ful work. 

The  review  of  the  month  by  Pressens^,  the  responsible  edit- 
or, is  a  very  rieJi  and  attractive  collection  of  facts  and  opinions 
concerning  the  living  questions  of  the  day.  It  is  quite  difficult 
for  a  French  reviewer  to  confine  himself  to  questions  of  mere 
thought  and  theory ;  begin  where  he  will  he  must  step  aside  in 
order,  for  a  moment,  to  treat  of  the  questions  of  the  day.  His 
views  in  relation  to  the  last  hours  of  Littr6  are  a  little  peculiar, 
and,  we  think,  tinged  with  a  little  jealousy,  because  the  work 
of  conversion,  if  such  took  place,  was  eflfected  by  the  priests 
and  nuns  admitted  to  his  bedside  by  the  wife  and  daughter,  and 
he  regards  the  whole  aflFair  as  quite  inconclusive  and  unsatis- 
factory.    But  French  Protestantism  gladly  accepts  all  these 

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1881.]  Synopsis  of  the  Quarterlies.  T65 

new  and  worldly  matters,  as  it  is  now  stepping  into  the  fore- 
ground in  political  influence,  in  contradistinction  to  its  long 
seclusion.  We  see  with  pleasure  that  the  new  regime  is  work- 
ing with  success,  and  that  the  departmental  synods  are  to  meet 
at  their  prescribed  dates.  A  semi-official  synod  is  to  meet  in 
Marseilles  in  October.  There  is  no  better  apprenticeship  for 
this  reviving  Church  than  to  use  its  liberty  in  cultivating  ac- 
tivity and  autonomy.  These  free  meetings  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Keformed  Church  are  quite  as  useful  as  a  synod 
that  is  broken  and  decapitated.  These  unofficial  synods  harm 
no  one,  and  produce  a  sort  of  pacification  which  has  really 
modified  the  tone  of  ecclesiastical  journalism.  Harmony  is 
thus  on  the  increase  in  the  ranks  of  evangelical  Protestantism 
in  the  form  of  fraternal  collaboration.  All  those  who  belong 
to  its  ranks,  whether  official  or  not,  feel  that  they  are  serving 
the  same  cause. 


Art.  IX —foreign  RELIGIOUS  INTEUJGENCE, 
THE  JEWISH  QUESTION  IN  EUROPE. 

The  burning  question  of  the  hour  in  the  line  of  popular  religious  intelli- 
gence in  Europe  is  that  of  the  Jewish  persecutions,  which  continue  with  un- 
abated severity  in  Southern  and  Western  Russia  especially.  The  statistics 
of  damage  and  outrage  in  several  cities  are  appalling.  Many  of  those  in 
which  the  Jews  largely  preponderated  have  been  burned  to  the  ground 
— destroyed  root  and  branch — and  this  in  Russia  is  synonymous  with  the 
total  destrnction  of  all  means  of  existence.  Witebsk  (23,000  inhabitants) 
has  been  thus  swept  away;  Bomisk,  (20,000,)  Mobile w,  (25,000,)  and  a 
score  of  minor  cities  and  settlements.  The  latest  and  most  terrible  are 
Korek  and  Minsk;  in  the  former  1,020  houses  and  stores  have  been  de- 
stroyed, among  them  the  great  synagogue  and  several  smaller  houses  of 
prayer.  Every  thing  was  consumed  by  the  flames — forty  lives  were  lost, 
and  5,000  persons  are  absolutely  without  a  place  to  lay  their  heads  or  a 
ci-ust  of  bread  to  eat.  In  Minsk  this  devastation  and  suffering  are  reported 
as  three  times  as  great.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  Jewish  question  is  one  of  absorbing  interest,  and  that  it  has 
called  forth  a  timely  manual  that  will  be  read  far  and  wide  in  the  hope 
of  obtaining  some  key  to  the  great  trouble.  This  highly  interesting  and 
acceptable  book  is  by  a  well-known  publicist,  who  is  more  capable  than 
most  men  of  giving  an  honest  and  objective  view  of  the  matter,  untinged 
by  partisan  feeling  or  prejudice.  {Zur  Volkshunde  der  Jtiden,  by  Richard 
Andree.  Velhagen  &  Klasing.  Leipsic,  1881.)  We  think  the  readers  of 
Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIIL— 50 


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766  Methodist  Quwrterly  Beview.  [October, 

the  QuARTRRLY  will  thank  us  for  giving  them  a  compact  retume  of  90 
timely  a  contribution  to  the  burning  question*  The  author  wisely  touches 
the  subject  only  in  so  far  as  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  case,  and 
therefore  meets  the  scientific  view  of  the  matter.  The  results  are  thus 
so  thorough  and  comprehensive  that  every  intelligent  person  most  find 
as  much  pleasure  as  profit  in  perusing  it. 

The  fullness  of  facts  displayed  in  this  volume  are  very  apropos  to  the 
question  as  to  whether  the  Jews  are  a  nation  or  a  sect.     The  first  chapter 
treats  of  the  Semitic  people  as  a  nation,  whose  original  home  was  in  the 
lands  south  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  while  the  second  gives  us  the  physical 
HABITUS,  or  nature  and  characteristics  of  the  people,  which  have  at  all 
times  and  in  all  zones  remained  the  same.     The  Jew  is  distinguished 
from  all   other  nations  of  the  world,  indeed,  from  all  other  Semitic 
nationalities,   by  his   specifically  Jewish  exterior.    The  third  chapter 
treats  of  the  commingling  of  the  Jews  with  other  nationalities.  Although 
the  national   religion   expressly  forbids  this,  (Deut.  vii.  1-5,)  it   has 
nevertheless  frequently  occurred,  and  the  Jews  have  issued  from  it  vic- 
torious.    It  is  a  very  interesting  fact  that  the  Jews  in  the  Balearic 
Islands,  who  have  been  Ciiristians  for  over  four  hundred  years,  still  inter- 
marry only  among  themselves.     The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  Christian 
Jews  in  Portugal,  and  those  converted  to  Mohammedanism  in  Salonica. 
All  examples  teach  us  that  it  is  simply  impossible  for  Jews  completely 
to  mingle  with  other  nationalities.     And  this,  by  the  way,  is  the  great 
complaint  in  Germany,  namely,  that  the  Jews  do  not  become  Germans, 
but  remain  a  foreign  nationality  as  well  as  a  foreign  sect  in  the  bosom 
of  the  country.     The  non-Christian  Jews  cling  to  their  nationality,  even 
when  they  desert  the  Mosaic  faith.     In  Prussia,  of  a  thousand  Jewish 
men  who  marry,  only  thirty -nine  take  non- Jewish  wives.    Thus  the  Jews 
every- where  remain  **  strangers,"  as  formerly  in  the  Roman  Empire,  with 
which  they  refused  to  assimilate.     In  the  intelligent  Roman  State  no 
Christians  stood  over  them  as  stem  masters,  but  still  they  held  their 
isolated  position.     '*  The  Jews  do  not  pray  with  the  nations  with  which 
they  live,  celebrate  no  great  Church  festival  with  them,  do  not  inter- 
marry with  them.     They  do  not  fully  enter  into  the  labor  of  other 
people,  but  choose  that  which  befits  their  condition  or  suits  their  taste 
—physically  and  spiritually  they  are  different  from  and  antagonistic  to 
the  people  among  whom  they  live.     Such  differences  stamp  them  every- 
where as  a  strange  race.    And  such  they  remain  every-where,  as  far  as 
their  inherited  peculiarities  enable  them  to  demand  recognition— that  is, 
where  their  numbers  are  great  enough  to  obtain  it"   Here  Andree  claims 
that  were  such  a  status  allowed  to  any  other  nation  there  would  be 
danger  of  a  race  of  caste,  as  in  India,  where  the  castes  rest  partly  on 
ethnological  distinctions.     Chapter  four  treats  of  the  peculiar  physical 
relations  of  the  nation.     The  Jew  flourishes  in  every  climate,  and  mul- 
tiplies with  great  rapidity,  as  he  has  more  children  and  longer  life  than 
most  other  people.     And  besides  this  he  avoids  all  dangerous  callings, 
such  as  that  of  the  sailor  or  the  soldier.     The  fifth  chapter  is  highly 


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1881J  Foreign  Religious  Intelligence.  767 

interesting  in  its  treatment  of  ih^  pBeudo-Jewn  ;  through  the  fiction  of  a 
sort  of  adoption  through  Abraham,  those  who  are  not  Jews  are  received 
as  such  into  the  Mosaic  community,  as  the  Falaschas  in  Abyssinia,  the 
black  Jews  of  the  Malabar  coast,  and  the  Karaites  of  the  Crimea. 
Physically  these  people  have  neither  the  characteristics  nor  the  tendencies 
of  the  genuine  Jews. 

Chapter  six  treats  of  the  language  of  the  Jews.  Here,  among  other 
things,  very  curious  specimens  of  ^^Jew-Oerman^^  are  given.  The  Jew's 
characteristic  speech  will  often  betray  him  in  Germany  when  nothing 
else  will.  Chapter  seven  treats  of  Jewish  names,  and  the  eighth  chapter 
makes  us  acquainted  with  the  manners  and  customs  among  the  Jews. 
This  leads  the  Christian  into  a  strange  and  unsympathetic  world :  we 
have  not  even  the  same  chronology,  for  the  Jew  begins  the  year  on  a 
different  day  from  ours.  "  They  are  in  all  their  home-life  strangers  to 
the  Germans,  as  were  their  forefathers  when  they  first  touched  German 
soil."  The  tenth  and  last  chapter  gives  a  very  valuable  study  of  the  Jews 
as  they  are  scattered  over  the  world.  According  to  Andree  they  number 
on  the  whole  6,100,000,  of  whom  about  5,225,000  live  on  European  soil; 
and  the  volume  closes  with  an  interesting  map  showing  the  relative 
Jewish  population  in  Central  Europe.  We  need  scarcely  say  that  the 
book  is  written  from  a  German  stand -point,  as  the  above  remarks  clearly 
show ;  but  this  make«  it  more  interesting  to  the  careful  inquirer  who 
would  closely  study  the  cause  of  the  difficulty  now  existing  between  the 
Jews  and  the  German  nation  at  large. 

FRENCH  PROTESTANTISM. 

A  severe  and  irreparable  loss  has  just  been  suffered  by  French  Protes- 
tantism in  the  death  of  Pastor  Fisch,  one  of  its  most  beloved  and  em- 
inent representatives,  and  well  known  in  this  country  and  England. 
Pressens6,  his  noted  colleague  in  religious  work,  pays  a  beautii\ii  tribute 
to  this  brother  in  Christ,  as  tender  and  loving  as  were  he  a  brother  in  the 
flesh.  The  good  pastor  had  just  arrived  in  Switzerland  for  a  short  vaca- 
tion, when  he  was  struck  with  apoplexy.  He  leaves  a  void  in  the  Free 
Churches  of  France  that  is  incalculable.  His  power  of  work  was  incom- 
parable and  his  zeal  for  the  cause  of  the  Gospel  was  without  rival.  Fisch 
w^as  a  Swiss  by  birth,  and  sixty-seven  years  old.  At  an  early  age  he  ex- 
perienced the  influence  of  a  religious  awakening,  and  accepted  an  ortho- 
doxy that  was  too  austere  for  many,  but  which  was  neither  narrow  nor 
intolerant. 

He  went  through  a  course  of  study  with  the  Faculty  of  Lausanne  at  a 
period  when  this  body  was  in  the  height  of  its  power  and  brilliancy. 
He  began  his  ministerial  labors  at  Vevay,  in  a  little  German  church, 
whose  language  he  spoke  with  a  singular  facility ;  but  he  was  soon  called 
to  Lyons,  in  France,  as  assistant  to  Adolphe  Monod,  who  had  separated 
for  a  time  from  the  official  Church.  The  rationalistic  party  had  suc- 
ceeded in  deposing  this  great  preacher  because  his  burning  eloquence 
was  too  much  for  their  easy  conscience.    When  Monod  definitely  left 


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768  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

Lyons  for  the  Faculty  of  Montauban,  Fisch  succeeded  him  as  stated 
pastor  in  this  Church,  which  soon  became  a  zealous  center  for  home  mis- 
sion work.     He  drew  hundreds  of  recruits  from  Catholicism,  and  his 
Church  soon  became  one  of  the  distinguished  centers  of  the  Protestant 
Gospel,  and  he  gave  himself  without  reserve  to  tUe  work  of  propagating 
a  pure  religion.    In  1846  he  assisted  in  laying  the  foundation  in  London 
of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  of  which  it  may  be  truly  said  that  in  the 
sequel  he  was  the  veritable  incarnation.     He  afterward  met  with  that 
body  in  Paris,  Amsterdam,  and  New  York,  and  he  was  the  very  soul  of 
it  in  France.    Before  a  Christian  community  of  faith  and  love  all  petty 
divergence  disappeared  from  his  view.     He  knew  no  trivial  rivalry  nor 
ecclesiastical  jealousy.     His  affectionate  eye  and  cordial  hand  expressed 
the  most  heartfelt  and  elevated  Christian  love.     This,  indeed,  was  the 
secret  of  his  increasing  influence  in  French  Protestantism.     But  this 
breadth  of  mind  and  heart  which  made  him  the  representative  of  true 
evangelical  Catholicity,  did  not  prevent  him  from  having  well  defined 
Christian  principles.     He  belonged  heart  and  soul  to  the  cause  of  the 
Free  Church,  {Egliw  Libre,)  and  took  part  in  the  synod  of  1859,  whence 
sprang  the  union  of  the  Evangelical  Churches  in  France.    After  the 
death  of  Frederic  Monod  he  became  the  veritable  leader  in  this  cause, 
and  presided   over  several  of  its  synods  with  a  rare  conception  of  the 
difficult  task  which  required  a  prompt  and  clear  mind,  and  much  tact 
with  great  impartiality.     He  was  so  clearly  a  model  president  that  for 
twenty  years  he  directed  the  synodal  commission,  and  guided  the  course 
of  the  Free  Churches  in  the  most  difficult  period  of  their  history  in  a 
country  where  they  form  so  infinitesimal  a  minority,  and  be  frequently 
represented  them  in  the  synods  of  Ireland,  Scotland,  England,  and  the 
United  States. 

Pastor  Fisch  was  an  active  member  of  nearly  all  of  the  great  Protes- 
tant i-eligious  societies.  Last  January  we  found  him  pleading  for  the 
great  African  missions  which  the  war  with  the  Basutos  threatened  to 
destroy.  All  the  burden  of  the  Evangelical  Society  seemed  to  lie  on 
him,  and  as  secretary  he  visited  all  its  stations.  He  took  a  most  active 
part  in  all  home  mission  work,  even  to  addressing  several  times  weekly 
the  popular  meetings  of  M'AU.  He  was  pastor  of  the  Taitbout  Chapel, 
and  preached  there  regularly,  and  gave  pastoral  care  to  one  of  the  sec- 
tions in  the  center  of  Paris,  and  at  the  same  time  gathered  in  his  home 
at  stated  intervals  all  the  young  men  who  were  looking  forward  to  the 
pastoral  work.  One  can  imagine  what  a  treasure  of  sympathy  they 
found  in  him  whose  charity  and  love  were  inexhaustible.  God  had  given 
him  rare  gifts:  an  extraordinary  power  of  work,  a  singularly  ready 
mind,  a  marvelous  ease  in  speaking  foreign  languages,  and  great  physical 
endurance,  which,  alas  1  he  abused  in  doing  the  work  of  three  or  four 
men.  But  his  greatest  power  was  the  flame  that  glowed  within  him — 
the  deep  love  for  Christ  and  for  souls,  and  his  ardent  ambition  to  save 
them.  His  love  was  so  expansive  and  his  zeal  so  intense  that  they  ex- 
tended also  to  us,  and  therefore  this  feeble  tribute  to  his  memory. 


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1881.]  Foreign  LUera/ry  Intelligence.  769 


Art.  X.— foreign  LITERARY  INTELLIGENCE. 

Thb  German  theologians  are  busy  as  ever  in  ceaseless  efforts  in  their 
respective  fields,  and  the  list  of  their  labors  is  not  easily  enamerated. 
We  find  Domer,  of  Berlin,  enriching  the  repertory  of  his  works  by  the 
issue  of  the  third  volume  of  his  System  of  Christian  Doctrine,  {Christ- 
liche  Olavbemlehre^)  of  which  the  first  and  second  are  noticed  on  another 
page.  In  these  he  treats  of  the  doctrine  of  sin,  of  the  devil,  of  Christ, 
of  the  ^^ Official  Ood-manhood  of  Christ^^^  and  of  the  post-existence  of 
Christ  in  his  elevation  to  the  Godhead. 

Oe(n'ge  Ehers,  the  most  popular  authority  in  Germany  in  regard  to 
Egyptian  mutters,  is  just  undertaking  the  publication  of  a  work  entitled, 
PaleHina  in  Bild  und  Wort  —  that  is,  in  pen  and  picture.  After  the 
completion  of  the  magnificently  illustrated  work  on  Egypt,  his  publishers 
were  desirous  that  he  would  turn  his  attention  to  the  Holy  Land  with 
the  same  lively  enthusiasm.  But  it  happened  that  a  similar  work  was 
projected  in  England  by  the  foremost  investigators  of  the  last  ten  years, 
among  whom  are  Wilson,  Warner,  and  Condor,  who  are  at  the  head  of 
the  undertakings  of  the  English  Palestine  Association.  The  German 
publisliers  then  resolved  to  give  the  English  work  in  Carman  garb,  and 
put  this  task  into  the  hands  of  the  Leipsic  savants,  Ebers  and  Guthe — ^the 
latter  being  the  editor  of  the  journal  of  the  German  Palestine  Associa- 
tion. The  first  of  the  sixty-five  numbers  that  will  compose  the  work  has 
appeared,  and  treats  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  It  gives  promise  of  being 
brilliant  and  successful  in  spite  of  the  crowd  of  works  now  treating  of 
the  Holy  Land. 

Quite  a  new  feature  among  German  scholars,  or  at  least  theologians, 
is  a  respectful  treatment  of  Methodism.  That  there  is  a  growing  desire 
to  know  what  it  is,  as  a  new  and  aggressive  power  among  them,  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  Lecky's  **  Origin  and  Characteristics  of  Methodism  "  is 
just  announced  in  translation  by  Ferdinand  L5we,  of  Leipsic.  The  Ger- 
man critic  acknowledges  that  the  **  Religious  Revolution  "  brought  about 
by  the  preaching  of  the  two  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  has  acquired  a  great 
significance,  not  only  because  a  large,  active,  and  powerful  sect  has 
sprung  from  it,  that  has  extended  over  both  hemispheres,  but  because 
it  has  also  exerted  a  deep  and  lasting  influence  on  the  Established 
Church,  and  is  likely  to  exert  an  influence  also  on  the  ethical  powers  of 
the  nation,  and  affect  the  course  of  political  affairs  in  England.  With 
such  an  introduction  to  German  thinkers  in  the  Church,  we  predict  that 
the  era  of  contempt  has  passed  away,  and  that  of  respectful  inquiry  has 
begun — ^this  is  all  that  our  faithful  workers  on  the  other  side  now  de- 
mand.    This  being  granted,  their  work  will  certainly  go  forward. 

Doctors  of  theology  and  philosophy  are  wonderfully  stirred  up  in 
regard  to  Africa.     Dr.  Paulitschke  is  just  out  with  an  exhaustive  work 


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no  Methodist  QuaHerhf  Heview.  [October, 

on  "  The  Geographical  Exploration  of  the  African  Continent,"  from  the 
most  ancient  period  down  to  our  day;  published  by  Brockbansen  A 
BrSner,  in  Vienna,  second  and  enlarged  edition.  Such  a  broad  programme 
as  the  entire  history  of  African  exploration,  of  course  necessitates  the 
review  and  quotation  of  a  great  many  noted  explorers  and  aathora,  and 
seems  a  little,  in  the  reading,  like  beginning  ah  aw.  But  the  object  is 
clearly  to  give  a  sort  of  encyclopedic  review  of  the  work,  that  one  may 
overlook  the  entire  field  in  one  book  and  trace  the  chain  of  events  that 
are  so  full  of  interest.  We  find,  therefore,  with  the  series  of  authors  in 
its  pages,  embracing  all  the  great  authorities  from  Alexander  von  Hum- 
boldt down  to  the  heroes  of  the  hour,  such  as  Rohlfs  and  Nachtigal.  To 
this,  Berghaus  publishes  a  new  **  Physical  Wall -map  of  Africa,"  through 
the  great  geographical  establishment  of  Perthes  in  Qotha.  This  has 
been  enlarged  and  enriched  with  great  zeal,  and  is  full  of  the  newest 
and  richest  materials  drawn  from  the  latest  explorations  and  discoveries. 
We  need  scarcely  add  that  the  "  Unknown  "  finds  no  place  in  this  pro- 
duction of  the  great  map-maker. 

The  Evangelical  Church  in  Germany  is  increasing  its  activity  of  late 
in  sympathy  with  the  general  liberal  movements  in  all  fields  of  thought, 
and  the  popular  demand  is  for  more  light  as  to  the  way  to  counteract 
the  influence  and  rule  of  the  State  Church.  In  sympathy  with  this  desire 
we  notice  occasional  works  in  regard*  to  this  very  active  branch  of  Prot- 
estantism. The  latest  is  that  by  Aurbach  (Die  Etangelmhe  Kirehs  im 
DeuUchen  Reiche,)  the  Evangelical  Church  in  the  German  Empire.  The 
author  has  evidently  the  best  will  and  the  most  eai*nest  intention  to  ad- 
vance the  interests  of  the  popular  Church,  as  it  certainly  is,  but  he  finds 
it  very  difficult  to  follow  out  his  principles  to  their  logical  consequences. 
The  great  German  Church  needs  rebuilding  from  foundation  to  summit. 
It  was  natural  in  its  first  steps  for  it  to  copy  largely  from  the  official 
machinery  of  the  Established  powers,  but  it  has  long  been  able  to  break 
away  entirely  from  traditions  and  customs  of  an  official  hierarchy,  and  it 
is  now  the  desire  of  the  masses  to  do  so.  Tliis  would  soon  be  effected  if 
the  leaders  had  more  courage,  and  were  bold  enough  to  cut  away  the 
bridges  behind  them.  To  do  this  the  present  author  has  not  the  heart 
— tlie  motto  on  his  title-page  is  In  omn^iis  Carilas, 

If  the  Egyptians  of  the  period  took  half  as  much  interest  in  their  own 
matters  as  do  other  people,  there  would  soon  be  a  flood  of  warm  sunshine 
penetrating  their  barren  labors  and  warming  them  up  to  new  life  and 
effort.  Scarcely  a  month  passes  without  the  appearance  of  some  new 
treatise  on  a  subject  quite  different  from  any  that  has  yet  been  given,  so 
that  before  long  there  will  be  no  new  worlds  to  conquer  in  the  matter 
of  Egyptian  antiquities.  This  time  it  is  the  Ancient  Egyptian  Agricult- 
ure, by  Thaer,  Die  alt-<Bgyptische  Landwirthsehaft^)  just  published  in 
Berlin.  Tlie  little  book  gives,  in  compact  form  and  systematic  arrange- 
ment, many  things  taught  us  by  the  classical  scholars  and  the  monu- 
ments concerning  the  agriculture  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.      It  was 


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1881.]  Foreign  Literwry  Intelligence.  771 

'written  with  a  view  to  inform  agricnlturists  in  general  in  regard  to  the 
methods  of  a  people  once  famous  for  their  agricultnral  success ;  but  its 
lively  and  graphic  style,  and  the  excellent  plates  of  ancient  monuments 
illustrating  the  subject  from  historical  tables  of  stone,  have  given  it  the 
entrU  to  a  higher  order  of  thinkers.  Theologians  and  statesmen  may 
easily  find  lessons  in  it — for  the  former  it  illustrates  aud  confirms  Holy 
Writ,  and  for  the  latter  it  contains  many  hints  regarding  the  interests 
that  establish  the  firmest  basis  for  the  prosperity  of  a  nation.  Under 
the  rule  of  Mohammed  AH  the  first  great  impulse  was  given  toward  a 
regeneration  of  agricultural  labor  in  his  extensive  planting  of  trees, 
which  has  been  crowned  with  eflfect.  Maize  thrives  in  Egypt  with  proper 
culture,  and  might  easily  be  made  the  standard  food  of  the  Fellahs,  in- 
stead of  peas  and  lentils.  The  Egyptian  wheat  of  the  day  is  not  what 
it  was  in  the  olden  time,  and  some  of  the  savanU  have  been  trying,  un- 
successfully so  far,  to  germinate  some  of  the  plump  and  beautiful  seed 
found  with  the  mummies.  Mariette  complained  that  all  his  efforts  had 
been  fruitless,  notwithstanding  the  frequent  assertions  that  this  noble 
grain  preserves  its  vitality  through  ages. 

Professor  SchSele,  of  the  University  of  Upsals,  in  Sweden,  has  lately 
surprised  the  theological  world  with  an  interesting  treatise  on  symbolics 
that  gives  some  new  views  regarding  the  comparison  of  creeds  by  this 
method  of  study.  For  some  years  he  has  been  one  of  the  bright  lights 
of  the  famous  Swedish  school,  and  has  conquered  attention  from  his 
compeers  in  other  lands,  notwithstanding  the  barrier  of  his  tongue,  so 
little  studied  by  the  scholars  of  other  countries.  A  German  translation 
of  it  is  heralded  and  indorsed  by  the  famous  commentator,  Doctor 
Zockler,  whose  sign  manual  to  any  enterprise  is  a  sufficient  guarantee  of 
its  worth.  With  all  its  learned  exactness,  however,  it  does  not  run  the 
gauntlet  of  German  criticism  unscathed.  We  judge  from  some  of  this 
that  the  trouble  maybe  partly  in  the  fact  that  the  Swedish  scholar  leans 
too  strongly  toward  Lutheranism,  a  penchant  not  now  so  popular  as  in 
former  times.  But  the  fact  that  Swedish  scholars  are  thus  attracting 
attention  is  one  of  interest. 

A  recent  number  of  the  "Russian  Review,"  a  monthly  journal  for  the 
study  of  Russian  affairs,  is  quite  significant  in  the  character  of  its  articles. 
One  of  these  is  on  the  **  Oasis  of  Achal-Teke,"  and  the  means  of  com- 
munication with  India,  Another  on  the  **Hydrometric  Measurements 
on  the  Amoor  Daria,  and  the  climatic  relations  of  Khiva."  Still  another 
gives  the  adventures  and  studies  of  a  ride  through  the  region  of  the 
Anti-Caucasus.  .  .  .  We  submit  that  these  are  very  significant  subjects 
to  attract  the  attention  of  the  Russians  in  a  review  devoted  to  Russian 
affairs ;  it  would  indicate  that  these  latter  have  much  interest  on  the 
road  to  India,   • 

The  Bulletin  for  the  Theological  Faculty  of  Beriin,  for  its  $emester 
opening  in  the  middle  of  October,  has  just  been  posted,  and  it  may  in- 
terest some  of  our  young  theologians  to  have  a  list  of  the  studies  and 


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772  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [October, 

teachers  for  the  winter:  DUlmann:  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament; 
Old  Testament  History;  Exposition  of  the  Psalms. — Domer:  Society 
for  Systematic  Theology.  —  Kleinert :  Exposition  of  the  Book  of 
Job;  Homiletics  and  Catechetics;  History  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
Evangelical  Church. — Pfliederer :  Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  and  of  that  to  the  Galatians.  Special  Dogmatics. — SemUch: 
Church  History;  History  of  Christian  Dogmatics. — Steinmeyer:  The  Pas- 
sion of  Jesus ;  System  of  Practical  Theology. —  Weiss :  Exposition  of  the 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians;  The  Life  of  Jesus. —  OoUz:  Christian  Dog- 
matics in  its  Foundation. — Lommatsch:  Theological  Encyclopedia;  Chris- 
tian Symbolics;  Society  for  Dogmatics  and  Symbolical  Theology. —Jfisa»- 
ner :  Historical  and  Critical  Introduction  to  the  Writings  of  the  New 
Testament;  Christology  of  the  New  Testament.— iVbiracifc ;  Exegesis  of 
Genesis ;  Exposition  of  the  Poetical  Passages  in  the  Historical  Books  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Hebrew  Exercises.— Pi>?«r;  Sources  of  Church 
History;  Archaeological  Criticism  and  Hermeneutics ;  Exposition  of 
Biblical  History  and  the  Life  of  Jesus  from  the  Monuments.— 5'/r«ci  : 
Exegesis  of  the  Aramaic  Portion  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  together  with 
an  outline  of  Biblical  Aramaics ;  Hebrew  Grammar. — Bathe:  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Old  Testament;  Origin  of  the  Pentateuch. — ^Docent  Miller  : 
Church  History;  History  and  Doctrine  of  the  Sects  now  extant  in  Ger- 
many.— Plath  :  General  History  of  Missions ;  The  Christian  Church  and 
the  English  Government  in  India. — Bun:  System  of  Ethics;  History  of 
Philosophical  and  Christian  Ethics. 


Art.  XL— quarterly  BOOK- TABLE. 

Beligion^    Theology^   omd  Biblical  Literature. 

The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jeunsh  Church,    Twelve  Lectures  on  Biblical  Criticism. 
W.  RoBiRTSON  SiOTH,  M.  A     Pp.  446.    New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.     1881. 

The  case  of  Professor  Smith  seems  to  present  a  serious  ethical 
question.  Is  it  right  for  a  man  to  ensconce  himself  in  a  theolog- 
ical chair  and  use  his  place  for  the  covert  inculcation  of  bihlical 
opinions  subversive  of  the  doctrines  held  by  the  Church  and  in- 
tended by  its  founders  and  authorities  to  be  therein  maintained  ? 
If  it  was  an  editorial  chair  of  a  political  party,  or  a  medical  chair 
of  an  allopathic  profession,  and  the  incumbent  suddenly  assailed 
the  political  or  professional  creed  of  his  founders,  we  know  what 
would  be  the  quiet  and  unquestioned  result.  The  incumbent 
would  be  authoritatively  invited  to  a  perpetual  vacation.  There 
would  be  no  hue  and  cry  of  "persecution;"  no  blatancies  about 
**  bigotry,"  "  intolerance,"  et  cetera.     Every  one  would  see  at  once 


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1881.]  Qtmrterly  Booh -Table.  773 

that  an  allopathic  professor  advocating  the  opposite  practice,  or 
a  party  editor  supporting  his  political  opponents,  is  violating  the 
contract  of  his  occupancy.  But  the  moment  a  Church  acts  upon 
the  same  obvious  principle,  namely,  that  such  an  officer  violates 
the  compact  upon  which  he  is  selected,  then  a  newspaper  ravo 
commences.  Bring  the  question  before  a  judicial  court,  and  we 
know  what  the  cool  application  of  established  principles  would 
decide.  But  when  editors,  who  on  this  point  seem  to  have  no 
principles,  vociferate  against  "ecclesiastical  tyranny,"  eulogize 
the  wonderful  popularity,  learning,  and  ability  of  the  violator  of 
his  obligations,  and  vilify  the  maintainers  of  the  right  of  the 
Church  to  decide  its  own  teachings,  the  Church  is  abundantly 
warned  to  stand  deaf  to  such  bowlings. 

The  question  will  then  very  properly  arise:  Are  all  discussions 
of  the  canon  to  be  foreclosed  and  silenced  ?  Are  there  to  be  no 
free  exercises  of  judgment,  however  scholarly  or  candid,  upon 
the  sacred  records  of  the  Church  ?  That  is  a  fair  question.  A 
great  advantage  would  be  given  to  the  enemies  of  truth  if  they 
could  be  really  allowed  the  position  of  maintainers  of  free  in- 
quiry after  the  truth  of  things.  And,  first,  we  may  answer, 
that  Professor  Smith  does  not  occupy  the  position  of  an  inquirer, 
but  of  a  dogmatic  teacher.  In  his  chair,  removed  from  public 
audience,  he  pronounces,  or  claims  right  to  pronounce,  what  the 
truth  of  biblical  science  is  to  listening  pupils,  who  are  to  accept 
his  dicta^  to  be  by  them  palmed  upon  the  pulpit  and  the 
Church.  No  outside  voice  must  question  his  dicta;  for  that 
would  be  "  bigotry,"  "  persecution,"  "  interference  with  the  right 
of  investigation."  Regardless  of  the  established  opinions  of  the 
founders  of  the  chair,  and  of  the  long-established  principles  of 
the  Church,  and  amenable  to  no  questionings,  he  is  in  effect  to 
make  his  own  private  opinions  by  pure  force  of  position  the 
ruling  dogma  of  a  large  share  of  the  future  ministry  of  the 
Church.  It  will  at  once  be  seen  that  the  tyranny  inheres  to  the 
professor  and  his  chair  ;  and  that  the  demand  for  freedom  from 
illegitimate  despotism  righly  comes  from  his  opponents.  It  is  a 
fair  and  honest  demand  against  a  bold  usurpation.  Professor 
Smith's  position  and  conduct  are  morally  unjustifiable ;  his 
Church  did  right  to  deal  with  him  ;  and  the  clamors  of  his  parti- 
sans are  demagogism. 

Had  this  book  been  written  by  a  studious  biblical  scholar,  and 
laid  before  the  public  for  free  discussions,  it  might  then  be  a  very 
different  case.     The  ordinary  ministrations  of  his  pulpit  would 


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774  Methodic,  Quarterh/  Heview.  [October, 

not  properly  involve  their  introduction  before  a  popular  religious 
congregation.     It  would  be  a  book  that  might  claim  to  be  ad- 
dressed to  biblical  scientists  in  the  interests  of  religious  truth,  per- 
fectly consistent  with  devout  orthodoxy  of  doctrine,  and  allowing" 
by  its  publicity  a  fair  play  for  free  criticism.     The  rightness  of 
such  a  course  would  be  greatly  clarified  by  the  fact  of  a  dis- 
covery of  new  facts  in  physical  science,  in  hbtory,  in  arehjeology, 
or  in  ancient  manuscripts.     Revolutionary  changes  both  in  text 
and  exegesis  have  been  repeatedly  effected.     New  discoveries  are 
made,  scholarly  discussions  are  prosecuted,  radical  changes  are 
adopted,  and  finally  brought  into  orthodox  and  popular  accept- 
ance.    The  spurious  text  of  the  "  three  witnesses  "  was  first  in- 
validated by  a  scholarly  comparison  of  manuscripts  ;  it  was  then 
boldly  impugned  by  Churchly  scholars ;  it  was  next  condemned 
by  orthodox  commentators  ;  it  was  thence  disused  as  a  proof- 
text  by  defenders  of  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  ;  and  finally  it 
was,  with  a  great  unanimity,  omitted  from  our  new  Revised 
Version.     So,  also,  when  geology  began  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  the 
earth's  structure,  a  few  sentences  from  the  illustrious  Chalmers 
opened  a  revolution  in  our  exegesis  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
"We  are  told  by  those  who  profess  to  know  that  the  unanimity 
among  scientists  augui's,  and  will  soon  compel,  a  similar  revolu- 
tion in  the  exegesb  of  chapter  second.    Romanism  allows  Mivart 
to  interpret  both  chapters  by  the  light  of  his  doctrine  of  evolu- 
tion.    These  revolutionary  changes,  however,  require  a  funda- 
mental demand,  not  the  needs  of  a  schemer  for  originality  of  in- 
vention.    They  must  come  from  a  high  and  well-tried  authority, 
not  be  imported  from  Germany  by  a  dapper  young  gentleman 
in  his  overcoat  pocket. 

At  start  Professor  Smith  entirely  rejects,  it  is  right  to 
say,  the  dogma  of  anti-supematuralism.  He  accepts  miracle 
and  inspiration.  He  professes  faith  in  our  evangelicism,  and 
expresses  his  religious  impressions  in  language  which,  unless 
we  charge  him  with  the  use  of  those  double  meanings  with 
which  "  liberalists "  love  to  clothe  rationalistic  thoughts  in 
evangelistic  language,  must  be  accepted  as  sincere.  The  Old 
Testament,  however,  in  his  hands,  (as  successor  to  his  German 
teachers,)  is  demolished  and  reconstructed.  In  his  view  the 
reconstruction  leaves  undisturbed  the  experience  and  theology 
of  the  evangelical  Church.  It  might  be  hoped  that  his  recon- 
struction changes  only  the  arrangement  of  parts,  and  leaves  the 
entire  canon  an  unbroken  whole.    But  his  whole  strain  diminishes 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Booh -Table.  775 

the  authority  of  the  proofs  on  which  the  canon  stands,  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  text,  and  the  validity  of  the  selection  of  the  books. 
The  authority  of  the  Jewish  Church  is  reduced  to  a  nihil^  and  the 
authority  of  Christ  and  the  apostolic  Church  is  ignored.  Isaiah 
is  sawn  asunder  ;  Daniel  is  shut  into  Apocrypha  ;  Canticles  and 
Esther  are  abolished  ;  all  which  seems  a  consistent  finish  of  the 
process  by  which  the  Pentateuch  is  dismembered  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  leaves  us  from  the  generous  professor's  hands  a  bat- 
tered, shattered,  tattered,  fragment  of  our  Old  Testament.  We 
are  thankful  at  being  assured  that  the  final  fragments  are  a  most 
precious  lot  of  chips.  The  prophets  were  eloquent  preachers, 
sustaining  a  high  spirituality,  and  **  have  more  of  Christ  in  them 
than  the  Levitical  Law."  Whether  any  predictions  of  Christ 
are  in  them  or  not  (as  Jesus  supposed  there  were  in  Daniel)  is 
not  said. 

The  professor's  demolition  begins  with  Genesis  and.  Exodus. 
He  is  an  implicit  believer  in  the  questionable  theory  that  those 
books  are  made  up  of  a  junction  of  documents  distinguishable  by 
the  names  of  Jehovah  and  Elohim.  But  as  this  distinction  rules 
also  in  Joshua  and  Judges,  so  the  composition  of  Genesis  and 
Exodus  could  be  no  earlier  than  the  time  of  the  Judges.  We  are 
at  once  relieved  from  trouble  about  any  Mosaic  cosmogony  or 
Edenic  fall  of  man. 

In  the  Pentateuch  he  finds  three  distinct  Legislations  made  at 
very  different  epochs  of  Hebrew  history.  The  First  or  WUder- 
ness  Legislation  is  found  in  Exod.  xxi-xxiii.  These  three  brief 
chapters,  destitute  of  all  ritual  directions,  are  simply  the  code  of 
secular  law  for  a  simple,  primitive,  Oriental  people.  This  is  all 
of  Moses'  real  Law.  The  Second  or  Deuteronomic  Legislation  is 
found  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  and  first  appeared  in  the  time 
of  Josiah  ;  being  the  Law  found  in  the  temple,  and  read  in  that 
monarch's  hearing  with  a  great  reformatory  effect.  Author  un- 
known. The  Third  or  Zevitical  Legislation,  comprised  in  the 
Books  of  Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Numbers,  first  appeared  in  the 
time  of  Ezra,  was  designed  to  segregate  Israel  more  exclusively 
from  surrounding  reHgions,  and  was  a  ritual  code  for  the  nation 
as  a  Church.  That  we  do  not  know  the  authors  of  these  Legis- 
lations the  professor  holds  to  have  no  influence  on  the  question 
of  their  authority  or  canonicity.  But  Moses  seems  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  if  not  to  a  myth. 

This  non-existence  of  the  Levitical  I.aw  before  the  time  of 
Ezra  relies  for  proof  on  the  historic  disregard  by  the  Israelites  of 


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776  Methodist  QuaHerly  JSeview.  [October, 

its  prescriptions  during  all  the  previous  time,  and  the  actual  prac- 
tice, even  by  devout  Hebrews,  of  contrary  rites.  So  uniform  a 
disuse  of  Leviticism  proves  the  non-existence  of  its  code.  In  de- 
tail his  arguments  from  this  dbuse  are  admirably  anticipated,  and 
nearly  all  refuted,  in  Dr.  Harman's  Introduction.  As  to  the 
matter  of  disuse  in  total,  it  is  patent  on  the  face  of  Israel's  na- 
tional history,  and,  indeed,  forms  its  very  structure,  that  this  neg- 
lect of  the  law  did  take  place ;  that  it  constituted  Israel's  great 
apostasy;  and  that  for  it  he  was  swept  from  his  land,  his  temple 
demolished,  and  his  people  cast  into  captivity.  This  very  neg- 
lect of  Leviticus,  which  disconcerts  poor  Mr.  Smith,  is  key  to  Is- 
rael's history.  Israel's  first  downfall  was  for  his  rejection  of 
Moses  ;  his  second  for  his  rejection  of  Christ. 

The  lectures  are  written  in  a  mild  and  amiable  spirit,  in  a  clear 
and  rather  pleasing  style,  and  in  a  lucid  but  not  ver}'  forcible 
logic  Whether  the  lecturer's  erudition  is  great,  as  his  admirers 
claim,  there  is  nothing  to  decide  ;  but  he  has  studied  his  thesis, 
of  course,  however  one-sidedly,  with  great  thoroughness.  His 
book  suggests  a  field  of  research  for  our  biblical  scholars  ;  but  it 
opens  no  epoch,  it  will  work  no  revolution,  it  will  never  stand  as 
a  standard.  Its  whole  theory  is  but  one  of  the  countless  ephem- 
eral  mist-structures  formed  by  the  exhalations  rising  from  the 
neological  swamp. 

Ifie  Tfieistie  Argument  as  Affected  by  Recent  Theories.  A  Course  of  Lectnres  de- 
livered at  the  Lowell  Institute,  in  Boston,  by  J.  Lewis  Diman,  D.D.,  late  Pro- 
fessor of  History  and  Political  Economy  in  Brown  University.  Svo,  pp.  89i. 
Boston:  Houghton,  MiflQin  &  Co.     Riverside  Press,  Cambridge.     IS81. 

These  Lectures  indicate  that  in  the  decease  of  the  author,  in  1881, 
Christian  philosophy  lost  an  able  expositor.  Dr.  Diman  was  a 
distinguished  professor  in  Brown  University,  whose  philosophical 
education  had  been  completed  in  Germany,  under  the  instructions 
of  such  masters  as  Julius  Mtlller,  Rothe,  Erdmann,  Ulrici,  and 
Trendelenburg.  These  Lectures  were  delivered  in  course  at  the 
Lowell  Institute  in  1880.  The  eminent  scholar  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  adjusting  his  style  to  his  popular  audience.  Avoiding 
the  schoolman's  technics,  and  adopting  a  free,  fresh,  flowing  dic- 
tion, he  has  not  failed  to  give  a  popular  clearness  and  a  fine  zest 
to  even  the  most  recondite  parts  of  his  subject.  An  invariable 
candor  and  courtesy  toward  his  opponents  reign  throughout.  He 
is  naturally  diffuse  and  copious,  but  often  lacking  a  terse  grapple 
at  the  pinch  of  the  argument,  and  seldom  summarizing  the  con- 
clusion in  comprehensive  aphorism. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-TaUe.  777 

In  his  first  two  Lectures  he  surveys  the  field,  and  discusses  the 
relativity  of  our  knowledge,  in  which  he  concludes  that  the  lim- 
itations of  our  faculties,  rigid  as  they  are,  allow  us  to  attain  the 
kilowledge  of  a  basal  Absolute.  His  next  Lecture  ascertains  that 
this  Absolute  is  truly  primordial  Ccmse^  even  though  thus  far  in 
the  argument  we  have  not  attained  complete  Deity.  Thence 
contemplating  the  general  Order  of  the  cosmical  arrangements 
we  attain,  as  based  upon  this  Absolute,  the  conception  of  Law. 
Passing  from  Law  .as  reigning  in  the  organic  Cosmos,  to  Law  and 
combinations  of  Law  in  the  minuter  details  of  biology,  we  attain 
Design.  This  argument,  he  next  asserts,  in  an  extended  lecture, 
is  rather  re-enforced  than  enfeebled  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 
God  as  ruling  in  human  history,  and  God  as  endowed  with 
personality  and  infinity,  with  a  final  deduction  of  inferences  from 
theism,  complete  the  argument  and  the  series.  We  may  now 
touch  some  special  points  of  criticism. 

In  the  second  Lecture  it  is  conceded,  as  is  generally  done  by 
metaphysicians,  that  Hume's  professed  reduction  of  8<ml  to  a 
series  of  thoughts  brings  in  complete  skepticism,  that  is,  as  to 
the  reality  and  immortality  of  the  soul.  Let  us  query.  It  would 
be  well,  if  possible,  at  this  point  to  checkmate  skepticism.  A  se- 
ries may  he  as  persistent  as  an  entity.  If  that  series  of  thoughts 
is  persistent  and  consistent  through  eighty  years  of  one's  life,  it 
may"  be  persistent  and  consistent  eighty  millions  of  years.  A 
thread  of  continuity  may  be  as  endless  as  the  permanence  of  a 
substance.  If,  as  Hume  maintains,  the  world  is  an  ideal  system 
moving  on  in  endless  order,  why  may  not  an  ego  be  also  an  ideal 
series  moving  on  in  endless  order  ?  If  matter  is  an  ideal  inde- 
structible entity,  why  not  thought  an  indestructible  line  of  con- 
tinuity ?  The  ideal  earth  through  all  the  past  geological  eternity 
has  been  a  continuous  ideal  persistence,  and  so  will  be  in  the  fu- 
ture ;  what  more  wonderful,  then,  would  be  the  eternal  persist- 
ence of  the  ideal  ego  ?  "We  should,  however,  use  this  argument 
simply  as  a  rebuttal  of  the  skeptic,  not  in  approval  of  the  reduc- 
tion of  soul  to  serial  thought.  The  mind,  we  hold,  does  intuitively 
attach  the  series  of  thought  to  a  subject  entity,  a  conscious  Ego. 
That  Ego  is  localized  by  consciousness  in  our  organism,  but  not 
identified  with  any  spot  or  part  of  the  organism. 

The  agnostic  philosophers  of  the  present  day,  as  Herbert 
Spencer,  affirm  that  the  human  mind  cannot  attribute  intelligence, 
personality,  to  an  infinite  Being.  The  two  ideas,  personality  and 
infinity,  are  so.  incompatible  that  thought  cannot  combine  them 


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778  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [October, 

in  unity.     Now,  we  would  like  to  see  that  affirmation  brought  to 
a  closer  issue  and  a  manly  repudiation.     It  is  a  question  of  psy- 
chological ^ac^,  to  be  decided  by  consciousness,  and  to  our  own 
consciousness  is  the  appeal  to  be  made.      When,  then,  for  in- 
stance, Mr.  Spencer  tells  us  that  he  cannot  combine   the  two 
thoughts  in  the  same  subject  we,  of  course,  in  courtesy  concede 
him  the  mental  impotence  he  claims.     But  when  he  grows  ag- 
gressive, and  tells  me  that  I  cannot,  I  am  entitled  to  reply  that  I 
know  by  the  conclusive  evidence  of  consciousness  that  affirmation 
to  be  a  falsity.     I  can,  without  the  slightest  mental  difficulty, 
think  the  conception  of  an  infinite,  perfectly  powerful,  and  per- 
f ectly  wise.  One.     I  can  think  it  much  more  perfectly  than  I  can 
most  finites  ;  as,  for  instance,  such  a  finite  being  as  Mr.  Spencer 
himself,  especially  such  a  Spencer  as  he  here  presents  himself,  a 
man  of  great  intellect  who  cannot  conceive  of  an  intelligent  Om- 
nipotent.    Such  a  divine  conception  we  psychologically  possessed 
for  many  years  before  we  ever  thought  out  this  eminent  philoso- 
pher ;  and  we  cannot  now  be  persuaded  that  our  mind  is  truly 
vacant  of  that  composite  idea.     And,  next,  having  answered  for 
ourself  individually,  we  hesitate  not  to  appeal  to  our  readers  or 
our  hearers  for  the  testimony  of  their  consciousness.     Can  you 
not  conceive  the  unity  of  an  infinite  Being,  perfectly  potent  and 
perfectly  sapient,  just  as  easily  as  you  can  conceive  an  ocean  ex- 
tending from  pole  to  pole,  or  a  luminiferous  ether  bathing  the 
worlds  in  light,  or  a  gravitation  holding  the  spheres  in  harmonious 
roll  ?     And,  then,  extending  the  range  of  our  interrogation,  we 
ask  the  Christendom  of  eighteen  centuries :  Have  you  the  concep- 
tion of  an  infinite,  all-wise,  onmipotent  Qod  ?    We  put  the  ques- 
tion to  an  older  Judaism  and  to  a  younger  Mohammedanism,  and 
from  this  whole  wide  jury  of  the  human  intellect  we  know  what 
responsive  verdict  we  obtain.     It  is,  then,  too  late  in  the  day  for 
our  accomplished  philosopher  to  tell  us  that  an  all-wise  Omnipo- 
tent is  "  unthinkable  "  by  the  human  mind.     The  statement  is 
historically  a  falsehood,  philosophically  a  "  pseud-idea." 

In  his  chapter  on  Peraonalitf/  and  the  If\/iniU  the  professor 
aims  to  connect  and  endow  the  Deity,  thus  far  evinced  by  the 
design  argument,  with  absolute  infinity.  This  aim  is,  we  think, 
rather  in  the  interest  of  metaphysics  than  of  religion.  Practi- 
cally we  need  trouble  our  faith  with  the  question,  whether  the 
God  whose  wisdom  reigns  through  the  known  universe  is 
metaphysically  infinite,  as  little  as  the  astronomer  troubles  him- 
self with  the  question  whether  gravitation  extends  its  lines  to  a 

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1881.1  Quwrterly  Book -Table.  779 

metaphysically  infinite  length.  Nor  do  we  see  that  Prof.  Diman 
attains  a  metaphysical  certainty  on  that  point.  The  most  that 
we  can  say  is,  that  if  these  metaphysical  attributes  have  a  true 
validity  and  belong  to  some  being,  there  is  no  other  known  can- 
didate for  that  crown  than  the  Deity  of  the  design  argument. 
The  nomination  of  any  other  aspirant  is  illegitimate. 

The  refusal  of  Herbert  Spencer  to  attribute  intelligence  to  his 
Unknown  Absolute,  his  substitute  for  God,  is  also  answered  by 
Diman,  clearly,  if  not  trenchantly.  Spencer  admits  that  his  Un- 
known  is  truly  known  as  cause  and  ground  of  the  universe ;  a 
universe  whose  objective  character  very  much  resembles  a  product 
of  mind.  This  refusal  of  intelligence  to  such  a  cause  of  such  a  pro- 
duct looks  much  like  a  voluntary  perverseness.  Nor  is  that  look 
much  relieved  by  the  pretext  assigned  by  Spencer  for  his  refusal. 
His  pretext  is  the  fact  that  there  may  be  attributes  immensely 
transcending  intelligence  inconceivable  to  uB.  But  if  to  us  in- 
conceivable they  cannot  legitimately  come  into  our  reasoning, 
for  "  thinkability  "  is  a  fundamental  test  with  Mr.  Spencer  of  the 
validity  of  a  conception ;  the  unthinkable  is  the  non-existent. 
And  justly  here  :  for  a  man  might  as  well  say  that  a  mathemat- 
ical square  is  not  square  because  there  may  be  an  unthinkable 
square  infinitely  squarer.  Again,  if  there  is  a  higher  and  a  lower 
in  attributes,  why  does  the  possibility  of  a  higher  exclude  or  ren- 
der questionable  the  existence  of  a  lower  ?  Why  may  not  both 
co-exist  ?  Again,  the  withdrawal  of  intelligence,  intelligence  of 
the  most  transcendent  character,  leaves  an  irreparably  maimed 
conception,  destroying  its  claim  as  an  "Absolute."  Whatever 
its  other  attributes,  if  it  knows  neither  itself  nor  any  thing  else, 
if  it  can  never  act  with  intelligence,  the  greater  its  being  the 
greater  its  monstrosity.  It  has  no  claim  to  existence,  and  its 
very  conception  should  be  precipitated  out  of  human  thought. 

The  closing  chapter.  Inferences  from  Theism^  should,  we  think, 
have  presented  some  definite  and  impressive  Christian  views  of 
the  belief  in  God.  We  wish  our  eloquent  professor,  without  violat- 
ing that  courtesy  which  he  so  finely  maintains  toward  opponents 
throughout  his  volume,  had  called  to  attention  the  fact  that  theism 
is  not  only  an  intellective  but  a  moral  and  profoundly  religious 
question,  involving  something  more  of  responsibility  than  does 
the  question  of  the  nature  of  the  comet  or  the  plutonic  theory  of 
the  earth.  How  eloquently  could  he  have  pictured  the  desolate- 
ness  of  the  spirit  vacant  of  the  divine  Idea,  the  fearfulness  of 
the  probability  that  an  atheistic  creed,  being  the  result  of  a  god- 

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780  Methodist  Quarterly  Beview.  [October, 

less  heart,  has  within  it  an  infinite  danger ;  and  how  completely 
the  impossibility  of  prayer  for  an  atheistic  soul  leaves  it  without 
all  remedy  or  rescue.  And  when  he  tells  so  well  how  little  men 
are  theists  from  the  arguments  he  has  presented,  why  does  he 
omit  to  tell  us  whence  comes  the  cap-stone  and  crown  of  all  our 
theistic  argument  ?  Men  do  believe  in  God  from  the  design  ar- 
gument but  feebly,  justly  conclusive  as  it  is.  Why  ?  Just  be- 
cause, since  it  is  not  only  an  intellective  but  a  spiritual  question, 
the  intellective  proof  furnishes  the  intellective  conviction,  but  not 
the  true  spiritual  realization  of  God.  That,  the  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit,  the  truly  knowing  God,  comes  only  from  profound 
religious  experience.  The  human  spirit  that  communes  with  God 
realizes  the  divine  presence,  and  truly  knows  Gk)d.  The  great 
argument  is  then  finished  and  crowned,  and  the  undoubting  soul 
rests  in  perfect  peace.  Hence  it  is  from  our  estrangement  of  the 
heart  from  God  that  springs  all  doubt  of  the  existence  of  God. 
Atheism  is,  therefore,  included  in  the  very  body  of  human  sin, 
the  very  body  of  death. 


Cyclopcedia  of  Biblicaly  Theological^  and  Ecdesiagdcal  Literature,  Prepared  bj 
Rev.  John  ATClintock,  D.D.,  and  Jahks  Strong,  S.T.D.  Vol  X,  S-Z.  Quarto, 
pp.1120.     New  York:   Harper  &  Brothers,    1881. 

We  congratulate  Dr.  Strong  on  the  completion  of  his  big  Alpha- 
bet. It  is  a  monumentum  cere,  etc.  The  present  volume,  with 
its  able  articles  and  plentiful  and  pertinent  illustrations,  is  at 
least  equal  to  any  of  its  predecessors.  "We  are  gratified  to  see 
the  announcement  that  there  is  to  be  added  a  supplement  volume. 
And  that  will  have  to  be  supplemented  by  another,  and  so  on;  so 
that  the  good  doctor's  work  will  always  be  "  being  done,"  but 
never  "  having  been  done."  Thereby  comes  into  existence  a  new 
sort  of  periodical,  indicating  that  no  department  of  thought  is  more 
alive  and  "  progressing  "  than  biblical  and  theological  science. 

Among  the  articles  we  specially  note  those  on  the  Talmud 
and  the  Targums,  by  Dr.  Benard  Pick,  of  Rochester.  The  articles 
on  Unitarianism  and  Universalism  are  contributed  by  eminent 
ministers  of  those  denominations.  Valuable  articles  by  the 
editor  are  Tabernacle,  Temple,  Council  of  Trent,  Wesley  and 
Wesleyanism,  and  Wines.  Upon  the  doctrine  of  the  human 
Will,  the  editor  has  impartially  selected  an  Arminian  and  a  Cal- 
vinistic  writer  to  present  the  opposite  sides  of  freedom  and  neces- 
sity, namely.  Dr.  Raymond  and  Dr.  A*  A.  Hodge,  a  selection  very 
satisfactory  to  all  parties. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Booh-Table.  781 

Our  limits  permit  but  a  few  notes  on  Dr.  Hodge's  Article.  He 
objects,  himself,  to  Edwards,  (quoting  Dr.  Smith,)  as  making  Will 
too  mechanically  caused  by  antecedents ;  but,  nevertheless,  nei- 
ther Dr.  S.  nor  Dr.  H.  get  one  hair  beyond  Edwards;  all  denying 
that  there  is  any  adequate  power  to  choose  otherwise  than  the 
given  choice,  and  so  giving  us  nothing  more  than  the  freedom  of 
the  clock-hammer  to  strike  no  otherwise  than  it  does  strike.  Their 
freedom  is  simply  clock-hammer  freedom;  they  never  with  all 
their  struggles  and  wriggles  get  beyond  dock-kamnierism.  And 
on  this  vital  point  they  are  all  exactly  identical  and  one.  Dr.  H. 
quotes  Calvin  as  acknowledging  a  will  that  "  determines  itself 
by  itself;"  but  without  adding  "with  power  to  determine  itself 
by  itself,"  in  any  other  than  one  given  direction  ;  so  that  we  are 
still  in  clock'kammerism.  For  a  clock-hammer  "  determines  itself 
by  itself"  in  one  solely  possible  direction.  Dr.  H.  assures  us  that 
Edwards'  argument  of  the  Infinite  series  (against  the  Arminian 
self -determining  power)  is  triumphant;  then,  we  reply,  Edwards 
triumphantly  proved  that  there  is  no  self -determining  power  that 
can  self-determine  any  other  than  one  sole  way,  which  is  again 
clock-hammer  self-determination.  Again,  Dr.  H.  tells  us  that 
Edwards  never  intended  to  deny  that  freedom  of  choice  which  is 
witnessed  for  in  conscience;  but,  we  answer,  he  did  intend  to 
deny  all  freedom  for  other  than  a  given  choice,  as  truly  as  he 
denied  that  a.  clock-hammer  can  strike  any  other  than  a  given 
stroke.  So  that  Edwards  did  deny,  and  did  intend  to  deny,  that 
very  freedom  of  choice  which  actually  and  truly  is  vritnessed  for 
in  conscience ;  and  so  does  Dr.  Hodge.  The  difference  between 
the  necessitation  of  the  clock  stroke  and  of  the  volition  is,  that 
the  former  is  physical  and  the  latter  is  psychological;  but  the 
absoluteness  of  the  necessitation  and  exclusion  of  all  responsible 
freedom  is  in  both  equal  and  one.  The  one  is  physical  and  the 
other  psychological  dock-hammerism.  Universally,  volitional 
necessitation  is  clock-hammerisniy  and  should  go  by  that  name. 
And  thb  clock-hammerism  can  be  no  more  reconciled  with  the 
moral  sense  than  a  mathematical  axiom  can  be  erased  from  the 
human  mind.  Dr.  H.  condemns  our  volume  on  the  Will  for  not 
investigating  it  as  a  purely  psychological  and  "not  as  a  theolog- 
ical question.  Isaac  Taylor  censured  Edwards  (as  Dr.  H.  also 
does)  for  the  same  thing.  But  is  not  the  criticism  absurd  ?  Does 
Dr.  H.  affirm  that  the  Will  is  not  to  be  analyzed  in  its  the- 
ological bearings,  as  well  as  in  its  psychological  nature?  The 
title  of  our  volume  is:  The  Freedom  of  the  Willy  as  a  Basis  of 

Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXHI. — 51 


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782  Meilwdist  Quarterly  Beview.  [October, 

Human  ResponsiUlity  and  a  Divine  GovemmeTie,  Elucidated  and 
Maintainedy  etc.  Now  is  it  not  perfectly  legitimate  for  a  thinker 
to  discuss  human  volitional  freedom  in  its  relation  to  the  divine 
government  ?  In  our  treatment,  the  "  Psychological  Argument " 
and  the  "  Theological  Argument "  are  each  discussed  in  separate 
full  sections,  and  the  mutual  bearings  attempted  to  be  adjusted^ 
which  we  submit  is  the  right  treatment  of  a  legitimate  subject. 

The  Editor's  Article  on  Wines  is  a  valuable  summary,  and  yet 
seems  to  us  a  little  one-sided.  As  to  rAev/cof,  the  new  wine  of 
Acts  ii,  13,  he  doubts  whether  it  is  ever  called  wine^  and  also 
whether  it  intoxicates.  But  Aristotle,  a  decisive  authority,  is 
quoted  by  Dr.  Samson  as  saying,  "  There  is  a  certain  wine^  the 
unfermented  gleukos,  which  may  both  be  congealed  and  evapo- 
rated." Again,  of  the  sweet  wine  or  glukos,  Aristotle  says,  "In 
name,  indeed,  it  is  wine,  but  not  in  operation,  first  its  taste  is 
not  wine-like;  again,  for  this  reason  that  it  does  not  intoxicate.*' 
It  seems  that  this  article  should  acknowledge  that  there  was  a 
wine,  customarily  used,  which  did  not  intoxicate.  There  are 
ample  other  proofs  which  we  think  are  not  duly  noticed.  Dr. 
S.  admits  that  there  is  "  no  positive  proof  "  that  the  eucharistic 
wine  was  alcoholic.  But  he  believes  it  was  alcoholic  on  authority 
of  the  Rabbles  in  the  Mishna.  But  when  we  remember  that  the 
Jews  almost  universally  use  not  fermented  wine  but  raisin  water 
at  Passover  in  spite  of  the  Rabbles,  how  is  it  possible  that  Jesus, 
with  whom  Rabbinical  tradition  (for  Scripture  doe^  not  command 
wine  at  all  at  Passover)  was  no  favorite,  should  obey  the  Rabbin- 
ical rule  ?  If  the  Passover  did  not  allow  fermented  bread,  much 
less  should  it  admit  fermented  wine.  Even  many  pagans  had 
scruples  about  offering  fermented  wine  to  their  purer  gods. 


Faith,  Doubt,  and  Evidence,  God's  Vouchers  for  His  Written  Word,  with  Critical 
Illustrations  from  the  Autobiography  of  Dr.  Franklin.  Bj  V^/^r,  Geo.  B. 
Chbbvkr,  D.D.  12mo,  pp.  818.  New  York:  A.  D.  F.  Randolph  k  Ca  Price, 
$1  60. 

Ever  since  the  day  of  Deacon  Giles  and  his  distillery,  Dr.  Cheever 
has  been  known  as  a  vigorous  and  individualistic  thinker  and 
writer.  He  is  what  he  is  intensely,  as  antislavery,  anti-intem- 
perance, evangelistic  champion ;  as  a  Puritan  of  the  Puritans, 
and  a  most  stalwart  defender  of  the  sacred  canon. 

The  nucleus  of  the  present  volume  is,  as  the  title  shows,  a  par- 
allelism between  the  MSS.  of  "  Franklin's  Memoirs  "  and  some 
of  the  New  Testament  documents.    Franklin,  before  printing, 


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1881.]  Qttarterly  Book-Table.  783 

gave  a  machine-made  copy  of  his  manuscript  "Memoirs"  to  a 
French  friend,  which  was  in  due  time  mostly  translated  into 
French  and  published,  being  the  first  publication  of  the  work. 
It  was  then  translated  back  into  English,  which  became  the  sec- 
ond publication — a  translation  of  a  French  translation.  On 
Franklin's  death  his  autograph  descended  to  his  grandson,  Will- 
iam Temple  Franklin,  who  went  to  London  to  edit  its  publication. 
But,  instead  of  printing  the  autograph  itself,  Temple  Franklin, 
in  order,  doubtless,  to  prevent  the  precious  original  from  being 
soiled  in  the  printing,  exchanged  it  oflf  with  the  French  friend 
for  the  loaned  copy  ;  so  that  the  loaned  copy  was  thus  far  the 
source  of  all  the  publications.  To  make  matters  worse.  Temple 
Franklin  made  a  large  amount  of  modifications  according  to  his 
own  taste,  so  that  it  became,  in  some  degree,  a  spurious  Memoir. 
What  became  of  the  original  autograph  ?  It  descended  through 
the  heirs  of  the  French  proprietor  until  a  few  years  since  it  fell 
into  the  hands  of  our  French  Minister,  Mr.  Bigelow.  By  him  it 
has  for  the  first  time  been  published  with  all  the  thorough  care 
of  a  competent  editor. 

But  the  novel  point  remains  to  be  told.  Mr.  Bigelow  finds  in 
the  autograph  eight  concluding  pages  which  arB  omitted  from  all 
the  previous  publications  I  They  form,  in  most  respects,  the 
most  important  part  of  the  Memoir,  as  narrating  the  most  brill- 
iant points  of  Franklin's  career.  Yet  they  were  not  in  the  ma- 
chine copy;  and  hence  are  wanting  in  all  the  publications  before 
Mr.  Bigelow's.  Even  William  Temple  Franklin  himself  was  ig- 
norant of  their  existence  I  Dr.  Cheever  uses  these  curious  facts 
to  illustrate  the  omission  in  the  majority  of  manuscripts  of  the 
conclusion  of  Mark's  Gospel.  In  Mark's  case  the  abrupt  ending 
in  the  midst  of  a  transaction  strongly  demonstrates  that  the  end- 
ing is  omitted.  IrensBus,  who  quotes  the  missing  ending^  is  a 
witness  that  it  existed  in  very  early  copies.  And  Franklin's 
case  shows  how  the  multiplication  of  copies  without  the  ending 
does  not  disprove  its  existence  in  the  eiarliest  copies,  or  even  in 
the  autograph.  Mr.  Bigelow  here,  in  a  degree,  represents  Ire- 
njeus,  having  in  hand  the  autograph  as  Irenaeus  had  the  early  copy, 
both  nullifying  the  vast  majority  of  copies  with  the  omission. 

Appended  to  this  nucleus,  and  more  or  less  connected  with  the 
subject.  Dr.  C.  gives  us  critical  notes  on  the  genuine  text,  with 
a  large  amount  of  trenchant  mUceUaneaj  advocating  the  high 
authority  of  the  sacred  oracles. 


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784  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  [October, 

Hour%  teith  the  Bible;  or,  Scriptures  in  the  Light  of  Modem  DiBOovery  and  KnowU 
edge.  By  Cunningham  Gkikie,  D.D.,  author  of  "  The  Life  and  Words  of  Christ," 
Vol.  IL,  From  Moses  to  the  Judges.  With  Illustrations.  12mo,  pp.  620.  New 
York  :  James  Pott.     1881. 

Dr.  Geikie's  second  volume  leads  us  through  some  of  the  most  dif- 
ficult parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  spreading  illustration  on  both 
sides  the  onward  path.  Sixteen  chapters  preparing  with  Goshen, 
Egypt  before  the  sojourn,  the  oppression  in  Egjrpt,  and  Moses; 
and  moving  on  with  the  Exodus,  Sinai,  the  wilderness,  and  the 
law;  finish  with  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  the  settlement,  and  age  of 
the  Judges,  until  the  era  of  Samson.  The  twenty-one  engravings 
do  not  much  ornament  the  book,  but  do  somewhat  illustrate  the 
subjects.  The  revelations  of  modem  research  brought  to  illumine 
Israel's  history  are  marvelously  new  and  affluent  The  wonder- 
ful exactness  with  which  the  Mosaic  narrative  dovetails  in  with 
Egyptian  discovery  leaves  no  excuse  for  skepticism.  Unques- 
tionably true,  we  now  know,  were  the  pens  that  traced  those  old 
events.  The  volume  will  not,  of  course,  afford  the  textual  criti- 
cism of  a  commentary,  and  so  could  not  fill  its  place,  but  it  pre- 
sents and  illustrates  the  consecutive  history  more  connectedly 
and  luminously  than  any  textual  commentary  can.  Hence  both 
Dr.  Geikie's  volume^  may  be  recommended  as  the  latest  and  best 
extant  historical  accompaniment  of  text  and  commentary  for  the 
biblical  student. 

The  Resurrection  Life;  or,  "  Beyond  the  Grave  *'  Examined.  By  Rev.  L  Villars, 
of  the  Illinois  Conference,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  12mo,  pp.  426.  Cin- 
cinnati: Printed  by  Walden  &  Stowe  for  the  author.     1881. 

Mr.  Villars  here  furnishes  an  extended  and  elaborate  view  of 
Bishop  Foster's  well-known  work,  and  maintains  the  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  body.  We  do  not  say  the  "  literal  "rc«wr- 
rection  of  the  body;  for  a  resurrection  that  is  not  a  literal  resur- 
rection is  for  a  theology  which  states  literal  truth  no  resurrection 
at  all.  Mr.  Villars  finds  at  first,  that  the  Bishop's  statements 
of  his  conclusions  are  a  little  indecisive,  and  so  gives  an  extended 
resumi  of  the  book  by  Dr.  Curry,  which  brings  the  matter  to  a 
more  explicit  point.  Whether  the  Bishop  ought  to  be  made  re- 
sponsible for  the  respected  doctor's  statements  is  a  little  doubtf uL 
But  even  this  quotation  from  Dr.  C.  is  far  from  completely  giving 
its  author's  complete  view.  If  we  rightly  recollect,  his  view,  else- 
where stated,  is  that  the  resurrection  of  the  body  is  the  ascent  of 
the  soul  from  Hades  to  the  heavenly  state.  We  think  this  view 
is  defective  in  two  respects :  for,  first,  there  is  no  body  in  the 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book -Table.  785 

case,  and,  second,  no  resurrection.  For  surely  the  soul  is  not  the 
body,  and  the  soul's  going  up  from  Hades  to  paradise  is  no  more 
a  resurrection  than  a  man's  going  up  stairs  to  a  higher  room  is  a 
resurrection. 


History^  Biography^  and  Topography. 

The  Problem  of  Religiom  Progren.    By  Daniel  Dorchestkb,  D.D.    12mo,  pp.  608. 
New  York:  Phillips  k  Hunt    Cincinnati:  Walden  k  Stowe.     ISSI. 

So  loud  and  general  are  the  boasts  of  infidels,  rationalists,  free- 
thinkers, and  no-thinkers,  that  Christianity  is  on  the  wane,  and 
fast  reaching  its  vanishing  point,  that  Dr.  Dorchester  has  con- 
cluded to  bring  them  to  the  decisive  test  of  arithmetic  and 
statistics.  Theodore  Parker,  though  claiming  nominally  to  be 
a  Christian  minister,  yet  declared  that  Christianity  is  dying, 
and  wondered  that  Christians  cannot  see  it.  The  brave. Colonel 
Ingersoll,  in  his  attack  on  Christianity,  quoted  from  the  "  North 
American"  on  another  page,  opens  battle  with  a  shout  of  death 
to  his  victim.  And  it  is  a  general  assumption  with  a  large  share 
of  the  secular  press  at  the  present  time  that  "  the  orthodoxy  of 
the  day  "  is  obsolete,  that  it  is  not  believed  by  its  preachers,  and 
that  it  is  to  fade  before  the  clear  light  of  science,  atheism,  and 
nothingism.  During  the  last  winter  a  Congregationalist  minister 
of  Brooklyn  resigned  his  pulpit  and  seceded  into  rationalism,  and 
the  "  Brooklyn  Eagle,"  a  leading  democratic  paper,  abounding  in 
ability  and  recklessness,  had  the  impudent  mendacity  to  declare 
that  if  all  the  ministers  of  Brooklyn  who  did  not  believe  what 
they  preached  should  retire,  the  Brooklyn  pulpits  would  be  most- 
ly empty.  We  think,  therefore,  with  Dr.  Dorchester,  that  it  is 
time  such  calumniators  should  be  taught  a  lesson  in  arithmetic, 
80  that  in  prosecuting  such  talk  in  the  future  it  should  be  made 
clear  that  they  are  direct,  conscious,  and  responsible  falsifiers. 

Our  author  opens  with  a  recapitulation  of  the  boasts  and  brag- 
gartisms  of  some  responsible  spokesmen,  namely,  of  Bishop 
Hughes  and  Rev.  Mr.  Ewer,  prophesying  the  downfall  of  Prot- 
estantism, and  of  Buckle,  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  and  Goldwin 
Smith  in  behalf  of  rationalism,  predicting  the  abolition  of  Chris- 
tian faith.  There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  a  brief  period  of 
making  a  volume  of  such  assumptions  from  the  periodicals  of  the 
day,  that  at  least  the  present  form  of  faith  was  rapidly  disinte- 
grating and  ready  to  vanish  away. 

Now,  first,  in  three  leading  chapters,  headed  Faith,  Mobals, 


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786  Methodist  Qvxi/rterly  Heview.  [October, 

and  SpiRiTirAL  Vitality,  Dr.  Dorchester  shows  by  a  clear  survey 
that  faith  in  our  central  doctrines  was  never  more  firm,  that 
Christian  morals  had  never  before  so  purified  and  elevated  the 
age,  and  that  Spiritual  Vitality  was  never  so  energetic,  so  active, 
so  all-pervading,  and  so  all-conquering  as  at  the  present  hour. 
As  a  survey  all  this  might  be  contested  but  for  a  fourth  chapter 
of  Statistical  Exhibits,  which  forms  the  whole  argument  into 
an  arithmetical  demonstration,  leaving  no  room  for  doubt. 

He  begins  with  Romanism,  and  portrays  its  rapid  decline  from 
circumference  to  center  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  once 
had  a  large  share  of  North  America,  but  has  lost  its  hold  forever, 
and  is  fading  in  South  America.  In  Europe  the  papacy  is  losing 
its  grasp  over  the  governments,  the  populations  are  passing  from 
Papal  to  Protestant,  the  intolerance  of  the  Romish  nations  is 
breaking  up,  and  Protestantism  is  building  her  churches  in  the 
precincts  of  the  Vatican.  In  America,  Romanism's  gains  are  most- 
ly from  immigration,  and  these  gains  are  made  at  a  terrible  loss 
of  millions  in  the  transfer.  Yet,  with  all  these  helps,  which  are 
temporary  as  well  as  costly,  Romanism  does  not  advance  as  rap- 
idly as  the  population,  and  is  overwhelmingly  distanced  m  prog- 
ress by  the  evangelical  denominations.  It  seems  to  be  arithmet- 
ically certain  that  Romanism  has  about  attained  her  growth  in 
America;  and  that,  hereafter,  her  history  is  to  be  resistless  decline. 
As  to  the  "  Liberal "  Christians,  the  disbelievers  in  the  "  Trinita- 
rian and  sacrificial  theology,"  their  history  is  a  monitory  lesson. 
From  them,  either  organized  or  unorganized,  comes  the  boast  that 
Christianity,  or  "  orthodoxy,"  is  to  yield  to  some  new  form  of 
faith.  And  yet  their  ovm  history  is  abortion/  If  they  stay  un- 
organized, undefined,  as  no  religion  at  all,  but  as  a  chaotic  body 
of  "nothingarians,"  they  can  keep  up  a  clangor  of  half  philo- 
sophical and  half  declamatory  opposition  to  Christianity  as  it  is, 
and  serve  the  cause  of  immorality  and  vice  a  great  deal  more 
than  they  intend.  For  very  plainly,  it  is  the  very  religion  they 
oppose  that  possesses  the  aggressive  and  conquering  power.  The 
semi-religion  of  Unitarianism  and  Liberalism  has,  as  religion, 
no  vital  energy ;  its  main  essence  is  doubt ;  it  disintegrates  in 
its  organisms,  and  is  ever  likely  to  melt  into  pantheism  or  merge 
into  atheism.  Young  Unitarianism  sprung  up  in  Boston,  proud 
of  its  talents,  wealth,  and  rank,  with  a  Channing  for  its  leader, 
and  Harvard  for  its  captured  stronghold,  and  it  gracefully 
promised  to  take  the  country  and  the  age.  What  and  where 
is  it  now?    A  congeries  of  rationalism,  pantheism,  atheism,  and 


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1881J  Quarterly  Book-Tahle.  T87 

all  sorts  of  negativism.  An  inert,  shapeless,  but  highly  con- 
ceited thing.  Missions?  How  should  they,  who  do  not  know 
what  themselves  believe,  organize  for  the  conversion  of  others? 
Churches?  They  are  diminished  and  diminishing  in  number. 
Congregations  ?  They  have  nearly  gone  over  to  the  "orthodox.'* 
That  is  the  plain  sum  total  of  Dr.  Dorchester's  figures. 

The  conclusive  power  of  these  figures  can  be  fully  felt  only  by 
perusal  in  detail,  or  carefully  noting  a  number  of  totalized  con- 
clusions. But  with  peculiar  •  skill,  the  author  has  summarized 
them  in  a  few  interesting  diagrams,  of  which  each  contains  a  vol- 
ume in  itself.  One  diagram  exhibits  the  growth  of  Christianity 
since  the  year  one^  and  finds  that  by  far  its  most  stupendous 
growth  has  occurred  since  A.  D.  1800.  Another  pictures  the 
comparative  growth  of  Romanism,  Greek  Church,  and  Protest- 
antism, and  shows  that  Protestantism  equaled  Romanism  in  1800, 
and  has  made  a  most  surpassing  spring  of  superiority  since  1830. 
The  diagrammic  breadth  of  Protestantism  is  in  1876  more  than 
twice  that  of  Romanism.  And  not  only  the  gains,  but  the  forces 
for  future  gains,  are  rapidly  going  over  to  Protestant  Christian- 
ity, and  in  Protestant  Christianity  to  Evangelical  Christianity. 
If  there  is  to  be  any  religion  at  all  in  the  future,  that  religion  is 
to  be  the  holy  Trinitarian  sacrificial  religion  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity, That  alone  is  gaining,  relatively,  absolutely,  and  rapid- 
ly. It  gains  over  all  rivals ;  it  gains  over  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion, and,  judging  the  future  by  the  present,  it  will  gain  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 

There  is  a  wonderful  energizing  life  in  these  demonstrations. 
No  minister,  no  reflecting  Chnstian  layman,  can  contemplate 
them  without  feeling  a  fresh  spring  of  hope  and  strength  within 
him.  The  book  should  be  studied  by  both,  and  the  boast  of  the 
enemy  should  be  thoroughly  encountered,  defeated,  and  silenced. 
We  have  no  doubt  the  volume  will  make  a  profound  impression 
in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America. 


Madame  De  SlaH.  A  Story  of  her  Life  and  Times.  The  First  Revolution  and 
the  First  Empire.  By  Abel  Stevens,  LL.D.  In  Two  Volumes.  Vol  I,  pp.  867 ; 
Vol  II,  pp.  878.    NeV  York :  Harper  and  Brothers.     1881. 

Dr.  Stevens  appears  as  an  admirable  master  in  the  field  of  secu- 
lar history.  The  same  fascination  of  style  and  power  of  delin- 
eating character,  of  picturing  scenes  and  narrating  events,  ex- 
hibited in  his  churchly  volumes,  reign  through  these  exhilarat- 
ing pages.     With  a  rare  industry,  bom  of  a  love  of  his  subject. 


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788  Methodist  Quarterly  Heview.  [October, 

be  has  collected  the  varied  traces  of  Madame  De  Stall's  character 
scattered  through  literature,  and  brought  them  into  a  coherent 
pictui-e.  Hence  she  appears  truly  a  much  greater  personage  than 
her  past  diffusive  reputation  has  indicated.  And  to  those  who 
imagine  that  Dr.  Stevens  eulogizes  his  heroine  in  too  diffusive 
and  lofty  a  strain  it  may  be  replied  that  the  large  share  of  the 
apparent  hyperbole  is  in  the  language  of  her  contemporaries, 
whose  supposed  extravagances  were  inspired  by  an  acquaintance 
with  the  living  subject  The  whole  group  of  characters  which 
she  centralizes  belongs,  we  might  dream,  to  a  higher  order  of 
humanity,  and  there  is  much  that  is  elevating  in  being  for  a 
while,  even  in  narrative,  in  their  society.  The  most  testing 
point  of  Madame  De  Stall's  innate  nobleness  appears  in  her 
heroic  self-abandonment  in  rescuing  her  friends  from  the  Paris- 
ian mobs  during  the  bloody  days  of  their  power.  How  boldly 
did  she  rush  into  a  hair-breadth  of  death,  thoughtless  of  herself, 
agonized  for  the  safety  of  others  I  How  nobly  she  moves  at 
Coppet  amid  her  rescued  friends  I  Her  unpurchasable  heroism 
in  resisting  the  power  of  Napoleon  when  she  clearly  saw  that  he 
was  in  purpose  a  Caesar  rather  than  a  Washington,  .constitutes  a 
great  claim  upon  our  admiration.  And  her  firm  and  eloquent  main- 
tenance of  Christian  faith,  on  the  lofty  grounds  of  immortality, 
right,  holiness,  God,  as  realities  consonant  with  the  highest  intu- 
itions of  the  human  soul,  furnishes  us  an  inspiring  lesson. 

Perhaps  it  is  asking  too  much  of  Madame  De  Sta^l  that  after 
spending  the  heroic  vitality  of  her  whole  past  life  in  opposing 
the  bastard  despotism  of  Napoleon,  she  should  not  finally  suc- 
cumb to  the  "  legitimate  "  despotism  of  Alexander  of  Russia  and 
his  allied  victors.     She  received  with  loyalty  and  gratitude  the 
visit  of  the  czar  at  Coppet ;  and  there  appears  no  protest  or  re- 
monstrance on  her  part  against  the  attempted  restoration  of  ab- 
solutism.    That  was  left  to  Brougham  and  his  Whig  compeers 
of  England,  who  made  Europe  ring  with  denunciations  of  the 
knot  of  royal  conspirators  who,  under  the  blasphemous  epithet 
of  "  Holy  Alliance,"  aimed  to  stamp  out  the  rights  of  humanity. 
In  due  time  they  marched  their  armies  into  Spain  and  crushed 
the  constitutional  government  of  that  country ;  and  they  were 
preparing  to  send  their  fleets  across  the  ocean  to  reduce  the  South 
American  republics  to  the  rule  of  Spain,  when  a  few  sentences  in 
the  Annual  Message  of  President  Monroe  warned  them  back  to 
their  own  shores,  and  inflicted  a  wholesome  paralysis  upon  their 
royal  corporeities.     We  expect  a  full  review  of  these  volumes. 


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1881.1  Qaarterly  Book-ToMe.  789 

SermoM  by  the  late  Rev,  David  Seth  DoggeU,  D.D.,  one  of  the  Biehope  of  tha 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  with  a  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Author. 
By  Rev.  John  E.  Edwards,  D.D.  Edited  by  Thomas  0.  Summers,  D.D.*,  LL.D 
Vol.  L  12mo,  pp.  407.  Nashville,  Term.:  Southern  Methodist  Publishmg 
House.     1881. 

From  our  first  intellectual  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Doggett — and  we 
had  no  personal — as  Editor  of  the  "  Southern  Quarterly"  at  Rich- 
mond, we  recognized  the  impress  of  a  refined  and  elevated  char- 
acter. We  could  readily  have  presupposed  the  fine  description 
here  given,  that  "  he  was  an  unusually  handsome  and  courtly  man, 
in  port  and  physiqice.  His  complexion  was  bright  and  ruddy,  his 
features  delicately  chiseled,  his  eye  a  lustrous  blue,  and  his  hand 
and  head  a  model  for  a  sculptor.  As  a  public  speaker,  he  had  a 
finely  modulated  voice,  with  striking  facial  expression  and  grace- 
ful gesture — all  of  which  was  rendered  doubly  effective  by  the 
genuine  and  unaffected  goodness  that  beamed  in  every  feature, 
and  shone  out  so  conspicuously  in  every  utterance  of  his  lips.'* 
By  personal  endowments,  bodily  and  mental,  he  was  sponta- 
neously a  natural  orator,  and  by  grace  and  nature  a  model 
Methodist  preacher.  His  versatility  is  conspicuous  from  the  flexi- 
ble ease  and  success  with  which  he  was  master  at  camp-meeting, 
in  the  metropolitan  pulpit,  in  the  college  chaplaincy,  in  the 
editorial  sanctum,  and  in  the  episcopal  chair. 

Of  course,  in  reading  sermons  we  strive  in  vain  to  supply  the 
person  and  delivery  of  the  orator  himself.  It  is  plain  that  he  did 
not  win  popularity  by  any  airy  neglect  of  scriptural  or  theological 
truth.  His  sermons  are  true  sermons,  admirable  analyses,  and 
animated  statements  of  Bible  doctrine.  He  is  not  in  a  high 
degree  ornate  or  pictorial,  though  his  description  of  the  flood  and 
some  other  passages  sBow  ample  possession  of  descriptive  power. 
His  sentences  are  clean  cut  and  classical;  his  paragraphs  often  rise 
into  eloquence,  but  never  soar  into  bombast.  We  read  with 
special  interest  his  life-like  portraiture  of  Bishop  Early,  whose 
stalwart  form  we  remember  sitting  with  the  Virginia  delegation, 
as  we  gazed  in  our  young  manhood  doA^Ti  upon  him  from  the 
gallery  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844. 

But  the  crowning  excellence  of  Dr.  Doggett's  sermons  was 
that  they  were  no  mere  eloquent  orations,  but  effective  appeals; 
thrilling  congregations,  arousing  revivals,  and  gathering  prosper- 
ous accessions  to  the  Church  of  God.  In  better  times  his  reputa- 
tion and  influence  would  have  been  not  provincial,  but  national, 
as  a  complete  and  princely  man.  As  it  is  he  belongs  as  a  gem 
to  the  universal  Church. 


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790  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 


PoUticSj  Imo^  and  Genial  Morals. 

The  ^'Spoils  "  Si/stem  and  CivU-Service  Reform  in  the  Cmtom-house  and  Pogt-oglce 
al  JSeto  York.  By  Dorm  an  B.  Eaton.  12mo,  pp.  123.  New  York :  PublLhed 
for  the  Civil-service  Reform  Association,  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.     1881. 

The  Beginning  of  the  "  Spoils "  System  in  the  National  Government,  1829-80. 
(Reprinted  by  permission  from  Parton's  **  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson.**)  12mo,  pp.  28. 
New  York :  Published  for  the  Civil-service  Reform  Association.  By  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons.     1881. 

True  American  freedom  must  be  maintained  by  perpetual  battles 
against  the  successive  despotisms,  which  accumulate  and  rule 
from  epoch  to  epoch.  First  came  the  slaveocraa/y  the  overthrow 
of  which  cost  us  thousands  of  lives  and  billions  of  debt.  That 
work  is  about  done;  since  even  its  bravest  supporters  are  be- 
ginning to  tell  us  they  do  not  desire  its  restoration.  Three 
more  despotisms  are  now  standing  in  row  before  us  for  a  similar 
though  bloodless  fate.  The  first  let  us  call  the  demagocraq/y  or 
oligarchy  of  trading  politicians  ;  the  second  is  the  rumocracy,  or 
oligarchy  of  alcoholic  traders  and  drinkers  ;  the  third  is  the  plu- 
tocracyy  or  moneyed  and  especially  railroad  monopoly. 

The  demagocracyy  (an  uncouth  term  for  a  very  uncouth  thing,) 
first  in  this  row  of  fated  destiny,  against  which  the  Civil-service 
Reform  Association  is  forming  its  ranks,  is  happily  the  easiest  to 
overcome  ;  and  when  overcome,  the  victory  over  its  fellow  des- 
potisms will  be  the  more  easly  accomplished.  WKen  our  politics 
are  purified,  when  they  become  less  polluted  with  mercenary 
motives,  and  the  minds  of  men  are  turned  from  questions  of  booty 
and  spoils  to  principles  and  public  measures,  high  moral,  as  well 
as  economical,  questions  can  be  brought  before  the  decision  of 
the  ballot.  Our  elections,  instead  of  great  moral  dangers  and 
depreciations,  may  become  great  self-regenerating  processes. 
The  ballot  will  acquire  new  dignity,  power,  and  glory.  It  will  be 
the  expression  of  a  high  and  ever  rising  public  sentiment.  Our 
government  will  feel  its  ennobling  effect,  and  become  less  sordid, 
selfish,  violent,  and  regardless  of  all  high  moral  interests. 

And  when  our  elections  become  more  clearly  decisions  upon 
moral  and  economical  questions  a  temperance  platform  may  be 
laid,  and  a  contest  waged  without  producing  a  reaction  which 
places  the  extreme  rum  party  in  power.  And  then  our  deep 
thinkers  will  study  out  the  methods  by  which  the  extremes  of 
human  condition  can  be  in  some  degree  legJsened ;  by  which  the 
rich  may  become  less  rich  and  the  poor  less  poor,  and  the  number 
of  both  millionaires  and  paupers  become  comparatively  fewer. 


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1881.]  Quarterly  Book-TabU.  791 

As  it  is  now,  our  rail  kings  are  becoming  the  true  successors  of  tlid 
cotton  kings.  They  have  bound  us  all  in  fetters  of  iron.  And 
the  maxim  of  imposing  rates  in  proportion  "  as  the  business  can 
bear  "  enables  them  to  "  tax  without  representation  "  more  des- 
potically than  ever  the  King  of  England  claimed  to  do  over  his 
American  colonies. 

The  method  of  the  Civil-service  Reformers  is  most  legitimate. 
It  is  an  organization  to  spread  the  truth  and  keep  it  before  the 
public  mind.  Its  purpose  is  to  reveal  to  our  eyes  the  baseness  of 
the  oligarchy  which  rules  and  degrades  us,  to  expose  its  history,  its 
methods,  and  its  destructive  tendencies,  and  to  point  out  the  mode 
by  which  its  whole  system  may  be  abolished.  That  this  execrable 
system  can  be  abolished  is  fully  proved  by  the  example  of  England, 
which  has  gone  through  the  process  of  reform  successfully,  as  Mr. 
Dorman  B.  Eaton  has  amply  shown  in  his  valuable  "  History  of 
the  English  Reform,"  noticed  by  us  in  a  former  Quarterly.  It  is 
to  arouse  the  good  men  of  all  parties  to  the  need  of  reform  by 
presenting  the  facts.  And  when  the  public  mind  is  roused  to  . 
the  determined  point,  it  is  wonderful  with  what  spontaiieity  our 
public  men  will  fall  into  line^  emulous  to  show  that  tlmf  are  true 
Civil-service  Reformers.  Let  the  great  body  of  citizens,  not 
belonging  to  the  demagocracyy  speak  with  unanimity  and  decision, 
and  the  gang  of  public  thieves  will  disperse  or  come  quite  expe- 
ditiously to  order. 

Offices  under  governments  are  either  political  proper,  as  deal- 
ing directly  with  governmental  policies,  as  cabinet  or  congress- 
ional positions ;  or  they  may  be  merely  clerical  or  mechanical, 
as  clerkships,  postmasterships,  etc.,  the  duties  of  which  are  the 
same  whatever  policies  are  adopted.  It  is  in  the  latter  class, 
where  mere  expertness  in  a  duty  is  required,  that  political  opin- 
ions are  not  to  be  taken  into  account,  but  solely  fitness  for  the 
routine  work.  Thereby  the  main  body  of  the  vast  armies  of 
hired  retainers  no  longer  exists.  Our  presidential  elections  may 
cease  to  be  great  crises  of  danger  in  which  a  hundred  thousand 
office-holders  and  a  million  of  office-seekers  are  arrayed  in  na- 
tional contest  for  the  "  spoils  "  of  victory. 

Of  the  beginning  and  growth  of  this  oligarchy  Mr.  Eaton  and 
Mr.  Parton,  in  the  above  tracts,  give  a  very  readable  history.  Its 
fitting  founder  was  Aaron  Burr.  And  his  successors  in  the  line  of 
infamy  were  Martin  Van  Buren,  Andrew  Jackson,  and  William  L. 
Marcy.  It  consisted  in  organizing  either  the  party,or  a  faction  in 
the  party,  into  a  sort  of  feudal  system.    A  chief  boss  was  to  be  at 


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792  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  [October, 

the  head;  secondary  bosses  surrounded  and  sustained  his  throne, 
and  a  tertiary  stratum  of  bosses  underlay  them,  until  the  power  of 
the  central  bossism  extended  down  to  the  lowest  dregs  of  the 
whisky  saloon  and  the  gutter.     Powerful  we  know  is  organiza- 
tion.    This  well-trained  organism  would  as  easily  overrule  the 
non-political  citizenship  as  Cortes'  phalanxes  could  subdue  the 
sporadic  Mexicans.     £ach  lower  stratum  was  fastened  under  the 
upper  layer  by  sordid  self-interests.     It  was  bound  to  its  masters 
by  bribes  in  the  form  of  official  salaries,  gifts,  treats  and  steals; 
or  by  the  fascinating  hope  of  salaries,  gifts,  treats  and  steals. 
The  system  was  easily  self-perpetuating ;  and,  victoriously  used 
by  one  party,  it  had  to  be  adopted  by  the  other  party;  so  that 
the  simple  citizen  proper  had  his  choice  bet\f  een  opposite  dema- 
gocracies.     The  effect  on  our  public  men  has  been  disastrous. 
We  still  have  statesmen;   some  in  public  life,  and  immensely 
more  in  private  life.     But  our  public  men  have  great  tempta- 
tions not  to  be  statesmen.     Our  indictment  against  Mr.  Conkling 
is  that,  with  the  greatest  power  of  being  a  statesman,  he  has 
resolutely  refused,  and  determined  to  be  a  place  politician.     He 
refused  to  rise  into  the  character  of  a  great  expositor  of  princi- 
ples and  national  policies,  trusting  to  his  high  statesmanly  quali- 
ties for  appreciation  and  honor;    and  has  preferred  to  mouse 
among  stipendiaries,  to  win  support   by  bargains  and  cabals. 
Profoundly  we  sorrowed  over  his  self -degradation  and  were  com- 
pelled to  rejoice  over  his  political  downfall.     It  showed  how  great 
was  Mr.  Conkling's  power  when  he  could  for  long  weeks  hold  the 
American  Senate  dead-locked;  and  it  showed  his  profound  want 
of  moral  sensibilities,  when  he  could  stand  before  the  American 
people   during   those  weeks,    demanding   that  the  New  York 
Custom-house,  a  national  and  not  a  State  institution,  should  be 
put  into  his  pocket  as  a  fund  to  bind  his  retainers  to  his  own 
person  by  the  bribe  of  salaried  stipends. 

Yet  the  greatest  danger  from  this  venal  system  was  during  the 
Tweed  dynasty.  So  firmly  compacted  was  the  venal  gang  under 
that  "  statesman,"  so  completely  bound  hand  and  foot  was  the 
entire  general  body  politic,  that  when  his  robberies  were  laid 
fully  before  the  public,  the  great  model  Boss  could  defiantly 
respond,  "And  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  "  Happy  it 
was  that  he  found  out  by  quick  experience  what  could  be  done. 
For  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  purpose  existed  to  transfer 
Tweedism  from  New  York  to  Washington.  The  Boss  and  his 
gang  were  in  a  fair  way  to  draw  upon  the  New  York  tax-payers 


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1881.1  Quarterly  Book -Table.  793 

for  the  funds  to  place  a  great  democratic  Boss  in  the  Presidential 
chair,  where,  on  his  liberal  system,  the  Nation  might  be  robbed  as 
profusely  and  defiantly  as  the  city  had  been. 

Civil-service  Reform,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  though  a 
political,  is  not  a  partisan  question.  It  is  am  oralizing  movement, 
and  belongs  alike  to  the  private  citizen,  the  press,  and  even  the 
pulpit.  The  startling  events  of  the  past  few  months  have  given 
a  new  power  to  the  movement;  and  the  organs  of  public  senti- 
ment should  allow  the  question  to  "  sleep  no  more."  If  Presi- 
dent Garfield  survive  the  bloody  assault  which  a  fitting  repre- 
sentative of  the  system  has  made  upon  his  life,  we  rejoice  to 
know  that  he  is  abundantly  on  record  in  behalf  of  this  reform. 
Among  his  many  utterances  we  can  select  but  one:  "To  reform 
this  service  is  one  of  the  highest  and  most  imperative  duties  of 
statesmanship." 

In  the  line  of  contributors  to  the  cause  of  the  Reform  came 
first  Presidents  Grant  and  Hayes,  both  of  whom  gave  strong 
testimonials,  and  initiated  measures  which  were  largely  defeated 
by  an  obstructive  Congress  elected  on  the  "plunder"  system. 
Great  are  the  services  of  George  W.  Curtis  to  this  Reform. 
Senator  Pendleton,  on  the  Democratic  side,  has  introduced  a  bill 
instituting  and  maintaining  competitive  examinations,  and  Mr. 
Willis,  of  Kentucky,  a  bill  prohibiting  the  levy  of  assessments  upon 
oflSce  holders.  Thus  support  comes  from  both  parties  and  both 
sections.  Both  these  measures  were  adopted  by  the  Association 
at  the  late  meeting  of  its  representatives  in  Newport.  These  are 
very  simple  and  sure  remedies.  The  oflice-seeking  fever  will 
wonderfully  cool  off  when  the  aspirant  knows  that  no  political 
service,  no  Congressman's  nomination,  and  no  neighbor's  signature 
will  aid  his  ambition,  and  realizes  that  he  must  win  by  fair  ex- 
amination and  pre-eminent  qualification. 


The  Divine  Law  aa  to  Wtne8  ;  Established  by  the  Testimony  of  Sages,  Physicians, 
and  Legislators  against  the  Use  of  Fennented  and  Intoxicating  Wines;  con- 
finned  by  their  Provision  of  Unfermented  Wines  to  be  used  for  Medicinal  and 
Sacramental  Purposes.  By  G.  W.  Samson,  D.D.,  former  President  of  Columbian 
University,  Washington,  D.  C.  12mo,  pp.  826.  New  York:  National  Temper- 
ance Society  and  Publication  House.     1880. 

If  Dr.  Samson  had  left  the  ptiff  word  "Law"  out,  and  had  called 
his  book  what  it  is,  a  history — A  history  of  the  toine  battle  through 
aU  lands  and  ages — ^he  would  have  presented  a  much  more  inviting 
title  and  won  more  readers.  His  style,  too,  is  often  slightly  stiff, 
giving  the  impression  of  the  pedantic,  and  unsuitable  to  the  pop- 


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794  Methodist  Qiux/rterly  Heview.  [October, 

ular  purpose  of  his  volume.  But  these  are  slight  disparagements. 
He  does  give  a  very  interesting  survey  of  the  historic  field  of  the 
moral  war  against  alcohol,  waged  by  the  wise  and  good  from  the 
dawn  to  the  present  day,  through  all  the  recorded  nations  of  the 
earth.  Appetite  has  cried  Give  I  give!  and  wisdom  has  cried 
Withhold!  withholdl  The  drunkard,  the  moderate  drinker,  and 
the  total  abstainer,  each  has  a  pedigree  that  stretches  back  to  the 
flood.  And  the  advancing  ages  diminish  not  the  heat  of  the 
battle  or  the  danger  of  the  result.  Alcoholism  is  as  fatal  to  civ- 
ilized as  to  savage  life.  Wealth  and  refinement  bring  on  luxuries 
and  the  wondrously  delicate  mixtures  that  infuse  fascination  into 
the  cup  of  death.  Art,  guided  by  science,  strengthens  the  alco- 
holic proportions  of  the  draught,  and  aims  a  deadlier  poison  as 
well  as  a  deeper  attraction  to  the  destroyer  of  mind,  life,  and 
soul.  Never  were  its  organized  forces  so  great  as  now,  never  its 
threats  so  full  of  power  and  fatality.  Mr.  Parton  is  not  far  from 
right  when  he  says  the  human  race  is  on  probation ;  and  that  it 
is  a  most  serious  question  whether  human  existence  is  not  to  be 
drowned  in  the  bottomless,  burning  hell  of  alcohoL 

There  have  been,  as  Dr.  Samson  fully  shows,  three  methods  by 
which  the  wise  and  good  have  endeavored  to  restrain  and  prevent 
the  ravages  of  the  alcohglic  curse.  These  are  dilution^  the  rem- 
edy of  the  "  moderate  drinker  ;*'  unfermerUed  grape  juice^  the  di- 
vine method  of  pure  nature ;  and  total  abstinence^  the  method 
of  the  purist  and  the  reformer.  The  Egyptian  priests  appear  to 
have  been  total  abstainers,  and  they  prohibited  to  their  kings  all 
but  the  unfermented  grape  juice.  The  apparatuses  by  which  the 
Egyptian  people  strained  out  the  pure  juice  are  still  preserved  in 
picture.  The  three  or  four  methods  by  which  this  preservation 
of  the  unfermented  juice  was  attained  are  amply  furnished  in  the 
Greek  and  Latin  classics.  And  this  unfermented  juice  was  called 
wi7ie.  It  was  expressly  and  repeatedly  called  wine  by  so  great  a 
master  of  Greek  as  Aristotle,  not  "by  courtesy,"  as  Dr.  Crosby 
unwisely  imagines,  but  as  its  true,  generic  name.  The  very 
words  by  which  the  unfermented  wine  was  designated  in  both 
Greek  and  Latin,  namely,  gleuhos  and  mustumy  are  adjectives 
with  the  word  wine  understood.  By  long  use,  indicating  the  pro- 
tracted popular  existence  of  the  unfermented  article,  the  adjec- 
tive degenerated  into  a  noun,  until  the  implication  of  the  word 
wine  was  popularly  forgotten.  And  now  our  learned  mission- 
aries duly  report  from  the  East  that  the  must  is  never  called 
wine!    And  then  some  of  our  home  divines,  as  Dr.  Crosby  and 


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1881.1  QaaHerly  Boolc-TdbU.  795 

Dr.  Hodge,  with  a  very  dynamic  emphasis  proclaim  that  alcohol 
is  a  necessary  element  in  the  communion  cup  1 

Among  the  holy  sages  and  saints  of  various  ages  purity  from 
alcohol  was  a  sacred  maxim.  The  Egyptian  priest,  the  Brahman, 
the  Nazarite,  the  Spartan,  all  were  pure.  And  the  purest  of 
sacred  rites  were  wineleaSy  even  among  those  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  heathen.  Both  -^schylus  and  Sophocles  represent  the 
offerers  as  bringing  windess  oblations  to  the  holy  gods.  The 
Grecian  offerers  to  the  Sun,  Athenaeus  tells  us,  presented  liba- 
tions not  of  wine  but  honey,  since  the  pure  Sun  has  no  affinity 
with  drunkenness.  Others  offered  wine  only  to  evil  deities.  The 
wine  at  the  Passover  came  not  from  the  divine  Law,  but  from 
the  vinous  Rabbles,  but  even  they  prescribed  dilution.  And  it  is 
from  these  Babbies  alone  that  our  Cyclopedist,  noticed  on  an- 
other page,  draws  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  drank  a  paschal  alco- 
hol All  the  four  narrations  of  the  sacred  supper  say  that  the 
cup  contained  simply  the  offspring  of  tJie  vinCy  which  alcohol  is 
not.  And  the  following  testimony,  given  by  Dr.  Samson,  indi- 
cates that  however  obedient  the  Christian  disciples  of  these  Rab- 
bles are,  or  hold  Jesus  to  have  been,  their  Jewish  disciples  set  the 
rabbinical  rule  at  defiance  : 

In  Tisits  to  the  synagognes  of  Cairo,  Jenisalem,  and  other  Oriental  cities,  in  in- 
quiries at  Washington,  D.  0.,  from  eminent  Rabbies  resident  in  the  East,  as  far  aa 
Bagdad,  and  in  familiar  acquaintance  with  Rabbies  and  merchants  who  are  Israel- 
ites in  New  York,  the  writer  has  found  one  universal  testimony,  that  conformity 
to  the  law  requires  absHnmce^  ifpoesihUy  front  fermented  wines  at  the  Passover.  In 
the  metropolitan  city  of  the  New  World,  where  representatives  of  every  Hebrew 
community  and  sect  are  met,  the  Passover  wine  is  prepared  from  crushed  raisins 
or  dried  grapes,  steeped  in  water,  pressed,  and  made  into  a  sweet  but  unfermented 
wme.— P.  188. 


Miscellomeous. 

Leehtres  in  Defense  of  the  Christian  Faith  By  Professor  P.  (Jodet,  author  of 
"  Commentaries  on  St.  Luke,  St.  John,  and  Romans,"  etc.  Translate  by  N.  H. 
Lyttelton,  M.A.,  Rector  of  Hadley  and  Canon  of  Gloucester.  12mo,  pp.  848. 
Edinburgh :  T.  T.  Clark.  1881.  [Scribner  k  Welford's  Imported  Edition. 
Price  $2  60.] 

The  genius  of  Godet  appears  at  its  best  in  these  "  Lectures," 

shedding  fresh  light  and  luster  on  old  questions  and  topics.     "We 

hope  to  express  our  appreciation  at  fuller  length  in  a  future 

Quarterly. 

Shakespeare's  TVaaedy  of  Cymheline,  Edited  with  notes,  by  William  J.  Rolfb, 
A.M.,  formeriy  Head  Master  of  the  High  School,  Cambridge,  Mass.  With  En- 
gravings.    12mo,  pp.  281.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


796  Methodist  Qv^rterhj  Heview.  [October. 

Shakegpeare's  The  Comedy  of  Errort,  Edited,  with  notes,  by  yTiLUAM  J  Rolfi, 
A.M.,  formerly  Head  Master  of  the  High  School,  Cambridge,  Mass.  With  En- 
gravings.    12mo,  pp.  153.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Landor.  By  Sidnst  Coltin,  A.  M.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College  and  Slade  Pro- 
fessor of  Fine  Art,  Cambridge.     12mo,pp.  224.  New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers. 

1881. 

/  /  /  By  George  H.  Hepworth,  Author  of  "  Starboard  and  Port,**  etc,  12mo  pp 
196.     New  York:  Harper  k  Brothers.     1881. 

Syme  Ransom's  Building.  By  Hiles  C.  Pardoe.  Three  Illustrations.  12ino, 
pp.  208.    New  York :  Phillips  k  Hunt     Cincinnati :  Wald«i  &  Stowe.    1881. 

Toby  Tyler;  or.  Ten  Weeks  with  a  Circus.  By  James  Otis.  Illustrated  12mo, 
pp.266.     New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Oerald.  A  Story  of  To-day.  By  Emma  Leslie,  Author  of  "Conrad,"  "Marga- 
rethe,"  " Saxby,"  "Walter,"  etc.  Four  Illustrations.  12mo,  pp.  834.  New- 
York  :  Phillips  k  Hunt.     Cincinnati :  Walden  k  Stowe.     1881. 

Eavilah.  By  Mrs.  Lucr  A.  Spottswood,  Author  of  "The  Pentons,"  and  "Hugh 
Cheston's  Vow."  Four  Illustrations.  12mo,  pp.  262.  New  York:  Phillips  & 
Hunt.     Cincinnati :  Walden  &  Stowe.     1881. 

Wordsworth.  By  F.  W.  H.  Myers.  12mo,  pp.  182.  New  York:  Harper  k 
Brothers.     1881. 

Farm  Festivals.  By  Will  Carieton,  Author  of  "  Farm  Ballads."  "Farm  Legends," 
etc.     Illustrated.    12mo,  pp.  151.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

The  Foreigner  in  China.  By  L.  M.  Wheeler,  D.D.  With  an  Introduction  by 
Prof.  W.  C.  Sawyer,  Ph.D.  12mo,  pp.  268.  Chicago:  S.  C,  Griggs  k  Ca 
^     1881. 

The  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  With  Introduction  and  Notes  by  Rer. 
John  Macpherson,  M.A.,  Findhom.  12mo,  pp.  168.  Edinburgh:  T.  k  T. 
Clark.     1881. 

Thomas  Carlyle.  By  Moncurb  D.  Conway.  Illustrated.  12mo,  pp.  266.  New 
York:   Harper  &  Brothers.     1881. 

Beauty  in  Dress.  By  Miss  Oakey.  12mo,  pp.  196.  Tfew  York:  Harper  k 
Brothers,     1881. 

Revised  Odd-feUowship  Rlustraled  The  Complete  Rerised  Ritual  of  the  Lodge  and 
Encampment,  and  the  Rebekah  Degree.  Profusely  Illustrated.  With  an  Histor- 
ical  Sketch  of  the  Order,  and  an  Introduction  and  Critical  Analysis  of  the  Char- 
acter of  each  Degree.  By  President  J.  Blanchard,  of  Wheaton  College,  and 
Foot-note  Quotations  from  Standard  Authorities  of  the  Order,  showing  its 
Character  and  Teachings.     12mo,  pp.  281.     Chicago:  Ezra  A.  Cook,     1881. 

The  Beautiful  Wretch  A  Brighton  Story.  By  William  Black,  Author  of  "Sun- 
rise," "A  Princess  of  Thule,"  "Macleod  of  Dare."  "The  Strange  Adventures  of 
a  Phaeton,"  etc.  Illustrated.  12mo,  pp.  240.  New  York :  Harper  k  Brothers. 
1881. 

The  Tncamafe  Saviour.  A  Life  of  Jesus  Christ.  By  Rev.  W.  R.  NICOL^  M.  A., 
Kelso,  Scotland.  12mo,  pp.  866.  New  York :  Robert  Carter  k  Brothers.  1881. 
*  The  Holy  Bible  According  to  the  Authorized  Versum,  (A.D.  1611.)  "^ith  an  Ex- 
planatory and  Critical  Commentary  and  a  Revision  of  the  Translation  by  Bishops 
and  other  Clergy  of  the  Anglican  Church.  Edited  by  F.  C.  Cook,  A.  M.,  Canon, 
of  Exeter,  Late  Preacher  at  Lincoln*s  Inn,  Chaplain  in  Ordinary  to  the  Queen. 
New  Testament,  Vol.  Ill,  Romans  to  Philemon.  8vo,  pp.  844.  New  York: 
Charies  Scribners'  Sons.     1881. 


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INDEX. 


AhoHtlontem Page  270, 474 

Adam,  Natural  Headship  of. 703 

Africa,  South,  Bauato  Miaaioii 867 

ExpedlUon  of 760 

Alaska,  Tho  Territory  of. 406 

Description  of,  by  Hubert  H.  Bancroft  406 

Seoy  Seward  censured  for  purchase  of. .  406 

Importance  of  AJaaka 407 

PoUcy  of  Russia  in  sellinc^  Alaska 408 

CUroate,  Resources,  and  Population  ...  409 

Thirty  Thousand  Souls  in  need  of  the 
Gospel 420 

Religion  and  CTiaracter 416 

American  Catli.  Quar.  Review 144,  889,  743 

American  Reviews 144,  889, 687,  739 

Amceba,  lowest  form  of  animal  lifo 558 

Anabaptists 760 

Anecdotes  of  Pbineaa  Rice's  Preaching 543 

Angels 563 

Animal  Life.  Lowest  Form,  Amoeba 558 

Anti-Semitic  Persecutions 666 

Antislaverv  Mnveraent,  American,  Churches 

and  Mr.Garrison 370,  474 

Apocrypha,  (Tlie  Old  TesUment)    Chris- 
tianity not  independent  of  Judaism 77 

I  Esidras.  II  Esdras 80 

Tobit  and  Ju<lith 92,  88 

Additions  to  Esther  and  Daniel 85,  B6 

The  Prayer  of  Manasseh 87 

The  Wisdom  of  Solomon 88 

EcciesListlcu-H  and  Baruch 90,  92 

Epistle  of  Jeremiah. 92 

The  Book  of  Maccabees 98 

The  Question  of  Canonicity 97 

Deutero-Canonical  Character 99 

Criticism  and  Literature 101 

Argyle,  Duke  of.  quoted 133, 154 

Atheism  of  the  Day,  Professedly  Pious. ....  154 

Athletlsm 755 

Atonement 758    ChainbiBrlaln's  History  of  the  Bible. ...'....'  560 


Bibles,  The  Old.   The  Hebrew  Bible  distte- 

goished  among  them  Page  281 

Why  Ond  selected  Abraham  firom  whom 
the  Promised  Redeemer  should  oome  242 

Biblical  Criticism 773 

Bibllotheca  Sacra 144,  544,  789 

Bohl,  Ancient  Christian  Insaiptions 753 

Bose,  Ram  Chander.    Hindu  Eclecticism. .  6u5 

Botany 551 

Bontwell  on  "free  baltot  and  free  count".. .  157 

Boyoe's  Higher  Criticism  and  the  Bible 875 

BrMlf 's  Political  El«>quence  in  Qreece 600 

Bridel,  History  of  Philosophy 768 

British  and  For*n  Evnngi  Reriew.  162, 867,  753 

British  Quarterly  Review 162, 857, 547,  757 

Brown,  J.  Baldwin,  on  Pious  Atheism 154 

Brotherhood  of  Men 569 

Buttz,  H.  A.,  Revised  Version  of  New  Tes- 
tament    715 

Cnsar 586 

Cahrd's  Philosophy  of  Religion 162 

C^ilaveras'  Skull,  Prof.  Whitney's 683 

Calderwood's  Science  and  Religion 581 

Calvinism 752 

Carey's  Circumstantial  Evidences  of  Chris- 

lianity 669 

Characteristics  of  English  Thought  in 

the  Eighteenth  Century 246 

Literature,  Cliaracteristic   Features  of 

the  Century ; . .  247 

First  Characterittie.    A  tendency  to 
exalt  logical  reason  at  the  expense  of 

the  Intuitions 247 

Sec/md,    Superficiality  of  thought 248 

Tfiird.  Superficial  political  discussion    250 
Fourth,    Tho  thought  of  the  century, 
critical  and  destructive  philosophy . . .  251 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  Reminiscences. .  .547,  549,  5H4 


Anrhach:  Evangelical  Church  in  Germany..  770 
Anthoi'ship  of  1«  iiurth  Gospel 178 

Bahtl's  "Riseof  the  Huguenots" 108 

^•Ballot,  a  free  and  a  fair  count" 157 

Bancroft's  Native  Races,  etc 405 

Baptism,  Taylor's  Letters  to  Quaker 408 

Baptist  Review 144,  889,  687,  732 

Barrande,  on  Derivation  of  Species 160 

Bassutos,  French  Mission  among 867 

Beet's  Commentary  on  Romans 8S5 

Benrath,  on  the  Italian  Reformation 169 

Bible,  disbelief  of 745 

Higher  Criticism  and 375 

Genesis 876.  544,  662,  756 

In  Pictures,  Schnorr's 658 

Italian  Translations  of 170 

New  TesUment,  Meyer's 8S6 

Pentateuch 795 

Poems  descriptive  of 599 

Romans 885 

Romans,  Godet'a 674 

Revised  N.  T 660,  740,  760 

Revisions,  Corcoran 743 

Story,  BOmheld's,  Illustrated 557 


Fourth  Series,  Vol.  XXXIU.— 52 


Chambers,  New  Bible  Revision 740 

Cheever's  Faith,  Doubt,  and  Evidence 7S2 

Chemistry.  Religion  and 675 

Chinese  Education,  Philosophy,  Letters....  604 

In  America,  Gibson's 28 

Question,  Miller's 28 

Choice,  The  Freedom  ot,  J.  Miley 484 

Christ 567,669 

Christ  and  our  Century,  A.  A.  Lipscomb. .  6.Vi 

Christ  and  Man.  same  relations 658 

Christ  famished  a  typical  manhood 659 

Skepticism  result  of  Materialism 668 

Criticisms  of  Proude. . .   666 

Ruskin 667 

Christian  Art  Monumenta,  lUly 401 

Christian  Doctrine,  Hagenbach's 8S7 

Church  Buiklhig  in  Middle  Ages 579 

Churches  and  Slavery 270,  474 

Ooero 58S 

Civil  Service  Reform 790 

Clarke,  J.  F.,  Shakespeare  and  Bacon 856 

Clark's  Wesley  Memorial  Volume 180,  601 

Codex  of  Matthew  and  Mark 601 

Colfin's  Old  Times  In  the  Colonies 188 

C^Ilgny,  Admiral,  CharacU-r  of 127 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


798 


Index. 


Gongr^atlonallsin,  its  FlAoe  In  Htotnry  and 

Literatore,  J.  F.  Uuret Page  2S6 

Plymouth  Colonists  in  1620.  The  Oldest 
RoligrlouB  Elements  in  this  permanent 

American  life 287 

BeparatloD  fh>m  the  Choreh  of  England  292 

Flight  to  Holland    296 

John  Eoblnson •. 298 

Progress  of  Oon^regationaJlsm 801 

BenTaraUon  of  G«'neral  Court  of  Massa^ 

chusetts  in  1621 803 

Conscience,  Amelia  de  Lassaulx 171 

Contemporary  Revifw 151,164,840 

Convent  Schools  in  Belgium 6M 

Cooke's  Rellidon  and  Chemistry  675 

Corcoran.  Bible  Revisions 748 

Crimea,  Inva.««lon  o^  Kinglake's 891 

Cnmberland  Prfsbvteriau  Quarterly...  144,  687 
Cyclopedia.  Herzog's,  G«rman,  New  Edition  878 
Cyclopedia,  M'C.  &  8.,  VoL  X,  S-Z 780 

Dairs  Alaska 405 

Dairs  North  American  Ethnology 405 

Daniel,  Book  oC  Genuineness  oiT. 145 

First  Attack  on,  by  Porphyry 145 

Recent  discoveries  indorse  tne  book...  148 

Daniels'  Memorials  of  Gilbert  Haven 892 

Danvin,  on  Plant  Action 651 

Darwinism 197,  671,  758 

Dawkins'  Early  Man  in  Britain 205 

Dawson,  Notices,  Barrande  on  Species 160 

Dawson's  Chain  of  Life  in  Geological  Time.  183 

Dean's  Gibbon's  Roman  Empire 1 88 

Degeneration  in  Nature 758 

De  Hnss.  "  Bible  Lands,"  notice  of,  by  Unl- 

versalist  Quarterly,  qnoted 161 

Delltzsch  mentally  hears  J,  Smith 748 

Delitzsch,  Messianic  Prophecies 181 

Demcsthenes 600 

DeStafil,  Madame 787 

Dexter's  Co  igregatlonolism,  etc 286 

Dimon's  Tbei.stic  Argument 776 

Divorce  and  Marriage,  Roedenberg  on 862 

Doctrine,  Chiistiai, Hagenbach's 8S7 

Doggett,  Sermons  by 787 

Dorchester's  Problem  of  Religions  Progress  785 

Dorner,  on  Hnrtniann's  Pessimism 166 

Dome's  Christian  Doctrine 769 

Dunnes  Angels  of  God 668 

Durffc's  Index  to  Harper's  Magazine 600 

Eaton's  "Spoils"  System,  etc 790 

Ebers'  Palostine  in  Pen  and  Picture 769 

Edinburgh  Review 857,  649,757 

Education,  Popular,  the  Genius  of  Ameri- 

ican  In8titutl«»ns.  B.  Hawley 685 

Justin  S.  Morrell  in  U.  a  Senate 68d 

Burnside's  Bill  in  Congress  637 

Early  History 689 

Times  of  the  Reformation 639 

Harvard,  Yale,  William  and  Mary  Col- 
lege   640 

Mass.  and  New  York  in  early  times. . .  648 

Public  Libraries <W4 

ProsbyteriAU  Church 644 

Columbia  College  established 644 

Methodist  Discipline 645 

Common  Schools 651 

Religion  and  Schools 651 

Tourjree's  plan 858 

Convent,  in  Belgium 654 

Eayptlan  Agriculture.  Ancient  Thaer 770 

Elements  of  the  Lord's  Supper 694 

English  Reviews 162,  857,  647,  758 

Engrlish  Style  «nd  Spellhig^ 861 

English  Thouirht  in  the  Eighteenth  Cent- 
ury, Some  Chaificteristlcs  of 246 

Ethics,  Natural,  Savage 745 

**Evidences " 569,  670 

Evidences 784 


Faith  and  InfldeHty  In  Germany Plage  12S 

Faith.  Doubt,  and  Evidence 762 

Fiji,  King  and  People  of 621 

Fiach,  Pastor 767 

Fitzgerald's  George  the  Foarth 592 

Foreign  Literary  Intelligence 878,  »7,  769 

Foreign  Religious  Intelligence.  175,  870,  564,  765 
Foster^s  Cyclopedia  of  Poetir,  2d  series... .  599 
Fox.  A.  J.,  Snakespeare :  His  Genius  and 

Times 628 

Fradenbuiigh,  J.  N.,  Zoroaster  and  Zoruas- 

trianisou 61 

Freedmen 594 

Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  1880 882 

Freedom  of  Choice 4S4 

French  Protestant  Literature,  Recent.  .760,  762 

Pi'otestantlsm,  Recent 760, 762, 767 

Reviews 171 ,  867,  762 

Fronde's  Csesar:  A  Sketrh 586 

Fronde's  Carlyle's  Reminiscences 684 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd 270.  474 

Geikie's  Hours  with  the  Bible 662,  734 

Geological 588 

Geological  Record,  Unbroken. 152 

Gt'orge,  A.  C,  Pan  Presbvterian  Conncil. .    45 

George  the  Fourth.  Lllb  of. 692 

Gerbardt  nnd  Hamack,  Cfdex 601 

German    Emphns,    Anrbach,    Evangeliod 

Chui-ch  in 770 

German  Methodism :  Its  Hopes  and  Dangers  468 

Jacob  Albright  as  Missionary 468 

Marvelous  Growth  of  Ger.  Methodism..  466 

Financial  Statement 466 

Success  of  Snndny-school  work  in 467 

Successful  educational  Interests  in 468 

The  German  language  and  literature  ...  471 

Lutheran  against 857 

German  Philosophy 812 

German  Reviews 165, 862,  758 

German  Ultramontanes 636 

Gei-many 899 

Phases  of  the  Conflict  Between  Faith 

and   Infidelity,  in 128 

Gibson's  Chinese  in  America 2S 

Mosaic  Era. 795 

Pastoral  Days 203 

GIven's  Truth  of  Scripture:   Eevelation, 

Inspiration,  and  the  Canon 565 

God.  Unity  of,  and  of  Nature 84*) 

Godet's  Lectures,  Christian  Faith 796 

Gooding,  W.  L.,  Hermann  Lotzo 812 

Gospels,  The  Four,  Gregory's 885 

Greece,  Political  Eloquence  in 600 

Greek  New  Testament 796 

Gregory's  The  Four  Gospels 385 

Guth,  G.,  Our  German    Methodism:    Its 
Hopes  and  Dangers 468 

Hagenbach's  History  of  Christian  Doctrlns 

Vol.  II 567 

Hamline,  Life  and  Works  of 5 

Early  Ministry  and  Editorial  Life 10 

Ladies'  Repository 14 

Elected  Bishop IJ 

Resignation |6 

last  Days »J 

Honson,  A.  G.,  Our  Pacific  Coast  Problem.    28 

Harper's  Magazine,  Index  to 60U 

Hartmann.  Life  and  Works  of. 165 

Hang's  Religion  of  the  Parsis 61 

Haven,  Gilbert,  Daniels' Jg 

Hayes'.  President,  Message Jw 

Hftygoo<rs  Our  Brother  in  Black. JJ* 

Haygood's  Platform  for  South 751 

Henning,  G.  W.,  The  Old  Bibles,  The  He- 
brew  Bible  Distinguished  among  them  . .  231 

**  Hereditary  Guilt.''  Doctrine  of «63 

Herzog^s  Cyclopedia,  new  edition 878 

Hilgenfeld  on  Mardon  of  Pontus 861 


Digitized  by  VjOOQ IC 


Index. 


799 


Hioda  Ecleotioinn,  Ram  Ghander  BoM..Poge  605 
Bhaguvad  Glta,  the  Hinda  Text-Book. .  6a7 

WhatisHludu  KclectidBm  ? 607 

Its  Theobgy 612 

Anthropok^ 616 

Sotfiriology 619 

Eschatology 621 

History  of  ChriaUan  Doctrine 18T,  8ST 

Hodge.  A.  A.,  Vacant  Churches,  etc 740 

Homer,  Schliemanns  Illos 898 

Houghion's  At  the  Threshold 6  4 

Huguenots,  Balrd's  Rise  of  the 108 

Margaret  of  Augoul6me,  Queen  of  Na- 
varre   105 

Calvin,  born  in  1509,  youth,  studies. ...  110 

Heresy,  Punished  with  Death 112 

First  Protestant  Church,  1555 113 

The  First  National  Svnod  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  on  May  26.  1559. ...  118 

History  of  French  Protestantism 115 

The  name  of  **  Huguenots'' 116 

Hunt's  Religious  Thought  In  England....  246 
Hurst,  J.  F.,  The  Place  of  Congregational- 
ism in  History  and  Literature 286 

Huxl*»y*s  Hume.  English  Men  of  Letters..  246 
•*Hymn  and    Prayer  Book,**  Evangelical, 
Germany 669 

Illiteracy,  especially  of  the  South. 8^3 

Illustrated  Bible  Story,  Romheld's 557 

Indian  Evangelical  Review 857,  753 

India,  Russian  Review  on 771 

Missions  In 424 

Infidelity. 745 

Faith  and.  In  Germany 128 

Inscriptions,  Ancient  Christian 758 

Inspiration 666 

1  lalian  Reformation,  Library  on 1 70 

Italy,  Protestantism  in. 870 

Jackson's  Alaska  and  Mlsslona 405 

Jewish  Question  In  Europe Ml,  666,  765 

Church.  Old  Testament  Church 772 

French  Protestantism 767 

Johnson's  Chrlstl.anliy's  Challengej 570 

Journalism,  American,  Infidel  in 648 

£urop<^,  Jew  In 542 

Kinglake  a  Invasion  of  the  Crimea 891 

Language,  Science  of^  Sayce's 887 

Larned's  Tales— Norse  Grandmother 893 

Lassaulx,  Amelia  do.  Old  Catholic. 17 1 

Leckv's  History  of  England,  etc 246 

Lee,  iBtshop,  menially  heard  by  son. 749 

I^efcrve,  Jacques 106 

Guillaume  Briconnet,  Bishop  of  Meaux.  Vfl 

"Liberalism'' , 786 

Lichtenberger's  Encyclopedle  des  Sciences 

Rclljfieuses. 199 

Lip-'comb,  A,  A.,  Christ  and  Our  Century. .  655 

London  Quarteriy  Re\iew 162,  857,  647,  7C3 

Lord's  Supper,  Elements  oi;  J.  C.  Hagey. . .  694 

Lossing's  United  Sutes  Navy 591 

Lotze,  Hermann 812 

Philosophy  ot 817 

Thoughts  of  God 828 

Lutheran  Quarterly 144, 840,  687 

LutheraniH  against  German  Methodism 857 

Lynch.  Kemper  County  Vindicated 693 

M'Clintock  &  Strong's  Cyclo.,  Vol.  X,  S-Z. .  780 

Macaulay,  Miscellaneous  Works  of  Lord >S9 

Maccracken's  "  Leaders  "  Criticised 859 

M'Farlan,  in  Scotch  Sermons,  quoted 168 

Man's  Place  in  Time 205 

Mardon  of  Pontus,  Hil^feld  on 864 

Marriage  and  Divorce,  Bodenlierg  on 862 

Martin,  The  Chinese 604 

Martlnean,  Harriet 880 


Materialism,  •*  ITnlversaHst  Quarterly". Page  74T 
Matlflck,   Antislavery   Struggle   and    Tri- 
umph In  M.  E.  Church 683 

Mental  Phenomena,  Singular 74S,  749 

Methodism.  Carlyleon 586 

Metho<1lsm,  Edinburgh  Review  on 75T 

Methodi:»m,  Gt-rman,  in  United  States 468 

Mothodisfn,  Gorman  Scholars  on 769 

Methoilist  Oflice-Bearer 571 

Methodists,  Sunday  Service  of 880 

Meyer's  Commentary  on  New  Testament. .  886 

Miller's  Chinese  Question 28 

Ministers,  Unemployed,  Vacant  Churches,  740 

Minio  s  Defoe,  (Kng.  Men  of  Letters) 246 

Mission,  French,  among  Bassutos. 867 

Missions.  Are  Indian,  a  Failure  ? 424 

Missions  in  Fyi 621 

Morley's  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  Diderot 246 

Morris'  British  Thoughts  and  Thinkers. ...  186 

Morris'  Report  on  Alaska 405 

Moxom,  Natui-al  Headship  of  Adam 762 

Nagler,  P.  L.:  Phases  of  the  Conflict  be- 
tween Faith  and  Infidelity  In  Germany..  138 

Natural  Ethics,  Savage. 745 

Nature,  Unitv  of,  and  of  God 840 

Navillo,  The  Christ. 669 

Navy,  United  States,  Storv  of. 691 

Neeley's  Young  Workers  in  the  Church 570 

New  Englander 144,  840,  688,  789 

New  England  Hist  and  Gen.  Register.  144,  840 
New  Tesuunent,  Revised  Vereion..  660, 715, 750. 

In  Original  Greek 796 

New  York  Tinie%  quoted 749 

Nicolls,  The  Incarnate  Saviour. 667 

North  American  Review 167,  858,  537,  745 

Norton,  Church  BuUding  In  Middle  Ages. . .  679 

Ocean  Grove,  President's  Report 203 

Old  Catholic  Chuirh 175 

Onaban,  Romanist  Colonization 743 

Othoman,E,  B.:  Baird's  **  Rise  of  the  Hu- 
guenots."   108 

Paleontology,  Researches  of  Barrande  In. . .  160 

Palmer's  Life  and  Letters  of  HamUne 5 

Pan- Presbyterian  Council,  A.  C.  George. . .    45 

Parsis,  Hau;?'s  Religion  of  the 61 

Paulltschke  on  African  Exploration 769 

Persians,  Ancient 61 

Pessimism,  Hartmann's,  Domer  on 1 65 

Potroff's  Report  on  Alaska. 406 

Philology,   The  Early  Errors  and  Recent 

Progress  of 670 

History  of  the  Discarded  Philology ....  671 
What  is  the  Science  of  Comparative 

Philology? 671 

Philosophy,  History  of,  Bridel 768 

Plant  Movement,  Mechanical 653 

Poetry,  Cyclopedias  of 899 

Politics,  Aaron's  Rod  in.  Tonrgee 868 

Popular  Education  the  Genius  of  American 

Institutions 685 

Potts'  Golden  Dawn 670 

Potts'  Methodist  Office  Bearer 671 

Pmachera,  GreaLWIthrow's 408 

Pro- Adamites:   Wilson  answers  WInchell..  688 
Presbyterian  Conncll,  Pan-,  A.  C  George..    45 

Presbyterian  Review 588,  789 

Princeton  Review 169,840,588,  789 

Protestantism 786 

Protestantism  in  Italy 870 

Waldenses. 870 

Free  Italian  Chnrch 871 

Free  Christian  Church 871 

Wesleyan  Church 873 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 873 

Baptists .873 

ProtesUntism,  Recent  French 760 


Digitized  by  VjOOQIC 


800 


Index. 


QuHTtddjr  BOTifiWf  M.  E.  Chuivh.  South . . . 

Fag^liSS,  750 

"  Riiil  Ktn^^TrJitjiflJlf ,"  Hmsitg'M  new  edition.  878 

Rei^HtnatloJi,  mJliirs , .  „    _  ,  , 169 

JJAlntUms  of  fbo  i'Liurch  atid  Mr.  OArrisaiito 
the  AiriiTft^n  AoUciliiViry  MowaiaDt    ..  270 
Til  a  Movein*>ht  Sprang?  out  of  tii*f  He- 
llgioqjj  SiJJitfiiU'nt  uS  tha  PiJttple, .....   271 

lieeumrtion^  "^  Beyond  Ujc^  Gjmve. , 784 

Kfuiteh's  Dlp'  deulAcbeti  IllAdioffl    iiiid   der 

Ahprffknbts. . .  „ , , 899 

EfiVk'^,  aermm , IBS,  FW2,  753 

AmePlcrm 144, 33t»,  ,'i87,  789 

Eofflidh lia,  dT}-,  r47,  758 

French,, .. . . . , , Kl,  307,  762 

Eevl&v^  Vcrfllim  of  th^  Nf^w  T^iiLaiiidiit 716 

Frt'iiitii]  utionti  in  Us  ilivor ,..,....  716 

AcknuwlMlgtMl  n^tf] ,,,....    . , 716 

C'oTHfn  U-nl  siuilifidt^  luid  abllitj  ►+..,..  716 
Er Tiu  C  li  rt  U  t)  [i  nt  ^  (.:  h  r1  A.  R(?Ti(?  *J  , . ,  1  n*  867.762 

lil(y,  PliUu'iiii,  Ant>c<|[iEie!i  it! ,  _ 548 

EfwictjbLTjf  fill  M£irriji4^ii  »iid  Dlirorcc„ ....  862 

llitder  on  Tulcnuide. ......  ^ . 762 

Eoyumlinn TS6,  TjM,  899 

HuiUMiLiLi  CMlaDkuUoxL  in  Wv*t. 74<» 

Romhdcrs  IlluatrlPte  Blblf&cbu  GMbi(?liie. .  f  67 
EuiiMau  iLitvkiiiv .  ......,*...,....,„ 771 


Bnbbath  Rorn^  EcAdinp. , , . , 

BiunMbY  TJivine  La*  as  tn  Wlnta , . , 

Gkuf^gvnt's  C>  cli>p*f1ift  of  Pot^try . . . . , 

BuTi^f^  Nfltnrni  Etbkfl, .    , . . 

&iTfii'''a  Si^lentiu  of  Xjui^nj^ta.  ^ . . , , .  _    ... 

S^MTs  foiJimfntftrv  on  Ktivr  Tt^tAmtii  l  . . . 

Bch^^Ni'lb  an  Byiiibillua ^   ,,„.,..»..    , . .   . 

SrhlEomiiQij'n  1 1  hM   .  _ 

bcloui^rA  Die  Dnr^riuis  chew  llieorten  iiTid 
ikrft  SU'lIiinB-  iar  Phllg«jphie»  Kt^ltif.on 
nnd  Moral. , ._... 

BehnoiT^a  BIbio  In  Pictare*. , 

BcbultzV  Arcbtiolfig-lAihfi  [Btudl^n  ^Imif  AU- 
chrlHtlcliu  \f  i>iitJiiM'^Le ,     . . 

Bcientw  fljiil  lU'licion,  RflAti^^kna  of 

Scotch  St^rmon.i,    S^iednifo  by  M^FflilftM   .. 

Suott,  "Are  Indian  Ml-^sbtift  u  Fnihmir'  ,. 

II.  Ka-iriL-i..-. .      V  ■      .      .       ■  IQ. 

djrt^irt  iijJ-i-  :..-.. 

Ullimato  8iico«S8  of  Missions 

BoottlBh  Bationalistic  Movement 

Sermons  by  Bishop  Doggett 

Serpent  Tempter  in  Oriental  Mythology.. . . 

Bervetas,  Michael,  H.  Tollin  on 

BervetuB,  MivbaeL,  Trechsel  on 

Shakespeare,  His  Genius  and  Times 

Theories  as  to  his  personalitv 

His  stvie 

Skull,  Prof.  Whitney's  Calaveras 

Blaveiy  and  M.  K.  Church 

Sledd,  R.  N.,  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 
Smalley^s  Analysis  and  Formation  of  lAtin 

Words 

Smith's  OldTesUment  in  Jewish  Church. . 

Southall,  J.  C,  Man's  Place  in  Time 

Species,  Barrande  on  Derivation  of. 

Species,  Preservation  oi;  by  concealment. . . 

Spelling,  £nglL<«h,  Reform  coming 

**  Spoils  "  System,  Eaton,  Parton 

Stanley's  CbrisUan  Institutions 

State  Bights,  Moigaa 


201. 
798 
699 
745 
8S7 
188 
771 


197 

653 

401 
681 
162 
424 
424 

429 
432 
162 
789 
644 
864 
759 
628 
625 
628 
688 


Stephen's  Hist  of  Eng.  Thought,  etc.  .Pag«  946 
Stephen's  Johnston,  (Eng.  M.  of  L.). .  246 

Stevens'  Madfune  De  Staiel 787 

Stouifhton's  Religions  in  Enghind,  etc*.  246 

Stuckenburg's  Christian  Sociology 18« 

Summers  on  Revised  New  Testament.  !1.  7,'iO 
Sunday  Service   of  the  Methodisto  in*  his 

Majestv's  Dominions ggO 

Sunday  Service  of  the  Methodists  in  North 

America ggQ 

Supreme  C^ourt,  Partisanship  in,  Monnin.   '  85« 

Symbolics.  Sch6ole *....'..    T^.      ??[ 

Symonds'  Studies  of  the  Qn^  Poets 18S 

Synopsis  of  the  QuarterUes. ...  144,  339,  587,  789 

Taylor's  Letters  to  a  Quaker  on  Baptism      408 

Temperance MS,  740,  793 

Tempter,  Serpent,  in  Oriental  Mytholosry . .  5M 
Terry,  MS.,  The  Old  Testament  A  pocrypha  71 
Thaer,  Ancient  Egjptiau  Agriculture.       .    770 

Thakombau,  Cannibal  and  Christian !  521 

Theiatic  Argument  and  Recent  Theories.      776 

Theological  Course  of  Beriln 771 

Theologische  Studien  und  Kriiiken .  165,  862,  758 

Theology,  Domer. 7® 

Tolerance,  Roller  on "  762 

Tollin,  H.,  on  Michael  Servetus 864 

Tourgee,  "Aaron's  Rod  In  Politics " 858 

Ti-echsel  on  Michael  Servetus 759 

TroUope's,  A.,  Life  of  Cicero 5S8 

Troy,  Schliemann's  Researches 398 

*'  Unity  of  Nature,''  by  Aiigyle,  quoted ...    840 

Universalist  Quarterly 145,  840,  538 

Unsworth's  Brotherhood  of  Men 569 

Villars'  Resurrection  Life 784 

Wallace's  Island  Life 571 

Waterhouse's  King  and  People  of  Fill  .'  "*  621 

Wesley  Memorial  Volume,  The 501 

Weatpott's  Greek  New  Testament . . '     . "    796 

Westminster  Review 162,  547, 758 

Wheeler  s  First  Decade,  W.  F.  M.  S 590 

Whitney's  Auriferous  Graved  etc 205 

Whymper's  Travel  in  Alaska 405 

Will,  Edwards,  Whedon  and  Hodge  on....  761 

WiU.  Fret^dom  of  Choice 484 

Winchell's  Pre-Adamites. 205 

Winchester,  Prof.,  Some  Chariicteristlcs  of 

English  Thonght  in  EighteenUi  Century.  246 

Wine  Battie,  Histoi-y  of 793 

Wine,  Communion,  Presbyterian 740 

Wine,  two  kinds  in  Egypt 562 

Wines,  M'Clintock  A  Strong's  Cyclopsediaon  782 

Wise,  D..  The  Tenitory  of  Alaska 405 

Witbn>w*s  Great  Preachers,   Ancient  and 

Modern 408 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 690 

Workers,  Young,  in  the  Church 610 

Year  of  Wreck.  A 186 

Young  Christians,  Talks  with 604 

Zeitsohrlft  Air  Kirchcngeechichte,  (Journal 
for  Church  History) 169,  760 

Zeitschrlft  ftir  Wliwenschaftliche  Theologie 
(Journal  for  Scientific  Theology) 864 

Zoology 6B8 

Zoroaster  and  Zoroastrianlsm,  J.  A.  Fra- 
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